I'm with you, +oM. It's a huge pleasure to watch a woods fill in and change over the years. Our woods burnt in '45, and 10 years later, my dad took me planting acorns. At that time, there was a lot of assorted popple, white spruce and balsam fir (Var, my Dad called it). Over time the dog berries (mountain ash), red spruce and white birch came in. The tamarack had survived in the wet spots the fire had not burned. Wasn't long till some of the tiny red maples started to get big enough to be noticeable, and the acorns had become trees big enough to mast. The squirrels planted oaks all over the place. Bog birch showed up recently. Beech came in, probably via the squirrels and jays, from the seed source across the road. I mouse guard them when I find them. The elms lining the brook caught the DED, and most died...not all though. I am planting more elms too, from local survivor elms that have either not been exposed to the dutch elm disease, or survived it. I have planted american chestnut, and soon they will be old enough to mast too, and the wildlife will spread them too. One year I dumped a bucket of acorns in the path, and the squirrels had a planting party. There are red oaks all along the paths, none more than 50 or 100 feet from the paths. Some of those are over 20 feet now. The grouse have come back, and the eagles. It's a lot of fun.

nini804 The bonus room proportions are a mess. The bonus room is meant to be the playroom and I can see just finishing the closer portion but, like you say, I don’t think that will save us much $$. I agree, this is going back to the drawing board with the architect I wanted in the first place. I appreciate the validation I’ve gotten for that here, it is not fun swimming against the current. Using an architect is way out of the norm in my area and I don’t know a single person who has used one. I guess I will be the first. I love the insights for those with teenagers. I try to think through that but hearing from experience is so much better. I’m not a dressy person but am so taken with your idea for that round table! J Williams Thank you9* for those links. Those are some of her plans I’ve not come across in some time and it is great to review them again with current issues in mind. CLC Everything you say about the mudroom and laundry is exactly why I made them separate rooms and I am so annoyed with myself that I still didn’t remember to keep the entrances separate. Thank you! They have gotten to the point in the last year or so where they will play in the basement playroom together without me and dad so I think they will enough. After the toy stage, I expect this room to become video game (vr?), daughter’s craft space, son’s project space (engineer in the making). The roof comments make great points. I hadn’t intended to keep this massive roof as is just because I hate those and the cost and maintenance are aspects I had yet to consider. Between the hail storms, tornadoes and ice storms roofs do get a workout around here. Holly Stockley Thank you for the well-stated thoughts on the other comments. As one of those readers, I wholeheartedly agree. I did try to ignore them at first but when they started to take over without being remotely helpful, I had to push back. I too believe the independence is good for them, especially now that the frequency of nighttime awakenings is so low. At infancy though, phew, mine were not good enough sleepers to not be on the same floor. Absolutely on the computer! 4yo son is a forthcoming little guy but 8yo daughter has been a boundary tester from day 1. All computers and TVs in public areas only! Just tickled by your use of “exciting”. Mark Bischak, Architect “If they are stored in a cool dry place and the package is not opened.” Thank you for the laugh. (and to clarify since this is just text without tone, I do mean this sincerely)

The only place I can smell it, otherwise is a street back where they are doing new construction/new homes. Otherwise, I don't smell it in the air at all until it collects in the mudroom and our entryway - the two areas that don't really have air movement (entry way because we don't have a front door screen and keep most of the upstairs doors closed because we have cats). We do have a retention basin, but I never smell it having a bad smell. No industrial concerns. Direct neighbors on Facebook Group don't have this issue, I haven't spoken to anyone in person yet that just moved in.

I don't think it's impossible to waterproof a stone foundation. I haven't researched it, and maybe someone else here has experience. My guess is that you'd probably have to parge the stone from the outside with cement or something similar, then add the usual sealer and membrane over that. I suppose you'd have to excavate inside the crawl space to get to that part of the foundation, which doesn't sound like any fun at all. If you just can't do a proper exterior waterproofing, I'd suggest doing all the other (exterior) steps on the list - gutters, downspouts, grading, swales. That will at least reduce the amount of water entering the cellar. If it's still too damp, then you need to remedy that. To consider crawl spaces, ventilating them used to be the standard practice. Today there is a trend toward sealing and conditioning them. Personally, I raise an eyebrow at the idea of heating and air conditioning a space that nobody but mice is living in, but who am I to say? In your case, that's all moot. If your cellar is going to be damp, you have to get rid of the excess humidity somehow. You can run up a big power bill with multiple dehumidifiers. Others may disagree, but IMO, it's more economical to ventilate the cellar. You can replace your cellar windows with crawl space vents, and make one or two of them exhaust fans. Fans cost around $100-150 each, and use considerably less electricity than dehumidifiers. I'll be interested to see what others suggest.