pond scum - heh heh. Bobbi, I was talking about the pics I posted on the 12 Palettes thread. One person said when I tired of my palette I could get better results with pastels. NOT. and that I had chosen my colors without considering the exposures of my house and therefore everything was cave like. Which is funny because I have a chart of exposure/color families that I use all the time when starting to pick paint colors - and my house is anything but cave-like. Carnivale? yes. Cave? no. The second person complained that my room had no cohesion and the two colors were fighting one another. Well excuse me for not throwing away all my furniture and buying new when I downsized! Sheesh! I didn't ask for advice or critiques. That's why I changed the name on my account - because I didn't want to be judged as a professional designer (which I am not currently) from what I do in my own house. Roo - I feel your pain on the tile. Same thing happened to me. We called the store in San Antonio on a Friday and they said "Yes we have 50sf." I needed three and I asked if they could put it aside and I would drive from Austin the next morning. "No we don't do that - you have to go to the web site." Fine. I go to the web site, order the tile, pay for it and get an order confirmation. Get up early Saturday, drive to the store. ~90 minutes later - not only do they not have my order, they have 2 raggedy sample pieces and that's it. Luckily we were able to piece together enough from those two peces and scraps (it was a mosaic). But oh was I mad!

@littlemissk, I like that instant shade solution. @ashleyoden if you use something with that style, you might want to change out your light pole to something a little more contemporary so it'll match. There are a lot of good suggestions here. I'm not that familiar with which plants work best in Alabama but I think trees give the biggest bang for the buck. Now that the project is bare dirt, it's better to do the most major additions now before you restore with sod. Move in all the bigger landscape trees and stuff you can and while you have the company or labor lined up to install the sod. Just have them prep the beds and use mulch where you eventually want to do smaller planting that you can install yourself if you want. If there are any other structures, future electrical for more lights or an eventual outdoor kitchen or irrigation, put in those services and sleeves underneath walkways. Have you thought about in a high traffic area of putting some synthetic turf and tying it into a putting green? Look at the great ideas on the site and think about what you’re going to be looking at the most when you’re in the house. Then create an outdoor room that looks great while you’re looking out from the windows as well as serves your needs poolside. Your outdoor room should have many elements an indoor room has. The ceiling is defined by the shade structure (or tree canopy), the walls by the fence or plants. You’ll also have your furniture, fire pit and lighting, a carpet of sod. Framed and enhanced by nice plantings and colorful pots as your accessories and it will draw you outside to enjoy. You're camera will help you. I don't think these angles best show the area where you'll want to concentrate. I also like to plan to have a nice large area for a tent or bounce house for bigger family events, so a 30 x 30' space is a good size to start with and keep large trees with spreading branching even farther away they don't encroach. Think about keeping it low maintenance, nice shaped beds that are easy to mow and trim with nice radiuses, easy to access with a piece of equipment if you need a repair. Luckily it looks like you have a nice sized yard to accommodate. Good luck

Thanks Mark and I think you are right! I wish I could go buy everything from the previous picture you posted and make that my living room. Unfortunately Christine was right and I need to stick with the furniture I have, for now. And I absolutely loved the ivory rug, but I had too many colors similar to each other, cream, ivory, tan and white, for it to flow properly. And it definitely didn't work with the patterned chair. I will see if it works now. I'll add an art piece and table lamps and I think I'll be done! Thanks for all the input everyone. My husband and I bought a traditional home but our style is modern, it's hard to combine the too properly. Now if I can only convince him to paint the stair railing black and white before the babies born ;)

The farming bug hit me when I was about 12! After spending some summers on my cousins farm, I knew that someday I would own my own. My love for gardening and animals had me busy learning all that I could before we landed our farm three years ago. I am now 55 and happier than I have ever been. My husband and I don't mind hard work, and work hard we did for the last 3 years. This 1967 house was in need of a few repairs, some we knew about and some we found out about by accident. While beginning a wood floor project on the lower level, we found dry rot and mold in the bathroom and living room, which ended up being a bathroom remodel as well. We spent the first 2 years clearing blackberry patches that reached 30 feet in height at times. We uncovered several fruits trees and improved the view of the snow covered mountains. We went to work building a rustic chicken coop using mostly reclaimed wood and windows so that we could begin our egg business. A hoop house came next so that we could extend our growing season and grow sprouted barley for the animals. Much work is still needed on perimeter fencing but we have managed to make a home for several cows, 45 laying hens, a few goats, a couple barn cats and a dog named Jack. We love the quiet and peacefulness up here on the mountain and farm we call the Pea Patch. We are living the dream!