Nice idea, however, the desk is for my "office" in the den. The pic with the fireplace on the gable wall is very similar to our great room, difference being we have a stucco fireplace , lower bottom cord to the trusses, bar to one side of the fireplace and access to Master BR on the other side of fireplace. The den is located behind the left wall (as you face the fireplace).

If you have horses you need to consult someone about setting up proper pastures for them on your acreage. You do need to be careful how much grass they get and what kind of grass it is and the time of year, but if you get set up nicely then they can graze a fair amount of the time and it will cut back your feed bills. The thing is that you'll want at least two pastures for proper pasture management, if not more. (Depends how many horses you have, if they can all go out together, etc.) But the idea is that you can move them between pastures so none of the pastures ever get eaten right down to bare ground. There is still some work required in the pastures, spreading manure and so on, but before you do anything else with landscaping I'd look into the pasture needs to make sure you don't spend money on anything that will be not suitable for using the land for pasturing, or will mean duplicating equipment. I would also advise caution with renting out the barn - hang out on any online horse forum and you will hear plenty of horror stories and a laundry list of problems that can come up. Some people obviously do it happily, but I would definitely do plenty of research before going down that road. (And yes, you will likely have to get additional insurance.) You want to know what you're getting into and have a good agreement in place and an understanding of the costs. (In addition to insurance, horses can be very hard on buildings and fencing, so you need to make sure that your agreement either stipulates how things are to be maintained and how things are paid for if the person doesn't keep things in shape, or be charging enough to pay for doing the needed maintenance yourself.) If you are interested in renting out, the idea of using it as a hay field is probably one of the most promising - you might still need extra insurance to cover yourself against any accidents that might happen on your property during farming, but if people in your area do hay then you are likely to find a taker and hay costs are high enough that many people would be pretty happy to have some extra land or to grow their own.

When I was looking to buy a place, I'd seen a house with a 4-car garage on CL out here. Contacted the selling agent to come take a look. She asked me a few questions about "gotta haves" & I gave her my list. This town is about an hour from work, so she came up with several properties to check out. The first place I looked at was the one I ended up buying. It just felt *right*! I've never regretted it since. I don't recall if this was ever mentioned, but have you done a deed search? Find all the names of the past owners? That can be a very interesting & fun thing to check out on a day you need to get away from the dust & the rehab. I not only found all the names.....I found every one of their graves in the local Civil War era cemetary. I go up there a few times every year. Clear the grass & weeds around them. I knew there was always a lot of love in this home, so I let them know that I love it too. And I'd never do anything to ruin any of the original beauty of it. It's all about respect...for the home & for those before me...as well as those to come next....

I have not lived with marble countertops, but know that they do stain with general use. It is recommended to have them professionally treated yearly to help reduce stains (although I don't have any clients that have followed that rule..). If you know that any staining will drive you nuts, natural Calacatta is probably not for you! That said, one of Caesarstone's newer colours - "Calacatta Nuvo" - may be a great alternative since it is a marble look but non-porous so it won't stain!