First of all, you will get used to the noise. I'd visit Mom in FL whose house was a half mile away from the train tracks and the first day, I'd hear every train, but after that, hardly ever. Second, I think you need to get to know your neighbors...sounds like they are friendly types which is a good thing. I grew up in the country surrounded by lots and lots of land and few children because there were few houses. When I married and moved to an acre lot, it was terrible for awhile....all the traffic, the kids, the dogs, the mowers... Then I got to know my neighbors. And trust me, the chain saw isn't so loud when it's good neighbor Tim doing the sawing and you don't mind asking John if he could not mow on Saturday as you're planning on a memorial service for your Dad with lots of people coming.... And neighbors can be a great help, like when your snow blower breaks or when you need someone to feed the cat. I know our neighbor was glad for us when the house next to her's caught fire and the firemen wouldn't let her go home that night, so she spent the night with us. Every lifestyle has it's plusses and minuses. Change your perspective, seek the good, and then see where you're at. You may be surprised. BTW, we are now back home on 11 acres, but the area is so much more built up than when I was a kid. Even on our 11 acres though, I know when Bill is sawing or Jimmy is running his back hoe or when Norma is out mowing, or when Jessica's kids are playing with their dog. It's comforting.

Thank you all for your sweet comments. I have been just too close to all the building decisions and all the problems, that it is nice to remember the overall accomplishment we have made. I still have many more decisions to make, and I need to start asking the questions! Scwren - yes, it is an Xtrordinair, model 36 elite. I'm such a practical person that I didn't want to build a fireplace unless it could actually heat the house. We haven't used it yet, but since we had to cut down so many trees, we have a TON of wood to burn. amyks - I love that tub and paint color too. But wait - there's more. I'm having a local stained glass artist make a piece that will fit in the lower part of the window. That way light can still filter in and I can take a bath in privacy. It is going to be beautiful. I got that idea from someone on this site, can't remember who. I'm also having him make two transoms for the doors flanking the fireplace. I went and looked at them last Friday and he thought they would be done in around three weeks. And, of course, having learned a few things during this build, I multipied that by two and added two days. Ha. vfish - I tried not to obsess too much on the details, but those lights took a long time to find. I finally found them in Europe. Now I'm getting catalogs from the company all the time in German. Even though I took two years of German in high school, it is just not enough to translate! Mlauder - I took some pictures of the newel post for you. My contractor decided to have our trim person install the stairs, and I'm so glad he did. Our trim person was just first rate. He did excellent work on everything he did. Instead of having the railing die into a rosette, he made a half newel post, and then added a flurish on the bottom of the posts. Here are a few pictures. Joan

Hi gang: Well I have been out of town for a few days and believe it or not between the rain and being out of town, I have yet to take my first swim. The kids on the other hand have to be extracted with great force at the end of the day. My sons party went as planned, one short rain shower, but otherwise great. The water is now fairly balanced, they started the polaris (thank goodness..the dust was insane!), they plan on starting up the salt system in about a week. birdbath, I see you have been absent also....must be living in that water....thank you for the compliment, but yours is still the coolest pool I have ever seen. Moo....thanks....we are planning to build up the area behind the waterfall, make it into a berm with plantings and lots of color. We are also going to use river stones in that area....and behind that will be the completed extension of the wall. Should be starting that in the next 2-3 weeks. Smb....agreed our colors do look alike, it still amazes me how it changes throughout the day. I think we ended up somewhere between midnight blue and tahoe blue. Thank you, love yours also...are you getting to swim or does it still belong exclusively to the puppy ;) Well, I have the weekend off...so I think today will be first swim...its 89 out there and the water has warmed up to about 82....here are the pics in full sunlight for Birdbath. oops...heres the waterfall on....

i use horse manure to improve my clay soil and add no further fertilizers. I tried bone meal once and do use some wood ash. However I won't grow root veggies or leafy vegetables or plants where the fruit/ veggie is low to the ground. I grow these in ground where I grew a crop the year before or if I added the manure in the fall of the previous year. I do this even though the manure I'm getting is off a pile that hasn't been added to for 2 years. So it's well composted and also well aged. Any seeds on the edges of the deep pile off a steep slope hopefully get composted when I pile it here before it gets used. I get very few weeds. Some broad leaf grain plant, maybe oats. In a 15 foot potato bed I may get 10 plants. They're easy to pull as they grow tall and don't have an extensive root system....yet. I also get a few of what look like parsnips. I would like to suggest that you build a manure ramp instead of pile your manure shallowly. Picture a handicapped ramp, maybe 20- 25 feet long. Perhaps 3 feet high and then maybe work back along the original ramp going up a little more. Your manure would compost better and take up less space.