Here's the status. Party is in 3 days and I am nervous. It's morphed into a surprise party. Karaoke or games or what? Up in the air. Costco-will roast tenderloin, perhaps on the grill, slice and refrigerate. Flowers from Costco. Caesar salads from Costco. Bought 4 meat and 1 veggie lasagnas from Gordon Food Service. I would like to doctor them up with meat sauce and gobs of extra cheese (which I bought). Dessert. Ordered a pretty and delicious cake from Dairy Queen. Hopefully it will be enjoyed by all. I made one tray of lemon squares and will make another tray in the morning. A sweet cousin my make some cookie bars. I'll get a traveler coffee from Starbucks-easy. Pick up wine, juice, water, sodas. Still need to hang and rehang lots of pictures, long story, and polish flatware and ice bucket. Thirty dinner plates are washed. Cleaned the front door area and leaves are gone. Need possible paper goods. Very tired! Thanks for all your help. Likely I will make either flourless choc cake or nut torte. Have 3 kinds of cheeses, crackers and pretzels and mixed nuts for nibbles while we all wait. Prolly will add more stuff. I'd rather fuss with flowers, decor, baskets and fabric liners, etc. I think dil will like it.

I hope everything went well at the vet's office. Any more seizures? I certainly understand the vet's concern about the severity of Quincy's first seizures. However it doesn't necessarily mean that he will ever have a seizure again. Ana's only seizure lasted 12 minutes, and she was in that post-ictal haze for a good hour afterwards. It was quite a bad seizure- she actually turned blue for a few minutes. And in her post-ictal haze she was VERY aggressive which is totally out of character for her. It took us a half hour to catch her and get her into the car to go to the emergency vet, and I had to grab her with our comforter because she was trying to attack us. Of course by the time we got to the vets, she was pretty much over it. Got the blood work results and took her home. I was worried about her having another seizure too, but am glad I didn't start her on meds right away since she never did have another one. We got lucky. I hope you do too with Quincy.

We are building a new home in SW FL. Our plans are below. Our first thought was to cover everything with a pool cage but I have an aversion to them as most are quite ugly and I hate the idea of feeling like I'm the one in a cage. So then my idea was to cover the whole back "lanai" area with automatic screens. I was planning on covering the top of the pergola too so we wouldn't have water and sun coming on us when outside. Our sliding doors from the great room will be pocket sliders so the whole thing will open up extending our living area outside. The ones from the kitchen/dining area are regular sliders. Now I'm thinking I'll keep the area outside the kitchen/dining area a pergola and just screen the area (with automatic screens) under the balcony. (The shaded area in light blue) Then keep the pergola open on top. Thoughts? Comments?Here is the second floor to show where the pergola would be in relation to the balcony.

I'm 100% with Virgil. Do not stain the garage door, no matter what! Paint it the same color as the house (or a slightly darker shade if you're feeling WILD) so it doesn't become the star of the show. Here's a photo of my previous house (it was a semi-custom craftsman in Minnesota). It's not as gorgeous as your inspiration photos, but it might help to see the door/sidelight option in the wild. (Siding is James Hardie Mountain Sage, trim is Sailcloth, window are a true white)