Nancy: I was holding out on this one.lol I kept this one much warmer than the others. One side did open a more peachy color, but that side was closest to the walls of the greenhouse. The other side was facing center of the greenhouse where it is always warmer. It must be difficult for those that live in cooler areas to bring them to this color without sticking them in a location that stays above 70 every day, sheesh. Thank goodness for my greenhouse. Yours are just as lovely! Thank you. Mike

OK......been there and done that. I was in engineering for the first part of my career. There was an economic crises in the first half of the 70s and the booming techical fields went through a lot of downsizing when the war ended and I took that opportunity to make some career choices. The company I work for shut down and after several interviews for a new position decided I'd be better off taking that hiatus to go back to school. Being older and in a better position to know where I wanted my work life to take me, I decided to switch over and study ornamental landscaping with an emphasis on plant protection. In my senior year, a divorce happened, and a relocation and that option was not available at any university within commuting distance, so I ended up with a degree in nursing instead. At 40 (your age) and my kids out of school, I took the same leap and did just what you are wanting to do. The only jobs here were at two larger independent grower/landscaping/retail garden center combos. If I hadn't dumbed down my resume I'd have never been hired because your first jobs at places like that are always entry level unless you have that degree in hort. I was close, and with six years of university, and coursework in plant path, taxonomy, design and ag engineering and economics.........but unlike horseshoes, close to the stake doesn't count. Most jobs in the green industry without that hort degree are entry level. I wanted to be on the growing end of the operation and frankly, a mature woman with a powerful resume is at a disadvantage in the hiring process for such jobs. I had sized up the situation accurately because after the fact, I found the owner got resumes from women like that routinely and just figured that most of them didn't have a clue how much hard grunt work was involved and also knew growing flowers in a home garden bears little resemblance to growing thousands of them commercially. I took a 75% pay cut just to get my toe in the door and dumbed down my application and interview to get that. I knew that once I got in, I could use my skills and did. Kept my mouth shut and took every opportunity to learn the ropes of the business and after a couple years, left and broke out on my own. You need to know what branch of this trade you want to be in. I knew retail garden center wasn't my goal. You need to scope out the job opportunities in your immediate area. It's amazing how many different types of skills are needed in the green industry. Working with the public selling posies is a small segment. Know your strengths and know that home gardening at a large growing operation is like comparing a candy striper to a surgeon. Many employers would not be impressed with your credentials in the hort field and actually might be discriminatory of your credentials in other fields. It's their loss but it happens because of their mindsets. Get 'out there' and see what you want to do and with whom and what they have to offer and have some discourse with owners and employees before you write that resume. You'll answer your own question better than we can answer it for you. I just retired this year and closed my business down after nearly a quarter century in the trade. I am so glad I did it, but this is not an easy question to answer.

I am a DIL and live on a farm with three kids, 7 yo, 5 yo and 14 months. I used to work full time and tried to keep up all the house work. I was major league stressed and the kids felt it. You can't enjoy your kids when you are yelling at them to pick up or getting mad because they have made yet another mess! I don't have a really clean house. I keep up on the dishes, laundry, must sweep my large kitchen floor twice a day and vacuum when needed. My DH is NOT neat. He is like having a 4th child and I tell him this all the time. He can be neat when he wants and when he gets tired of something the way it is, will clean or organize. We have a challenge with the kids and their rooms. My 5 yo DS pulls everything out of his drawers when looking for clothes to wear. My 7 yo DD throws her clean/dirty clothes and everything else on the floor and then when told to clean up, shoves it under her bed! I did not have a mother who took care of my toys and clothes. I did, if I wanted them to be around. I do not want to run around keeping everything as it was, meaning keeping track of all their things. If they want it and like it, they should take care of it. We try to teach them about respect of their things. When they are somewhere else, they have respect for others things, just not their own. I have a large veggie garden, 50 rose bushes, 3 horses, chickens, 2 dogs and cats. I can not put all my effort (and do not want to, it does not make me happy) into keeping a spotless house. I don't like dusting. But I do all the yard work, scoop dog poop so the kids can play in a clean yard and take care of all the animals. Not to mention cooking, dishes, kids baths everynight, homework, reading bedtime stories, and then their needs to be time for me!(I have not been horseback riding in over 2 months) :( When we are having company over, like my Dad, who is anal about housework and does it himself, I clean like a mad woman. Although, I don't know why because he probably still thinks it is not clean enough. This is probably how your DIL feels. Life is too short and we all need to have some fun everyday. Don't stress over things that really aren't going to matter in the long run. I would rather have my kids be happy and playing than me running around yelling at them to clean up all the time. Just had to do some venting, this is a hot spot for me as well in my own house. Sorry it is so long.

Thanks, everyone. We've already started working on the dining area issue. It was nearly unanimous here that it would be a big issue, as we suspected. Our feedback is very good on the inside of the house- these pictures eliminate the scope I guess and IRL the rooms are actually larger than what you find in many new builds nowadays. All of the bedrooms are 12x14 or 10x14. So not tiny by my standards anyways, although a larger master is certainly desirable. One of the most common negative feedback remarks we've gotten is something we can't do anything about- the location. Although we are on the outskirts of our community, we have a commercial building on the south side of our fence, and our neighbor behind us has a huge ugly shop (that's the big metallic thing). We should have planted a green screen back there when we first bought, but didn't know it would be such a distraction for future buyers. This would be a starter home- it was for us! But nice schools, nice backyard, TONS of storage (basement, standing height attic over garage, oversized brand new garage). Anyway, thank you for lending me your eyes. We are staging a dining set to the right of the couch, but behind where the camera shows. There's a piano there now, which we are going to move out. We're going to borrow a small dining set from some friends just to show the possibilities. Plus, we're going to leave the bistro table in the kitchen which would then show two seating areas for dining. Packed up more stuff already, and hubby's looking for different stand for t.v. Thanks, all!