Look around you and don't worry so much. Ma Nature has been planting the planet for a few million years. Last time I looked, the only area that didn't have something growing was where I'd ripped out all the weeds. Whatever you planted, enjoy what grows. Learn what it is and go from there. It's all about learning what works best for you and your little bit of earth. If you're determined to control it, you'll be disappointed. There are no garden mistakes, only learning opportunities. Who says what you did is wrong? It might only be wrong for where you are and what sort of growing conditions you have. Chances are Wal-Mart employees aren't the best at garden recommendations. If you have questions, it's best to ask folks who garden rather than folks who work in retail. You'll probably get more reasonable answers from folks who get their hands in dirt on a regular basis. I'm no botanist but in my experience, seeds need three things to germinate: moisture, light and temperature. If the growing medium (that's the dirt) is fertile and they have sufficient light exposure & rain, the seeds should germinate. If you're looking for an easy way to grow from seed, I suggest you head on over to the winter sowing forum and give it a try. It's nearly fool-proof and the results are astonishing.

Simon, I already have El Bumpo, White, Jete, Honeyheart and Spain. I was got busy with my maha chanook good thing I already got it to the ground. I e-mailed Mr and Mrs Meyer about the cherimoya. Hopefully they got even just one for starting. Thanks..

Dream is GREAT to have you back. I check on you thru your blog to see what you are doing, but really want to see you here again too. Your little girls look darling in their costumes! If I am remembering correctly, they always are dressed up by your tree for Christmas? I'm glad you are joining in with the three toddlers here! I can hardly wait for Teegan to arrive. But maybe I'll find her a Halloween costume meanwhile. You sure gave me a big smile today. hugs, Karen

WOW! Thank you everyone for the great feedback. I was thinking I would just get one or two additional set of eyes on my plans, but this has been great. Let me do my best to address some of the call outs. Consensus seems to be that we review the W/D location, the MBA layout, and the stairs. As far as the laundry room, I completely hear each of your concerns. The walk will be pretty far, but at least one good thing is that we only have to do laundry once a week. I will talk it over with the SO to see if a closer placement would fly. In terms of the MBA layout, I too feel it seems a little big, so we will continue to work with the architect on that room. Regarding the stairs, we couldn't agree with each of you more. Regardless if my in-laws live with us or not, I just do not like 1/2 steps in a house period. We are now working with the architect to see how we can get those garages level and eliminate the stairs. cpartist - your comment on the extra door entrance to the master closet is really intriguing. Especially if we move the entrance to the whole Master area to make it all enclosed. We will definitely keep that in mind. bpathome - It is hard to tell from the plans, but the seat in the master shower has a handheld shower head located there for the frequent ritual we call shaving the beast :) So it will definitely be put to good use. mrspete - you read our minds when it comes to the ceiling height of the kitchen. We have noodled putting in faux beams in the great room, but we really aren't sure if it would look good to run them through into the kitchen. We have talked about dropping the kitchen sink at least 18" in order to set it apart from the other rooms as well as not make the cabinets seem like they are floating right in the middle of the wall. More to come on that decision. lakeviewgirl - thank you for the call out on the DW location. We will have that switched with the trash since we will like be using that right side of the oven as our likely main prep area. I actually like the look of the garages on either side and like cpartist says, they are also very common where we are building and do create a neat courtyard look. Here is what the front elevation looks like: Here is a house that I think ours will look similar to (just flipped): In terms of the closet location through the bathroom, we were the ones that asked for the design to be this way. Like nini804 calls out, we have always wanted the closets to be a little more secluded as we both travel for work at least once a month and have to get up @ 4am just to get to the airport. That way as long as the person can "ninja" it out of bed, the other can continue to sleep hopefully. chisue - I also don't understand the "via a toilet" comment. Yes, you do walk by the toilet closet, but not through it. chisue - As far as the MBR, we currently have our headboard flanked by windows, so we have no problem with it whatsoever. Again thank you all again for the great dialogue and constructive feedback. And thank you for validating that for the most part our plans are pretty cool :) We welcome anything else you can think of. You have definitely given us a lot to think about.