Many thanks to all for the very kind comments. Dski and I are grateful for any number of reasons, least of which is the ability and opportunity to pull something like this off on our own. We get letters from visitors to our website, asking a myriad of questions about our project, but the most popular, recurring query is: what would you do different...or what was your best decision? Ya know, as the situations presented themselves to us during our 7 year attack on this gar/apt project, I would say to myself "boy...sure wish I would'a done this differently"....then I fix it and move on. For the life of me, I cannot rip off a list of would'a could'a should'a . But, the one thing that really is a biggie and will forever make a difference to whomever owns and enjoys this crib is categorically easy to remember and understand: put it on the second floor The view is everything on a project like this (like I need to tell you that). I was concerned for designing this thing with the main living space on a second floor because of stairs, particularly as we leave youth, pass through middle age, and prepare for golden years. Now that we are there, and I have the ability to see the exact same point of reference from the shop which is directly below those 3 big Ewest windows, the proof is self evident. The frame of reference from the first floor is very nice, but the same view from the second floor is, dare I say, spectacular. We knew we were on to something when we first put on the second floor decking. The final product seals the deal.
