Mp - nanny/housekeeper sounds great. Getting a cleaner to come round to our place has made such a difference to DH and I and made the working fulltime thing a lot easier to manage. Although the tidy up the night before is a bit painful sometimes - always seem to coincide with parent teacher nights at DH's school!

Clare - could you astroturf () a small bit and turn the rest into gardens?

Md - our backyard has happned bit by bit and it is a bit frustrating. One more thing to do (modify the garden edging near my beautiful new keep Miss K in the backyard fence) and then we are all finished except for more plants. DH has been there for almost 7 years. The plan for the next place is to do it at the beginning, but seeing as DH has some pretty wild plans for the house I think the landscaping may have to wait a little bit there too.