"If someone REALLY wants in, there isn't a lot you can do to keep them OUT. Kim" *** That's the truth. Our little Lane used to be so anonymous, folks who'd spent their lives in this city didn't realize it was here. Then, some homes changed hands -- one new owner bringing in every jack-leg contractor around; And the son of the woman at the end of the Lane tried to kill his mother, began doing drugs and (we're pretty sure) dealing. Now, I think our little Lane is far too well-known to the wrong people. A neighbor had his Garmin device stolen, out of his pickup, parked on the street. It would be impossible to make this house inaccessible, and our three Dalmatians certainly wouldn't bite. I know things are very different for many of you, but we long ago decided not to worry about it over much. If I wanted to keep out evil-doers, I'd likely go for Mermaid. My concern would be that mentioned above: Lack of access for repair. Jeri

Thank you SO much everyone! It seems most of you are for the CD fridge. We have a small fridge - the kind found in dorm rooms (not tall and skinny but short) which we could also use but there's no practical space to put that in besides the basement. But our kids aren't allowed to drink soda, my husband keeps only a few beers in the fridge at a time, and I keep my diet cokes in room-temp storage so I don't even know what would go in the small fridge. I'm certainly not willing to keep food down there or regular drinks like juice/milk so I really do think we'd be stuck w/ the CD fridge for most of it. I could keep our old fridge in the basement for holiday meals as well as all the drinks we presently keep in room-temp storage, however I was upgrading to an energy-efficient fridge! why would I want to have the new fridge AND the old fridge, considering that?! Going up in 3 cubic feet in size on for the fridge portion (free food), when I picture gigantic dice of a cubic foot each in size, that seems like a decent (not great, but decent) improvement... (I hope)! Here's what I'm too dumb to figure out: if the fresh food portion of a fridge includes the space in the door/doors - regardless of whether it's a 1990 standard fridge or the new french door kinds - how does that translate based on the new layout? In other words my current old fridge has very little door space; it has only one door and its shelves for condiments and butter. The new fridges have space for at least 2 gallons of milk in the door, but less space for condiments and yet still some space for them. So if the milk will no longer be on the main shelves but in the door, does that mean I'll get all that added space on the main shelves + the additional 3 cubic feet of fridge space? Anyway...thanks for helping me figure all this stuff out!

Thanks for looking! We did have a really good time. It was nice winning that big jackpot at the end, but we lost at least that much while we were there, so we didn't really come home "winners." But we don't gamble more than we can afford to lose, of course. DH considers it entertainment. I loved visiting the conservatory! This is the first time I've been there in the spring, so I took tons of photos. I posted less than half of them. The potting shed with the live butterflies in it was awesome! We didn't wander too far on this trip. We made it over to Rio, but decided not to bother with downtown. A few years ago we took a drive out to Red Rock Canyon, which was interesting. It seems like no matter how long we're there, we never have enough time to do all the things I want to do. But DH doesn't want to go for more than 3 or 4 days. I could spend two weeks there and not get bored. Of course, I'd put on about 20 pounds... I was amazed at the number of penny slots! Years ago you were lucky to find half a dozen. Now they're everywhere! Literally dozens and dozens in every casino! I'm already planning our next trip! We may go in November, for our 15th anniversary. (We got married in Vegas!) no, not by Elvis.

My ideas: Get a range instead of oven, use the space where the oven is currently on the drawing and build in access to the pantry. It looks like from the drawing that you have to go out of the kitchen through a door to get to the pantry? Move the fridge to the left of where the oven currently is on the drawing which frees up counterspace over by the now range. I cannot tell if the drawing is to scale or get a feel for exactly how much space there is to do the above, but that is what I'd do. I'd also switch the dishwasher and sink IF you are right handed. If you are left handed, it is fine how it is.