Thanks to all who have responded so far! BTW, the kids do know that $100 had been given to each of them. (The checks were written out to them and sent in Christmas cards before Christmas.) My fiance has a problem of forgetting/letting things go. I was so busy shopping for everyone else, including the kids gifts from us, that I let it up to him, since he took "property" of the checks. But, I admit, I didn't remind him either. Anyway, it was a few weeks ago that he said, one other year, he didn't get around in time prior to Christmas to buy the "big" gift from the grandparents and he was really embarrassed when they asked what he got. Now, he is determined to get something soon before they ask again. It's not that I/we think that the money shouldn't be spent, but my feeling is that we should spend it on something for $200 from the grandparents. (This way it is understood that the "gift of money" came before Christmas, we are just spending it after the holidays. Unlike, getting gifts from us at Christmastime then getting more after Christmas. I think an older child would understand why, but younger children will only see it as spending more after christmas... and that this would be an option in the future in case they don't get all they wanted.) I still have these safety concerns and I'm glad some of you shared more info on this, including the insurance info, because my fiance is under the impression that it will cover for other kid's injuries -since I brought up this topic when he thought it would be great for the neighborhood kids. I am thinking of the CDs idea for the 8yr old since we got her a cd player for christmas. (But, my fiance has this "big gift" only idea.) (It hasn't even been out of the box yet, along with so many other gifts.) I agree with Mommabear. They got so many gifts that most haven't been played with yet... from us, 7 sets of aunts/uncles between the both of us, 3 sets of grandparents, and everything from their mom's house and relatives from that side.) But, we will definately be getting something for them. Another thought I recently had: a large fort (Playhut type item). They are into building them right now and sleeping in them. It's one thing they do together without too much arguing! (but, I have a feeling it won't "measure up" to the wonderful trampoline idea my fiance feels he has). Thanks again!

Thank you all for your responses. Frodo: The original part of the house (built in 1911) is over a full basement. The addition (put on in the 1930's) is built over a crawl space/slab. What I mean by that is that it is built over about 12 inches of the ground, and you can't fit anyone in there. The addition currently houses the small kitchen, a small bathroom, and mudroom. Maybe the best thing to do is relocate the kitchen to the dining room, and run PVC up from the full basement to the dining room directly above. This will keep the PVC heated. The bathroom on the second floor is in the original part of the house. That would need to replaced with PVC as well. I'll probably end up having the water lines shut off to the addition, since it gets no heat and putting PVC pipes would be nearly impossible due to the low clearance of the crawl space, and since the PVC would probably crack under the cold air. I hate the thought of replacing the upstairs bathroom pipes since we just did that (the plumber used copper), and we didn't know about our corrosive acidic water until just recently when we had it tested by a certified water lab. When he did that, we had to rip out the ceiling in the hallway directly below the bathroom, and just got done replacing the ceiling, plastering and painting it. Looks like we'll have to rip it all out again. Either that, or wait until we rip out the bathroom to remodel it and get at the pipes that way. That's a huge expense in itself we don't have the money for right now. I'm going to call few really good plumbers next week and have them come over for estimates. Either way, it's all going to cost a fortune. :(

The Blue writing on the pipe indicates that it is "type L" Medium wall copper, which is the preferred material for residential water distribution systems. (Type K-heavy wall is primarily used for HVAC but hardly ever used in domestic potable water systems). Providing the pipe in question has not been miss-treated during your rehab there is no reason to believe it is any better or any worse than the rest of the pipe in your water distribution system throughout the house. I see no reason to just replace it for the sake of replacing it.

How difficult do you want it to be? I just returned a library book by Plaid and in it was a really cute dresser. They overlaid the entire piece with a one-piece stencil (so the result looked like a damask material over the entire piece)then stenciled a small repeat design laid out in a rectangle on the sides and on the top. This was a small petal border with a group of roses in a cluster at each corner. The one piece overall stencil was done in a muted cream so it sort of blended into the background. Hope you can get the mental picture. It was lovely and different.