My husband & I have been to the Route 127 longest yard sale twice and just had a ball! Found a truck load of treasures too - both times. Since we are from IN, we started right at the top in OH/KY the first time, went as far as we could one day to barely the middle of KY, turned around & came back and stopped along the way. Second time (just last year) we took I75 to Frankfort, KY and got on 127 and came back up. A lot of good finds right there. This year its Aug. 6-9. Take lots of drinks and food as you can go for miles without seeing a restaurant, etc. Lodging both times was very tricky (and very expensive!!) so I would book a room ahead of time if you know where you'll be. Lots of fun. Next time, I would love to take a little camper and just take our time starting in Frankfort, KY on South. Very scenic drive too, and again, miles in between of no accomodations.

Stacie, Yep, that's a pint and a half-pint, or 24 ounces. I didn't know Ball made that size; the only ones that size I have are the Classico pasta sauce ones! (Which the company puts "Mason" on to give them an old-timey look; Mason is like "Webster's" for dictionaries --- it once was a real brand name but has lost that status so it's a generic that anyone can use.) It's too big for just me and BF for most things, but I like to have a few things in that size for us for when someone comes over for dinner! (What better time to show of my home-canned bounty??) Zabby

Thank you all for your wonderful advice! Formerly LanaRoma, I'm lana_roma now. Apparently, my email address was lost during the move, but my old username still remained in their database, although I couldn't get it confirmed even after multiple attempts. I asked the GW/Houzz staff to restore my account but received no help from them. I gave up and got a new account to be able to use GW. Oh well. The point about looking for hand painted vs decal is a great one. Now I'll make sure to have a magnifying glass with me when looking at china. Made a list of brands that you suggested and Googled them. Mottahedeh looks fabulous and very high end. V&B Anmut is such a sophisticated choice! Royal Doulton looks lush and Victorian - wish I had a Queen Anne house to go with it. :-) Spode Stafford is lovely. Lenox, Limoges, Pickard, Wedgwood and Bernardaud are on my list too. There's a lot of Noritake and Mikasa china on CL, but my understanding now is that those are pretty much mid-range brands. I'm confused about Haviland. There are Haviland sets for sale on CL, but some ads say that not all the items in the ad are Haviland, although they all have the same design. For example, this set is lovely: The ad Haviland Set on CL says that some pieces are "Haviland France, some are marked Z.S., & Co. Bavaria, and one is marked Japan", although the pattern is identical. Am I right to doubt whether it's a quality set? I'm a little confused about bone china too. I have two cup and saucer sets of hand painted bone china made in St. Petersburg, Russia. The china is very thin, translucent and with fine detailing. I also have a cup and saucer set marked as bone china and made in England. It's a nice set, but not as fine as the Russian sets. Thicker, a bit clumsier in shape and doesn't look so refined. Funny, when I browsed the local CL today, there were two Mikasa Classic Flair sets for sale. I like my Classic Flair set because I'm partial to Art Nouveau styling, although it's definitely not everyone's thing. Tureens - I use my Noritake Belle Rose tureen to microwave rice pilaf that comes in boxes. Works great! But it's marked as Cook'n Serve. Also, is there a high demand for fine china overall? Some CL sellers ask such high prices for used china. Like $1500 for a Royal Worcester Evesham Gold set: Evesham on CL . This baffles me. I have an Evesham Gold serving dish ( a gift) and it isn't really that high end to me. It's pretty, but not more.

I must be the oddball, I'm willing to overlook a bad floor plan, if the space, location, view is good, I'll remodel the interior. To me, bad layout is one of the deal breakers, if it cant be fixed/changed. That would bug me forever. What did you see from the floor plans that eliminated the homes? One of my dealbreakers is running into the stairs when you open the front door (crowds the foyer too much). This can be shown in photos, but often is not. Layout would show it and save a trip. Example 1: A house had 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and I think 3 living areas mentioned. Upon viewing, the bedrooms were tiny and the living areas were oversized, and the layout was such that you couldn't carve from the living areas to make another bedroom. Example 2: A house had 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and living and family rooms. But the 2nd bath was a tiny powder room off the master bedroom, and expanding it would have meant cutting into the kitchen. In both cases, a floor plan would have let me play with remodeling options, and I would have been able to quickly figure out that it wasn't feasible. And no, the room sizes in and of themselves aren't sufficient info. Because we moved walls to right-size rooms before. But until you see the floor plan, you don't know if walls can be moved.