Couldn't believe my eyes! I just saw a hummingbird! Honest! DH and I had just come in from working in the yard and were sitting on the back porch just noting that it had already stopped raining and had rained just enough to get things wet. (It had just started raining before we came in as a front is moving through and it had gotten cloudier all afternoon.) I glanced over across through my neighbor's yard and saw this hummingbird hovering over my neighbors grapefruit tree. We walked over towards it but still on our screen in pool area. I couldn't tell what type as it is very overcast. It took off and we lost sight of it. We ran in and cleaned up our two hummingbird feeders and hung them in view from our breakfast area, hope to see it again.

Trail, the more and more I've thought about your situation, the more angry I became. It's not that you hand picked each book and saved them for your future grandkids, it's the fact that they have your own precious babies little handprints all over them, possible crayon marks and a lot of memories. Part of THEM is lost, KWIM? Even new books can't replace those. :( So keep on it! Kind of reminds me when my oldest son was 5. We were gone and someone broke into our shed. It was obvious they tried taking the riding tractor/mower but they couldn't get it out. As we looked around to see what was stolen I noticed my son's little Snoopy fishing pole was gone, along with our's. It broke my heart knowing some ADULT person stole this from a precious 5 year old!

Jay, thanks for the Green site. I'll have to sit down and take my time going through it. marti8a, that is quite the house. It looks huge! It looks like they have implemented some good ideas, but the absolute true cracker style is very simple compared to that home, in the general style. However, whose to say if those early settlers were still around they wouldn't be trying something new, right? There were a few around with a cupola in the early days, but they don't seem to be common. We were going to put one on the house originally, but they can be hard to maintain and is another area for a potential roof leak. My husband said with the proper vents the house will perform the same as if it had a cupola. Some of the older homes have vents on the gable ends. I can't even imagine having a cupola with windows. I've seen a couple of them on modern versions of a cracker home. For one thing, who would ever want to clean the things? No one. So then you see dirty windows all the time. The other thing is the sun would be beating in and making the house extremely hot. There really isn't a practical way to cover them. Some cupolas do not have windows, but anytime you make a hole in your roof for something...... As people settled here from different areas they gradually brought some other styles with them. There are a few old homes in town that have been restored, and they have a more victorian look. There are also a few southern plantation styles that are old. The most common style still standing here is a two story "I" house with the added addition(s) on the back of the home. They had their kitchens outside the main living area for heat and safety reasons. They also added on as their families grew. The area that we live in is so cool because we can study these homes everytime we go into town or for a ride on back roads. We had a composting toilet in our "little house" (about 400 square feet) that we lived in while we built the main house many moons ago, when we were first married. I love the idea of composting toilets, and would have no problem with one in an outbuilding, but I didn't enjoy having one in my home. I'm not a squeemish person either. It made me feel like I had an outhouse in my house. They also have to be delt with properly or you can end up with odors, flies etc. I didn't get bugs in the house, but sometimes the venting fan froze in the winter and then pee you! The shower we build will most likely have a lip as well because the roll in ones can make a mess. I guess if one of us ever needs a wheelchair we'll have to remodel the shower. Hopefully, it'll never happen. My big thing is no shower door to clean and no shower curtains to deal with either. I'm still feeling really good about my loft. I won't be changing my mind again. Gee, I sure wish all of you were my neighbors. We'd have such a good time! Sandy

Rainidame, as you probably realized, you can use that system on both lower and upper cabinets. You can also use it on bookshelves as well. OK, now that you have things figgered out, lemme throw another idea at you. Have you ever considered making lower cabinets that are 32" deep rather than the standard 24"? What you do is build the lower carcasses 24" deep, but mount them 8" away from the wall. Then you make your drawers and pullout drawers 30" or 31" deep. You can still use 24" drawer slides, but mounted at the front of the pullout. Your countertops would be a standard 26" deep. The space between the back on the counter and the wall could be shelves, cubby holes, swingout units  all 8" deep. You could even store staples or appliances like a toaster, mixer, blender, etc. I realize you are somewhat short of stature, but, if you can reach the backsplash, you can reach items stored in this extended area. As and added benefit, your upper cabinets could extend depth of your upper cabinets by as much as 8". Of course, you have to have a kitchen big enough to accommodate the additional depth.