Dorothy, I still had a couple of spring-planted tomatoes in the ground and this rain has finished them off...instant death. I'll pull them tomorrow if the misty junk finally stops. The fall tomatoes look fine, but army worms are here so I don't know if that will last. I have fall broccoli and cabbage and this is the perfect weather for them. The okra seems to be stalling, but since the temps have stayedin the 70s for several days with no sunlight, that's not unusual. The green beans are very happy. Whenever I decide in July to carry over spring tomato plants to fall, I always regret it by late August because they look awful. This year is no exception, so I've been yanking them one by one. The fall tomato plants have blossoms and green fruit, and I'm already harvesting from the cherry types so I am a pretty happy camper. I think for all of us with tomatoes, the cool weather does adversely affect hornworms, so hooray for that. Jan, I hope y'all get some rain soon, especially for the winter wheat. Most of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex just got pounded with rain all weekend long. In some areas they were out doing high water rescues this morning. My husband works at D-FW Airport and he kept sending me text messages for a couple of days that said stuff like "Getting pounded by rain". "Still getting pounded. Any rain there?" etc. It drove me crazy because at that time the rain wasn't here yet. I wish we'd had as much here as they've had down there. When I was a kid, my uncle and aunt lived in Grapevine which was a one-horse town. That was in the early 1970s. Eventually they sold their land to D-FW Airport. Even though Grapevine is so much bigger now, it is still one of my favorite places. I love their old downtown area AND all the new shopping venues....I can kill a whole day at Grapevine Mills Mall, and I'm really not even a mall type person. I know Dorothy would send both you and Jay rain if she could because she's getting too much right now. I'd send ya'all half of my measley 2.5" if I could figure out how to pack it and ship it. This week's rainfall puts our total at about the same amount as our average annual rainfall, so I guess this is going to be a good year, statistically speaking. It is still raining here and has been for most of the day, but it is a very light mist, so maybe we've picked up another quarter inch. Every bit helps though! Dawn

Another month has passed and the Weather Service has just posted numbers to October 15th. . . . We DID top Devils Lake, North Dakota!! By less than 1/2% of the total but . . . Hey! Most of the communities in Wyoming stayed ahead of us but WY had a very warm year. And, we had a little very warm weather at the end of September coming down the stretch! I mean, it could have frosted before we even got to that. Sad to say but for some of the area's gardeners, it did frost before those record daily highs . . . I had lots of tomatoes and quite a few peppers! They mostly came with a rush very late. Steve

You are always going to have folks who THINK new is better. It's the way they are wired. A good many of those folks are in the real estate profession. They are looking at things from the point of the bottomline. Not always the best place to measure success from. I'd start by finding a different contractor. When it comes to contractors you generally have two types the one ones who like new because it's fast and easy and it fattens their wallets with a quick turn around and the the ones who are masters and will work with you to save what they can. Generally speaking the latter is more costly but they also have the advantage of being better problem solvers and better at their craft. There seems to be a point of pride they carry which the gut and build guys just don't have. That house has character. It has a good location and if you can afford to fix it up so it maintains that charm then I'd go for it. You fell in love with it as it is. Fixed up and maintained somebody else in the future will love it just as much if not more. My biggest rule in home ownership is go with your gut. If your gut tells you it's better to save it than flatten it them do it.

The only issue with furniture going into the master will be the door size. I've checked the sizes of Cali King and extra wide dresser. The hall should be 4' but is only 3' in this example. The extra 1' will come out of the master closet. We did like the idea of a spiral staircase. but our designer explained to us that it won't work because of egress requirements. We have redesigned the kitchen. There is now a square island with seating to the left and bottom. There is 48" clearance to the top and right, and 52" clearance to the bottom. One thing that bugs us are the doors in the downstairs bedroom. Can we do a double pocket door? We want to occasionally close the room for guests, but keep the room open on a regular basis.