EarthLy, The box has been FOUND!!! "Dear" son had picked it up with the rest of the mail earlier in the week on the way to his babysitting job. Since he picks up three boys after school, he had put everything in the trunk of the car so there would be room for the boys. Thank you for saying something. What wonderful surprises you sent, too, my friend. First of all I do love the Hershey's chocolates that you sent. But my gosh!!! What a HUGE chocolate covered caramel candy bar you sent. I've never seen one so big. Gotta love it! Did you make the zuchinni relish? I opened it up right away and tried a little bit on a teaspoon. It is sooo good. Thank you for sharing! I will be taking the hot chocolate mix to school to have on my break. It always tastes so good in the wintertime with a little piece of candycane in it. Such a cute little bag you put it in, too. :) I am just thrilled with the purple sensation allium and double narcissus bulbs that you sent! I don't have either one of them. Even though we have snow, hubby says the ground is still soft so I can still go put them out. The ceramic Christmas candles are absolutely darling, too. They are so cute! One with a Santa, another with a gingerbread boy, and the other with a snowman. Then on the other side of them one says Happy Holidays, another says Seasons Greetings, and the third says Merry Christmas. I have already put them out on display in the front sitting room. Lastly, I just adore the sunflower sharing bottle. It is way cool! To me it is a very meaningful gift from you to me that I will always treasure and have for a memory of you. Maryanne, you are a gift and a treasure to me and to others on GW. I think others would agree with me. Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and sharing. Mellen

So how would one do "character" outside the house - yes it's a modest house without insane detail I see sorting through other posts here. This has always been a working town, homes were built originally for the market here rather then as they might have been in a wealthier city. Frankly I don't care if anything happens on schedule I work for myself and have a lot of time on my hands, every other month with little to do. Work has always been a hobby to me, I'm used to working more then I do now because my business is established so I need a second job and why not work for myself on an old house? Does it matter that I'm naive so long as the numbers are making sense. Other then this site I haven't found anyone in the real world - my builder friend, a friend who studied construction management, realtors I know who can figure out how I can lose on this home. But real estate is local and I'm sure this town doesn't make sense in the real world either. This town has it's own set of rules, many outside investors avoid it, I spent over six months studying the market, with paperwork to the ceiling and back to the floor. I think it's odd that there's so much pessimism - I don't know what life would be without a risk. What taking someone like me who's traveled a lot of the world, who's run a company since 23, who's not the type to live in the suburbs (tried that house on the hill thing and it wasn't me) and saying it would be "more fitting" to buy a modest cookie cutter house. They are all the same, they just move the kitchen here to there in one home, the garage east rather then west... does it matter that I'm quirky, does it matter that the fixer is a modest fixer without much historic value? I don't know what this is, didn't realize people were so into historic values of homes. I grew up in one. It was a money drain, double the size of this house with far more issues starting out. it had to be lifted, cranked up, windows put in, everything... I grew up poor in that house that is now called "victorian" and then one day the rich people wanted to live in a house like that. Before only poor people lived in those homes. So apparently something happened from my childhood to my early 40s and I'm still a bit stumped. But I'll soon research more and will find out what all of this is. Yikes I sure upset a lot of people, I'm still scratching my head as to why at an old house website most people are against someone wanting to on a budget fix up an old abandoned house who has cash and time on their hands. Maybe not enough but with good enough credit to get a loan - I must have come across as a complete nutcase. I'm sorry for that. Guess when I started this post I was in panic mode. I like the house, my gut is usually right in life and I enjoy risk. As a realtor friend of mine emailed today - everyone wants a risk free investment - life doesn't work that way... why do you think I got the house at a steal because it's an obvious risk, if it wasn't and it was fixed up it would be double the price if not more. It is what it is - if I wanted some huge historic house with more detail now that I know more I guess that's what I'd go find. I like the simple life - I'm not an ornate person, I've been to third world countries and I don't believe in huge American homes - it's not for me. I want to live debt free - and you know what, if people for thousands of years lived without heat, without this or that that we might consider to be necessities in our "homes" and that over half the world lives in poverty compared to us... maybe during these hard times it is actually time to go back to our roots? And to the person that criticized me for wanting to go back to a family home, to my roots, to live in my means - heater working or not - maybe I represent something. I didn't make a mistake and buy a house at peak, sorry to all for profiting off of these times. I think I found a freakin' good deal for my boy and I and after sorting through hundreds of homes I'm going to take the leap - life will go on... if not I'll cut my losses and without losing my shirt.

I am loving everything I am seeing!! Love all the blue and silver being used. I had the urge to put up 2 trees this year....one full out decorated with big fat ribbon and one with our family ornaments but I was LAZY and just did one. Just a mish/mash of ornaments but oh, well I love seeing the lights. Besides my DS's tree with his ornaments - he did it and I have the hardest time not fussing with it!! I will get some pics up soon. These cats are hilarious!! Cattknap - I understand where you are coming from!! Everything is just so damned "political" now. I always say "Merry Christmas." I also resent the marketing that goes on around the holidays. If I were crafty I wouldn't buy one thing from department stores!! Well, except Toys R Us!! But, for the first time in a few years I am feeling the Spirit of Christmas!! We lost my father, and he had been very sick before. It is weird how traditions change after losing one of your parents but new traditions will be made!! I am smiling this year!! So, please keep sharing your beautiful decorations. SMiles:)

Mtn: Oh, gosh, that is embarrassing. It looks like I read your post, got the idea, and then forgot WHERE I got the idea. Ooh, boy, creeping senescence... I am not concerned that slate used as a floor tile would not be food safe. I suppose your concern is not the slate, but a chemical sealer? My understanding is that slate is usually not pre-sealed. Moreover, I really doubt that they pre-seal the stuff at this price point; it certainly did not seem sealed, as water did not bead on it and it soaked the oil right up. And sealer, which is meant to bind chemically tightly to stone, seems unlikely to be transferred to cheese anyway. I did run it through the dishwasher before gluing on the backing foam. Yes, the square shape of the cheeseboard looks a little off. I had been sort of intending to cut mine to something like 7.5" x 12" (golden mean), but I didn't feel like filling the water tray of the wet saw. So, instead, I googled for images of slate cheeseboards, and saw enough square ones to decide to just go with it. The other "flaw" is that the edges are square. Most of the cheeseboards you see commercially have more rustic edges. I figured I would just whack the edges of my tile with a margin trowel or tack hammer, and spall the edges nicely. Well, it wasn't happening; I was just making small chips in the edge, rather than causing any of the lamellae to delaminate. I then decided that square edges were acceptable in a cheeseboard :-)