Morning all! Fran, I put in a bit more postage than what it was for me to mail my package to you. I don't think that I'll get back what I sent because we have a lot of veggie growers here, BUT if by chanace you dont have enough postage I'd be happy to send more if you need it to get my package back to me. I'm so glad that I bought the veggie seeds, I could almost hear how excited people were when I offered them up for grabs! Thank you to anyone who sent flowers in for me, I assure you that every single seed will find a good home. Lisa

PolarPrincess - If you have a USB port, buy an external hard drive that connects to the USB port and copy ALL of your data (pictures and other personal files) to it. Then your data is safe and you can clean up the rest of the system. If not, burn them to CD for safety. THEN: 1 - Empty the Trash 2 - Search for files on the entire system, using this search pattern" *.bak (those are temporary files that can be deleted) 3 - Delete all of those files. 4 - Empty the trash again. 5 - Search for all *.tmp files and delete them 6 - Empty the trash again. 7 - Run the Windows XP "check disk" utility as described here: http://www.updatexp.com/windows-xp-chkdsk.html It may take quite a while ... 8 - Then try running the defragmentation program.

jejvtr: I like the first link you showed, but the second one did not work. You are right the columns look similar. Perhaps you should leave them afterall, they are growing on me. It has a certain delicacy with the arched roof and you may change you mind also once the trim is painted different than the house color. Which is probably another reason my vote is for a non-white base color--to accentuate your lovely trimwork. I'm glad you are looking at other homes similar to yours for inspiration. When we were remodeling last year, I always kept a digital camera in my car and I would snap pics of features/colors/etc of houses I liked--usually while picking up or dropping off my kids from school or sports practices. I would try to drive a bit in the residential areas. Then when we were finalizing paint, I had my paint swatches with me and I would go up to houses which I liked and compare paint swatches. Once you and your DH find an inspiration pic I think this is helpful to narrow down to an actual color. You will always see things we don't, like lighting and how it works from various angles. What does DH think? Still white/red?

Apologies for the long absence. *sigh* Our desktop crashed, and I may have a bit as well. :) We're still waffling. I'm glad I didn't order anything months ago. The space is mysteriously getting more and more contemporary. Two weeks ago, DH and I wanted Option #2. This week, it's #3. The cabinets turned out so sleek! Definitely, though, I'm thinking pewter or brushed nickel or chrome to go with the appliances and faucet. I think those of you who said it'd be too much going on are right. That poor chandelier is just going to have to stand alone. I bet I'll get used to it with time. Mysterymachine, your post makes me laugh every time I read it! I should give your vote extra influence, with that amazing kitchen you turned out. (Okay, now I feel I need a disclaimer; bc everyone's kitchen is amazing!) Laurie, thanks for the vote! Flowerchild, thanks for the link. Those pulls would be great with the chandelier but a bit heavy with the other kitchen elements. Ok, a couple of OT thoughts. First, now that I'm fully recognizing my split-personality decorating style, I really get how some of you have done this several times. Second.... rats, I need more coffee. Completely forgot. Maybe something about how organic this process has been even though I thought I had a set plan long ago. Amy, np with your question. Thanks for bumping this back up, though I missed it Sunday. (I wanted to respond to the last three posters but hesitate about dragging my issues back up after so long!) We are still getting the Basalt Slate, sometime in the next couple of weeks. Templating is this Friday. Hopefully the counters won't take too long. I know most laminates are in stock, and we got really lucky with the engineered quartz. Our installer happened to have our choice in stock, available, and in the right size! Woo hoo!