There are plenty of good books out there. 5 Acres and Independence is old (written in the 30's, I believe) but it does have some good technical advice. I truly love Carla Emory's Encyclopedia of Country Living, and read Backwoods Home Magazine and Countryside and Small Stock Journal from cover to cover (and then I re-read them). The magazines are most helpful to me because they are filled with writing from people who are living the adventure to varying degrees -- all the way from the initial planning stages on up to people who have been off the grid for years. The other books are great for reference. If you can do it, go for it. IMO, it's better to have tried and failed than to spend the rest of your life wondering, "What if...?"

elizawhyza, you ask an important question about working with a contractor in putting in a largely recycled kitchen. Many people who artfully incorporate old things into their homes are seasoned DIY'ers, but I needed grown ups to get things in properly. My contractor is not a firm. He is a recovering economist who has an affinity for old houses and likes to see them respected. His own skills are excellent, and he puts together work crews for each job he undertakes, whether it's a bathroom or a whole house. I cannot imagine taking on this house with a different kind of contracting firm. Indeed, he looked at all the houses I was considering and outline what work would be entailed in for each of them. I have worked with him on several less extensive projects over the years, and I consider the trade-offs -- basically I had to start with a very rough ballpark estimate of what his work would cost and I was responsible for contracting with the electrical, HVAC, window, and floor people, but I knew that I would get careful work on the house -- more than reasonable. By the time we got to the kitchen, he and his crew has turned this into this which entailed jacking up the roof, replicating a lost corbel, and patching the original cypress clapboards with newly milled ones. In that context, shimming the kitchen cabinets vertically as well as laterally was not a big deal. On your other question, I bought the cabinets from my local craigslist, after checking out what was available almost daily for several months. I talked to the owner, drove out to look at the cabinets, paid him for them, and then hired three guys and a truck to pick them up and bring them into the city. The distance was about 15 miles and the moving cost a couple hundred dollars. There are also a couple of local non-profit house part recycling places that occasionally have nice cabinets, but that works best if you are in a position to check them daily, which I am not. The non-local sources for good used cabinets are ebay (which tends to have kitchen center displays that are listed for "local pick-up") and and Green Demolitions. The latter carries some very up-market used kitchen from the NYC area. They will email you all kinds of pictures to show the condition of what you might be buying, and they can help customers arrange shipping. I have never actually purchased from them, but I would certainly consider it. I look forward to seeing your cabinets. Best of luck with the whole project. hbk Here is a link that might be useful: Green Demolitions.

--she is not a mother and does not know any better, does not know what parents need to be doing..."-- Not sure what I said that gave the impression this WSM is not a mother and does not know what parents should be doing, because that is not the case. WSM is a mom, a single mom with a 19 year old daughter (has a 1 year old baby) and a 17 year old son. Son does not live with her and has not for a while (not sure of the backstory there, WSM was too busy ranting about my BM and SGS to fill me in on the ins and outs of HER family). But that's really neither here nor there and does not excuse WSM's treatment of SGS's BM. And I did find out late last night that WSM did her BM kick stunt while SS and SGS were off riding, so luckily none of this was done in front of SGS. And it does not excuse why SS did not tell WSM to shut the heck up while she was in our home. I have my ups and downs with SGS's BM but I found myself defending and screaming her praises while WSM knocked BM to pieces here. BM tries hard, she's not perfect but in no way did she deserve to have WSM in her face. I half think SS was caught up in a hard place this weekend. He came all that way to see his son and his dad and it was the visit from h#ll and he knew full well he had created the events all by himself. He usually stays over with us, but we did not invite them, I printed out directions to a motel, Dh handed him a $100 and told him we were tired and since DH had to work early maybe they should just stay elsewhere this time. I also found out that once GF and SS returned to their state having fought all the trip back, he has broken off any relationship with this SWB for the time being--their back to they might go out together now and then , but he made it clear to her there is not any future in it. He did also say he will not have her around SGS this summer, he realizes he did a major screw up. SS claim is he had no idea WSM would behave this way nor that she felt the way she did. He says he had told WSM all about BM and WSM never said a word of anti anything towards any of it until they arrived at SGS's. But that does not excuse any of his stupidity of dragging along a new GF way too soon nor does it speak towards his judgement of this woman and in the events that followed because of it. He blew it and he knows it. Damage is done. BM is major hurt and mad (rightly so) and SGS is in tears cause BM says she's rethinking letting SGS do the usual whole summer visitation (I can't blame there on this) Where the heck did his brain go? As stated above, none of this is his usual behavior especially when his son is involved. He's normally a resposibile adult, has a good job, a nice home, is NORMALLY a very involved concerned father and things move along without any of this past weekends events. So how did he go from responsible adult/dad to idiot of the year in like six weeks? I don't understand any of it. I'm not sure things will ever be the same again between BM and SS. She's hurt, angry and does not trust any longer that SS will put SGS first and foremost as he always has in the past.

Thanks John. No sir, no sprays anywhere. The gentleman closest to it is retired and a ham radio operator. Twice a month he gets his lawn mown, otherwise there is no one out in his back yard, which is "lawn" with some euonymous bushes. Behind him is a small condo complex with an oak tree and xeriscaping with no "gardening". Behind me is a large open area buffer for the condos on the next block over. To their west is an enormous English Walnut tree belonging to that neighbor. The other side of me doesn't spray anything, either. She is also chemical-phobic and has a pack of elderly dogs. I tease her that when I die, I want to come back as one of HER dogs. What you see if the rose's reaction to the UV, humidity, pH, etc. combined with any fungal strains in the area. Nasty looking stuff. Congratulations on Porcelain Rose! Thanks.