Dear Friends, The tree in this thread grew from a cutting I brought back from Maui about 8 years ago. I've kept it alive and reasonably well even in this relatively-cold clime, though it has been plagued, each winter, by spider mites. Due to the climate and the mites, it has only bloomed once, long ago. Then last year the branch was broken that gave rise to this thread and the things I've learned here have helped me make my plumeria a much happier plant. The result is that it is blooming! In addition, I have two cuttings, both of which are putting out new leaf spikes (though I've seen no roots yet and am following directions until I do). So I wanted to share them with you, who have done so much to help make it happen. Thanks again for your time and energy and knowledge and encouragement! If ever we should meet, I shall pour a glass of my homemade pineapple mead for you! Thanks Again and Aloha!

Hi again Carol, How gratifying to hear your report of how things are going for you and family. Speaking of family - I hope that yours became accustomed to your upgraded situation without too much distress. Interesting, isn't it, how people get used to seeing others (and themselves?) in sort of a rut, following a familiar path? Sometimes I wonder whether some of the partially/slightly negative attention that they pay to someone else's changing course may have some connection with their unhappiness with their present situation, possibly having some inner desire to do something similar, but being rather unwilling to give that desire house-room, whether from inertia (? - I thought that there was a more precise word, called son, but this is the best that we can think of at the moment), fear or whatever motive. I'm pleased that you're finding some success in the field that you've chosen to pursue, and hope that it proceeds apace. Son and I attended a networking project called "The Beehive" last year that's rather different and enables one to meet a number of folks who might be able to offer mutual support/business contact/development possibilities. I heard of it through an economic development council that I've been connected to in our area and took son to one of their initial local meetings. Actually, it was while I was taking son home from their first meeting that I attended that my car got smacked! They divide a number of people in a room into several groups of about 4 each. They pass out a business envelope to each participant, with a card inside. Each person becomes a "Queen Bee", writing some question relating to an idea that they'd like to develop their business around. For me, a financial planner, instead of writing, "Would you like to pay less income tax?" (which would focus on the hearer[s] only), they encourage me to write, "Do you know someone who would like to pay less income tax?" (asking the hearer to think whether they may know of someone in that situation, in addition to themselves). Another member of the small group becomes the "worker bee", and when the round begins, starts by asking the question in her/his own group. If someone knows of a person who might be interested, s/he gives her/his business card to the worker bee. The worker bee takes that Queen Bee's question around to each of the other groups in turn, asking the question. If someone there knows of someone that might be interested, they hand their business card to the worker bee and the worker bee departs, to visit another "hive". They get some hype and speed worked into the situation, each flying worker wondering whether they've been to this or that hive yet, and when a worker bee has finished in a hive and departed, the members of that hive put up their hands and shout, "Over here! Over here!" to attract another worker bee. When each worker bee has visited every hive, they all gather around the coordinator and each reads her/his question in turn, with the other worker bees handing over their own cards if they are interested in that question. Then each worker returns to his/her own hive and hands the question card with the group of cards that s/he gathered to the "Queen Bee" who wrote the question. They usually run four rounds, if there were four members in each "hive" - so everyone gets to be "Queen" once, and "worker" once. They usually run four rounds - which means that each person puts four questions of interest to each participant in the meeting that night. Each participant usually goes home with a fistful of pre-qualified cards in her/his sweaty little hand. The recipient of the cards then contacts the owner of each card received to ask for the contact. This avoids the pressure of the person contacted being put on the spot. I think that several friendships are developed that way, in additon to there being an ongoing live contact. If one of the other members who gave me his card and meets someone a while later who might be interested, s/he might give my name to that person, or tell me about the person's possible interest. Check them out at www.neworldcoaching.com. I've offered a "Christmas gift" to folks here on the "Finance" and "KT" forums, plus here for several years now, a gift that should save them hundreds, maybe thousands, in their lifetime, in addition to keeping former friendships warm. Write the names of everyone you've known since childhood, with contact info, then, over time, add items that relate to them - training, profession, interests, hobbies, vacation destinations, etc. When you want to know something - ask the folks on your database. As time goes along, if you develop some items of interest to several of them, you might begin a sort of newsletter to send to all or a portion. As people become familiar with what you're doing, they may contact you when they have a question, etc. If you can be helpful in such a situation, that guy owes you one, right? Isn't that rather shameful - offering the same (no direct cost) "Christmas gift" to the same people, over and over?! I guess if one's as frugal as I, there are some things about which it gets rather hard to shame them! Well - I didn't do it last Christmas, at least. I hope that some recent comers weren't left without another potential arrow in their quiver, because of it. Good wishes as you step forward into your future, Carol! ole joyful

appearantly Ivillage cleared their bans. My husband, who was banned, is now able to log on and post with his old ID. Has there been a change in ownership? :) welcome back

Peace, I don't have much time this a.m. (Saturday is our busy day, and I don't have any rendering software at home--to keep the job and home a bit separate.) but I have to say, that's a much busier roofline than your line drawing would lead me to suspect! And, it's surprising that the gables run N-S rather than E-W. That's why advice from an experienced contractor on the scene is so much better than an anonymous internet person! But, having suggested that you think out of the box, my first suggestion to you would be to try to live within the current plan without any expansion. That's always the cheapest, and it's the best investment for resale since additions won't "pay you back" unless you plan on living there for 10 years or longer. The chimney and the stairs really eliminate much of the potential openness between the family room and the living room. But, if you eliminate that wall all the way to the chimney, and use the sunroom space, I can see turning your current kitchen into a very efficient galley style arrangement that will still be as open as possible to the living room. Keep the sink in the same location (always a LOT cheaper!) or scootch it down towards the family room a bit, and just run that run of cabinets all the way along that new wall between the patio and family room. THe range would go on that wall between the sink and a full sized glass door (single "french" door") between the kitchen and patio. Put a pantry where you show the fridge, and put the fridge on the new "mudroom" wall (and maybe laundry?). That is, make a wall extend east from the stairwell through the porch (right about where the post is in the rear shot, I'd imagine) to create the other wall of the "galley" where you create a "snack zone" with a microwave (and maybe a beverage sink?) for all of those snackers coming in from outside. The new small "mudroom" would give a place for coats and boots and flotsam to drop before it hit the kitchen. You wouldn't have to change any of your footprint, and you'd get a very efficient kitchen that would be as open to the living room as structurally possible, with minimal structural issues to be solved. No, it doesn't give you an island, or seating in a kitchen, but it will literally probably be a minimum of 50K less of a project, which if you plan on moving in less than 5 years, might make these changes be more in the realm of being able to be recouped. Like I said, Saturday is my busy day at the showroom, so I probably won't be able to check back in until Sunday to see your response to my radical rethinking. And, I'm probably making a few assumptions about you that may not be entirely correct, such as this being more of a first or second home for you (I noticed the young kids toys.) rather than a home for a mature family. If this is a home from which you will never move, then the dollar amount "invested" in remodeling is less of an issue, as you will get years of enjoyment out of creating a larger and more functional space to live in. You might post your current home's layout with a request for other input about creating the optimum kitchen from what exists and you'll get a LOT more input from some very talented forumistas with a more specific appeal to a layout challenge.