Kec & Quirk, Lisonwal mentioned "$7,500 in closing costs"... but you need be aware of several things; Prepaid items (escrowed deposits for property taxes, and hazard insurance) add to the "cash required to close" but are not actual costs. The deposits they are replacing from the previous lender's servicing department are refunded generally within 3-6 weeks. NONETHELESS... many non-financial people look at their "bottom line" of their GFE and think "oh my God, that's "closing costs" ". NEXT; Lisonwal hasn't told what the buydown costs are for the interest rate they have locked. At a 5% coupon, depending on their loan-to-value, the loan size itself, their credit, and other factors, they may have a fairly sizable buydown included in their "closing costs." This is definitely not particularly a BAD thing, as it may have a breakeven point in their interest savings at a fairly short period. AGAIN; Taking a 30 FRM at "no points" or even "no costs" (when such a thing was actually available) is the MOST expensive money you can borrow, and hardly conservative in most cases. LASTLY; In the current mortgage meltdown environment, the back-end bond buyers are refusing to buy loans at enough of a mark-up for the lending banks to advance ALL the cash costs of the transaction itself. The bond buyers are offering a maximum of about 1.5% of a closed loan, while the actual costs run about 3-5%, with a cash minimum around $3,500+. Because of this the "no cost loans" of the past are... in the past. Folks who have sufficient equity to have their closing costs financed are still able to do so... but there are no "free" mortgages (beside the obvious TANSTAAFL reality.) Besides... lender-paid loans only made sense when rates still had the potential to drop lower... so taking the inflated higner interest rates that were offered in order to have the bank pay all the cash costs was something people would do on a speculative basis. No longer is it financially intelligent nor realistic to take a higher interest rate (simply in order to get it for "free") with the argument that you are saving yourself the ability to once again refinance when rates drop in the future. Cheers, Dave Donhoff Leverage Planner

I own the ERR 3502 R30 and have for 9 years. it works fine as a water softener. It is supposed to have a carbon filter in it but I think that is ridiculous. The filer needs to be renewable and it is not. Buy a GE at Home Depot for several hundred and a replaceable cartidge filter to remove sediment and a carbon filter for taste. Several thousand for a water softner is a joke. I paid $3500 for the plumber to install it. Now the unit is sold via Costco only in SoCal and the price doubled. Don't be a dope. It is a water softener and filters need changing. Change the filter when the taste says to do it and save a fortune.

Go for lighter, especially in a basement! The medium one is quite dark and will show scratches quite easily.

In order to add more storage to the space, there are a few things you could try. You could try a slim sofa table behind the sofa, a storage coffee table, and a longer TV console with storage as well. You might also look at adding a floor lamp or two and flipping the tall shelf and bar cart. It might work better having the bar cart near the dining room table and the shelf in the living room area. Otherwise, since you can't really move or change much, you can't do a ton of changes. The images below are some designs we have completed for various clients which might help you more. TV console idea: Bar cart near dining room table: Another TV console idea: Notice the bar cart near dining room table and the floor lamp: Note the long TV console: