Straight shaft yes. You may also want to consider bike handles and a hang harness. These are usually only used with a hard blade for better control but in your case I think it will help with the ole back. Take a little time to strap on the harness but it has a quick connect to the shaft so if you need to put it down to do something else it is easy to do. Just leave the harness on for when you come back to the trimmer. When the trimmer shaft connection is placed right it will just hand there perfectly balanced, then you use the bike handles to control it. The long straight shaft will get to the ground without you needing to bend over when it is all set up right.

For the DIY'er, you can't beat the Harbor Freight, clone. $140 compared to $600 The only difference is the color of the gun. I have a GripRite Stapler, only because they didn't have a Bostich in stock at my distributor. I'm glad they were out of stock. I paid $360 for it, and it rocks! Beats the heck out of $600 and I like it better then the Bostich I have used before.

I have had the Whirlpool Duet HT 9400 model now for a little over 2 years. I just love my washer and dryer so much and have to thank this site that helped me to figure out what would be best to buy for my situation. I always dry the washer's door when I am not going to doing any more washes that day. I always leave the washer door open slightly to air it out as well as leave the laundry room door open to air it out since my laundry room has no window in it. I learned this from this site 2 years ago. I never cleaned out my washer with bleach and didn't realize I should. should I still if I have no problems? So far, I never had one problem with my very quiet washer and dryer that gets my clothes cleaned and is pretty also. I love being able to fold clothes on the top of them. I did not buy the pedestals since I am not quite 5 feet. I just put a lot of shelves in the laundry room for storage.

While it is certainly a more practical and affordable plan than the first one, there are some things you might consider changing. Except perhaps for the master bedroom on the back left and the garage on the front left, try to make the other three walls -- back and right and front -- as straight as possible. Not a fan of the two story looking entry. You might consider creating a deep front porch, perhaps with skylights to let in more light for the front of the house and a shed roof dormer for the attic that has the same number of windows as the row of windows you end up with across the front living area ... which certainly needs more than one window as adjustments are made to the floor plan. First, consider whether you want to add a several feet to both the front and back children's bedrooms. This would enable you to put two twin beds in each room and not just in case you have more children but for sleepovers and for having room to add a large toy chest and/or toy cabinet and enough space to utilize each bedroom as a playroom -- no need for a separate room. Also, making the two wings of the home more equal width will both give the house more symmetry and enable you to have your entry more forward -- closer to the front exterior wall of the garage and more of the focal point of the home. Would rather have a larger master bedroom the full width of that wing, straightening the left exterior wall of the house except for the garage. Would NOT want a ceiling curb. There is a long interior wall along the back bedroom on the right (children's side of the house) behind the foyer and still would be with the above changes. If you put your kitchen on that right side of the house and the dining area where the kitchen is now located -- with its back wall also even with the back wall of the kitchen and back bedroom -- then the hall to the master would be off the dining area -- which would mean the entire front of the great room could be the living room and foyer.. If you move the front wall of the foyer and living room out at least even with the front wall of the front children's bedroom (several feet in front of where it now is after increasing the size of the room) , you'll make room for a pantry between the kitchen on the right and the foyer AND your foyer and living area will be closer to the front exterior wall of the garage ... making it more the focal point of the front of your home. After you move the front wall of the front bedroom and entry and what was the to have been the dining room out several feet, also Increase the depth of the garage by four feet so you can extend the width of the living and foyer area so the left wall of it is where the left wall of the pantry is now. Doing that will not only enlarge and square the left front corner of the living room, it could enable you to increase the storage in the back left corner of the garage and/or alter the steps to the ?study? in the attic above the garage to have any headroom affected by the steps be in the storage area rather than in the garage itself. Another garage option you might consider, in addition to making it deeper front to back so you can cut the back right corner of the garage short for part of the living area, might be to off set the garage. You could move the garage so no part of it is behind any part of the living room -- the right exterior wall of the garage would be in line with the left exterior wall of what is now the pantry -- what would be the left wall of the living room -- and have the left wall of the garage extend beyond the left wall of the master suite that eight feet or so, creating a privacy area behind the garage for a private side porch for the master bedroom suite. With these changes, your door from garage to house would be entering into a hall way left of the living area with steps to the attic ?study" over the garage and still enable you to access the master bath via the mudroom. If you off set the garage to create the private porch on the left side for the master bedroom suite, you could add a door from the garage to that side porch.