Yes BM went the other direction and now lives/sleeps/whatever else.....with this woman in the same household as SD. I do think it has a little to do with this behavior but I think it is mostly her father with me that is bring this behavior out. I did have a talk with SD over the weekend but DH did NOT as he promised he would do.....Go figure? anyways, I told her that it was not considered cute anymore taking pictures of herself in or out of the bath.....and that "what if someone else got a hold of those pictures?" she seemed to understand and I have a whole new twist to this whole story since it was just SD,DH and I this weekend and DH took my advice and distanced himself from her........Another post tomorrow about this interesting episode (Which, by the way, 9 year old females CAN be manipulative)......Oh by the way my SD does wear training bras and also has 5 boyfriends in the third/fourth grades which 2 of them she has already kissed! (She told me so) So the whole maturity/puberty thing is different for all of them! Depends on upbringing I guess?

That is a LOT of woodwork to paint or stain. I'd forget about that for now. Once you get started on that, you're going to start questioning everything, including the front door. The First thing I'd do is get that huge honkin' TV off the floor. Get an articulating arm TV mount, and put it either on the center of the wood mantel, so that you can have the TV in front of the fireplace for viewing if you don't have a fire, and raise it above the fireplace when you do have a fire - doesn't matter if it covers some of the bookcases . Put the cable box and DVD, etc., on those shelves. for this, you want a mount that will allow you to raise and lower the TV. OR, put the articulating arm on one of the panels between the two windows closest to the FP. When you want to watch TV, pull it away from the windows and at an angle. When you don't, you can just push it back against the windows. This way, also, you don't have any glare from the windows hampering TV viewing. Put the sofa so that it is facing the fireplace, centered in the room, with the left arm of the sofa oppose the small wall between the front hall and the playroom. I WOULD paint the bookshelves surrounding the FP, including inside. Maybe a nice Colonial green? Personally, I'd put doors on those bookshelves; they look cluttered to me, and that would drive me nuts. If you do put the TV there, though, keep in mind that you want access to the two bays nearest the FP which part of the TV would be covering. Also personally, for living areas, I prefer natural and earth tones. I'd paint the walls something like Revere Pewter (BM), and again, paint just the bookcases and mantel a rich green, maybe something like BM Palmer Green

A neighbor had her stepdown living room raised to the same level as the rest of her house and even though it made her ceiling height 8 foot loves it. I am sitting now with a sprained ankle from landing badly after stumbling down a stepdown in an unfamiliar house when I wasn't looking down. Filling in just seems the safe thing to do.

Susan Davis - thanks for the helpful heads up about patterned carpets... I haven't started carpet shopping yet, so wasn't aware. As for the missing wall (adjoining the patio door), it's broken up by a bedroom door. So there's 2/3rd wall, door, 1/3rd wall. (I will try to get a picture or floor plan soon - things are a bit crazy with almost that whole floor being remodeled). So it's difficult to mount a TV on either section of that wall, as it would not be centered - plus the sofa would then have to be moved to face it. (At the moment the sofa sits against the wall with the internal window, facing a smaller TV that sits on an angled low console in the patio door corner - would like to keep the sofa as is, to allow for lots of space in the middle until the kid grows up). I'm thinking we'll have to resign ourselves to a smaller TV upstairs, so it can stay in the patio door corner, as we do have a bigger projector TV set up in the media room downstairs.