You say you are planning on buying a house. You do not even have a place to go yet. *Do not* give any kind of formal written notice until you are SURE you will be moving. I had a friend who politely gave four months notice to the landlord when only 30 days was required. Her plans to marry fell through, and when when she politely informed her landlord that "She would be staying after all", she was told "Too bad", her apartment was already rented and she had to find a new place to live. She thought she could recind her written notice to vacate because she gave them four months notice, like as if they were still going to wait until the last 30 days came up and then try to rent it out. If you give your written notice early, you are still committed to it and it may not be in your best interest in the long run. Giving written notice to vacate will NEGATE YOUR OPTION TO AUTOMATICALLY GO ON A MONTH TO MONTH BASIS! If it is written in your lease that it automatically goes on a month to month basis when the current lease expires, you would have forfitted this option by giving written notice to vacate at the end of the lease. A written notice to vacate, is just that - a notice to vacate. It's not a notice to leave your landlord hanging wondering if you are really serious about moving, and have them keep the apartment vacant just in case you change your mind at the last minute. When July rolls around there may be a new tenant ready to move in on the first, OR maybe there are contractors scheduled to come in to do refurbishing work. You can't just decide that you now want to go on a month to month. You could have a talk with your landlord and tell them that you are 'planning on buying a house' and assure them that you will give the required three month witten notice, per lease, when the time comes around, but DO NOT give formal written notice until you are sure you have a place to go. Does your lease go automatically to, month to month, when it ends, or is there a clause saying you must sign a new lease? Letting the lease end, and going on a month to month, would be your best option - if available. This maybe could be negotiated with your landlord AHEAD OF TIME if your lease says you must sign a new, year long lease when the current one ends. Get it in writing though. If somehow your plans to move fall through, and the apartment is not rented or scheduled for renovations, the landlord may let you stay but do not count on it as an option. The landlord does not legally have to change things on a whim for you, nor is he likely to set himself up for legal repercussions by not honoring the lease with the next new tenant or being sued by contractors who have been scheduled to do work on a certain day.

I like the one for choc chip out of Mrs Field's cookbook. If you'd like the full recipe, let me know. But I think it's 16 oz cream cheese, 2 c sour cream, 3 eggs, vanilla, etc....Uses about 1.5 C of choc chips (1 cup mixed in the batter 1/2 c sprinkled of over top before baking). Made one for a party this week using the Ande Dinner Mint chips in place of the choc chips. It was very good. Going to try another one, but using oreo cookie crumbs for the crust instead of choc graham crackers.

I was intrigued, since that seems to be the universal description, so I ran it down. The All-Clad site even says "porcelain" but doesn't explain. A customer review on Cooking.com says "heavy, non-metal insert". Here's a description from Metrokitchen.com: With the All-Clad Copper-Core porcelain double boiler insert, you can melt chocolate or gently reheat foods with confidence. This duo features a 2 quart sauce pan made of five layers of metal, including a core, copper layer to generate optimum heat distribution and conductivity. The 1.5 quart insert has a porcelain base to be placed over gently simmering water. You'll gain optimal temperature control of delicate ingredients without the threat of scorching or burning foods. This set comes with two lids to fit each piece individually. The All-Clad Copper-Core porcelain double boiler insert includes the following items:* Exterior pot is a 2 quart All-Clad Copper Core sauce pot* Insert is white porcelain with a capacity of 1.5 quarts* The porcelain comes with a stainless ring that fits around it. This ring has a handle to make the insert easier and safer to remove from the exterior pot* All-Clad stainless lid* Fully-clad All-Clad Copper Core cookware is made in the USA. Lids are currently being made in Asia. AHA! Progress! Then I found a much better picture on good old Houzz: Here's another view from Jlhufford.com It's a porcelain bowl grafted onto an All-Clad pot handle! It's actually a pretty cool design. It gets to be their signature stainless steel, but still a perfectly non-reactive interior. They have a larger one that they say is non-reactive because it's 18/10 stainless, and that's sort of true, but the porcelain is better. :) The picture at Chef's Arsenal that confounded you is probably of that bigger insert. OTOH, the shape isn't the most convenient looking. I haven't found a picture of the interior, but, for whisking, a true bowl shape works better, and, especially, a wider opening so you have room to work sideways, rather than up and down. Pyrex, Duralex, Arc and Anchor Hocking all make appropriate glass bowls. :) They're often sold as cheap open stock at grocery stores that have housewares sections, and they also come in nesting sets. Very useful things to have around. I have the Arc set, an extra from the "Arcoroc" days that was my mothers (most useful size and most used) and an extra set of the four smallest. You could check the market for a good bowl to use as a double boiler. :)

Thanks everyone!! jkdavis - you sound just like me! I have several Pinterest boards for my dream house (floor plans, general ideas, lighting, furniture, etc.) and was just starting to organize some of them to print and put in a binder. I also love to plan - everything and anything - and I can't seem to shut it off. I also love to play around with floor plans. I just made a comment the other day about, "When we build, I wonder if the contractor will have ever worked with someone like me? Hope I don't scare him!" gscott991 - did you have an idea what it would cost to build when you purchased your property? Part of the reason I already reached out to a contractor was because I don't want to buy property and then find out we'd never be able to afford to build. Granted, it all depends on what you want and if you only have $100K, you build a small house - but as a young couple, who will be having children in the next few years, I want a comfortable sized house for a growing family. Nothing huge and no high-end finishes - in fact we much prefer a rustic, Colonial style and hope to save some money doing all the finish work ourselves. And while we plan on our children sharing bedrooms (boys in one, girls in another ... though we have no children yet), we do want a downstairs flex/guest bedroom and maybe another upstairs; we love entertaining and having out-of-town guests. We also want this house to be our last one, so a downstairs bedroom (for when we are too old to go up and down the stairs) is a must, but I don't like having the master downstairs. So right now, I'm estimating 2000-2400 sq ft, with small bedrooms, a large kitchen/dining room (just one room), and a medium-sized living room. The kitchen is the most important room to us, so we want it to be the biggest. I hope in 3-5 years, we can still afford that. MrsPete - definitely agree that what we feel we need has changed even in this past year, and I'm certain when we finally do build, we'll know exactly what we need, where we want to splurge and where we know we can be stingy. I'm hoping it will make the actual building/planning process easier. Naween - Good luck!! Sorry to hear about that designer wasting your time. I've been reading these forums for a long time and from everything I've read, I think we'll spend the money on an architect. Even though I love playing around with house plans, and could hand over a few attempts of my own, I don't know housing codes and while I might THINK something could work on paper - in the real world, who knows? ha! It'll be a big chunk of change, but I hope that accounting for it ahead of time will take out some of the sting. MushCreek - your last paragraph is exactly what I'm hoping to do! I definitely don't plan on having a finalized house plan until we're ready to build, but in the meantime, I'd like to make sure that a ~2400 sq ft, two story (with unfinished attic and basement), saltbox (ie., single roof line) will be feasible when the time comes. But I'm dreaming in generalized ideas right now, because your'e right - a lot WILL change in 5 years.