I go like a squirrel in the fall and collect as many bags of leaves that I can (I have neighbours who drop off their bagged leaves in my driveway) and I lug them to the back where most are deposited right on the lasagna vegetable gardens and in the raspberry patches. I keep as many more bags as I can so that once the snow starts to accumulate, I can scatter more leaves onto of the snow on the lasagna gardens so that even if the entire yards are covered with snow, I can still see where my gardens are at all time - keeps me motivated not to forget about them. I've started to prep my WSing containers and have a barrel full of soil and amendments in the garage that soon will be brought inside so I can stuff the soil into the WSing containers. I really love the fall and I find myself planting bulbs right up to Christmas - last year I was still planting bulbs on the first/second week of January as the weather was still mild enough (and White Rose was basically giving them away - they were some of my nicest tulips - came up yellow, opened to orange and spread open to red - really cool). I'm hoping to be able to keep planting bulbs until January; keep topping up my lasagna gardens until March and then have only April to wait my little winter sowed perennials to poke their little heads up when the weather takes another turn towards warming up. (It also helps going into the fall knowing that for the month of February I'm in florida)...

Anne....Our furnace in town was under (well not clear under) but it sat in a lot of water several times...one time the water was over the fourth step coming up the stairs. So I know the fan and moter were wet. That happened more than once. And yet 27 years later when we sold the house the same furnace was still in there and still worked. The people who bought the house put in a new high efficiency furnace. Hope yours works too...but if it doesn't I hope you have enough insurance money to cover it...a new one will cost less to run. That amout they were talking about should cover most everything...that is a lot of money...but then I'm thinking for do it yourselfers....we always have done it ourselves. Good luck...and big Hugs...I'm so sorry there is so many miles between friends on cyberspace. I would loved to have helped you.....lol...I'm a basment cleaner upper pro. patti

My Raynaud's started in my feet about 30 years ago. Moved to my hands quite a bit later. But these days my feet aren't a problem at all because I wear these disposable foot warmers every day. I go through at least one pair a day during the winter and early spring. They're adhesive, so they stick on my socks. They do a great job. My hands, however, are a constant problem. I've tried many approaches, and this winter I'm going to use more disposable hand/body warmers. I think they helped at the end of last season. But overall, last winter was the worst for my hands. For the first time, I got sores on the pads of my fingers as well as on the tops and sides. Using my fingers for anything was torture. Six of my fingernails are still deformed from damage suffered last winter. Ugh. Enjoyingspring, if you haven't tried the adhesive toe warmers, you should. I highly recommend them!

You might be able to get everything you want in that closet if you rework the storage. The Elfa units are similar in size to the IKEA ones, I just know how the IKEA ones work. They come in widths of about 16",25" or 32" (accounting for the width of the rails they mount on.) It looks like you have two storage areas in the closet. One with the tall white cabinet, and another with the red basket, some drawers and more coats? The thing about the modular system is you can get a lot more on them because you can add more shelves and have no wasted space and add baskets to hide stuff. Plus they are on the wall so it keeps the floor clear and you can move things up and down based on kids growing height for reaching. As far as the corner it's nice to have a small bench for putting on shoes. I like to keep the kids stuff separate, because I need space for many of the things you do. Mail, return stuff, etc. and I don't want it cluttered with their stuff. The place I see backpacks now....is that the 3'7" wall? It looks like there are two walls angled. You could build up floor to ceiling on one angled wall, have shoe space, place to hang bags/coats and keep the kitty stuff underneath and maybe place a bench on the other angled wall with a mirror or something. You have a lot of options and space it just depends what you want it to look like. I would think of zones. One place to keep room for guests to come in and place things, a place for all of your things, and a place for the kid's stuff. IT's easier to keep organized when everyone has their own zone to drop in. I'm more of an organizer than a decorator!