Welcome Purplemoon, how wonderful to have another enthusist here! Your stacking plates are cute! If you want it "fuller" maybe you could add a few round sparkly Xmas ornis to it, and add some larger red roses, those slightly bigger things help add height and weight to the design. Your DIL did wonderful on her plates too, it is so cool that you two could do this together! I'm sure the dish manufactors in certain areas are wondering why the rush on the cake plates, they're probably thinking everyone is doing some "cookin" LOLOLO The easter plates should be pretty easy to do for everyone, since so much is available out there compaired to V-Day.

I know its been a while since I last posted. Here is an update on where we are on our redesign. After much go arounds with layouts we still aren't happy with any path forward. We have decided to revisit the idea of getting rid of the formal DR. Not sure if this is going to be cost prohibitive, but maybe its worth looking into further. If we swap the kitchen and DR as someone had once suggested this would open up the entire hearth dining and kitchen area into one large room. I fear this might create a bowling-alley feel as it would be ~50' long by 12' wide. hopefully the hearth room furniture, the dining table and peninsula will break it up enough. This plan involves the following: - Remove wall between kitchen and DR. - Replace DR picture window with walk-out Patio doors - Relocate picture window from DR to in front of table (replacing smaller window) - remove or shift down window that currently reside over sink. - Move/shift opening from currently living room to create additional wall space needed for fridge/panty All of this is going to require masonary and hvac work on 3 rooms in addition to the additional electrical/plumbing/flooring etc that wasn't originally in the budget when we were just considering the kitchen alone. I have a KD looking over our plans at the moment, we'll see if we get sticker shock, but I thought I'd bounce this update off of everyone here. Thanks!

dadoes -- I believe the part is called a 'lid switch'. I won't be at the condo until January, so I can't access the brochure. This is a Maytag with a frame that suspends the dryer above the top-load washer. I believe the manufacture date is 2000, and I know it says "Newton, Iowa".

I've posted before about how I hated my Maytag Bravos XL washer. The matching dryer died, and I got a sizable store credit with my extended warranty, so I used it to buy a new Electrolux FL 527 matching pair. We built this house with the side-by-side layout in mind, I'd never even considered a stacked option. But I decided to try it, and I have to say I love the extra room it gives me! I had to reconfigure my shelving, but I was able to actually add a few more linear feet (using an extra piece I had leftover), so it's a win! I built a custom laundry basket shelf with an extra back section to hide and protect my dryer vent hose, since it vents out the side and over to my vent opening behind where the dryer was. The shelf is freestanding and can slide out easily if I need to clean the hose or service the machines, and it gives me another surface to fold clothes on besides my countertop. So far, I love the Electrolux set, no more mangled, wrinkled clothes!