I tried a tent....and had mixed results. First problem, is your bottom part of the tent? If so, that prevents escapees. If not, then your first problem is keeping cats confined to the tent. Second problem..is this going to be outdoors? If so, it's gonna get hot. If indoors, how will you stake it? Also, cleaning (sanitizing-which will eventually NEED to be done, look quite difficult) Now, the price IS nice. For camping it's a steal. I made my own with some 2*1 lumber, a roll of 48" vinyl screen mesh, and cut out a cheap screen tent zipper. Yes, it took me a day, but a good cat cage. Now, the smaller reptarium cages are probably a great start, fairly inexpensive, easy to clean (take apart and wash, You buy 2 and rotate them. Also, they are black mesh, which is good if outside, as they will filter the light enough not to cook your plants, but pass enough air through as well. Tight woven enough for your cats to pupate, and big enough to put potted plants in. IMHO

I'm with Anele.........if it were a 10 minute drive, I'd probably go just to assure myself that I don't want it. But I'm kinda with your DH here........it's not like you wanted to come at 10 p.m.! For a drive of that distance, I need to be convinced that I want something. And I guess it's just not very appealing to me. If I found it at a garage sale and was pretty sure it would work..........maybe. Red

kswl. I think the thing that appeals to me about grommets are the way they stack so neatly w/o taking much space. We have wonderful views out of most of the windows, so I really don't want to have anything that takes away from the views. Even if I had window coverings in our great room, I don't think I'd hardly use them for actual privacy etc. We love both the daytime and night time views. Annie, I wasn't able to find our hotel room online, but I have googled many "hotel rooms" just for ideas. I comb whatever pics I can check out. Actually I do have something in our current bedroom that I love. We have a very traditional electric fireplace that we purchased a few years ago. It is a beautiful piece of furniture. The person who purchased our previous house, wanted us to sell it but we declined. I didn't have a "home" for it in our new place at that point but I knew I would find one. Well that home ended up being our bedroom. I love it so much that I had decided even if it didn't "go" with whatever I picked out, I was going to keep it. Besides it being a beautiful piece, the "flame" actually looks more real then our gas fireplace in the great room. Between the beautiful view outside and the fireplace, it feels like a sanctuary when the lights are off. When the lights go back on, it's a whole other story. We have been trying for at least 12 months to find a headboard & 2 nightstands. We would find a headboard we liked but the nightstands weren't right at all, or we'd find the nightstands and the headboard wasn't right. So last night we ended up going out looking at just headboards. We came across one that we've admired for awhile but the nightstands as I said weren't right (when the headboard was nice). It happened to be in the front of the store, and we both kept admiring it. We went throughout the store and found another headboard that we sort of liked and another which a PART of one I kind of liked. I was just trying to see what was out there new if anything. I had to remind myself, why I didn't get it, since they've had it for awhile. The only reason was because of the nightstand. The headboard is simple but elegant, it gives the bed a strong presence in the room, even with the views, and it goes wonderfully with the fireplace. We are about as unimpulsive as you can get (we over think all purchases) but we surprised ourselves and actually purchased the headboard and new mattress & boxsprings. The bed will be delivered tomorrow! It's a bit scary just taking the plunge (if you consider 12+ months a plunge) but I think we are going to be very happy with it. We've never had a king sized mattress, so now we need all new bedding. I've got some ideas of what I want but will go through the task of getting an idea of what I want like Bronwynsmom directed. I know I like a layered look, solid colors and very good quality linens. I will look some more to see if I see anymore of a trend. I'll see if my DH has time. Luckily it's summer, so we don't have to hurry out and get anything for warmth. We can get by with a queen comforter for awhile. Does anyone have any favorite linens you like? or good webstores? We've always purchased mediocre quality before, but recently we've been exposed to nice quality bedding, and I'll never go back. I'm going to have to kick some decision making up into high gear since our previous queen mattress is now in our master bathroom where we'll have to sleep until we have enough bedding to sleep in our bedroom. My DH is so cute. He pulled out some candles to make it as nice as sleeping in our master bath could be. With a DH like that, a girl has to make the bedroom that much more special.

Whoa guys! I think Judd was just showing an example of a house that could scratch the OP's itch for French Château while still blending into the NA neighbourhood it will likely be built in. It might not cost less to build, and it might be teetering on the brink of McMansionhood, but if that's the style OP likes maybe it's better to spend that money on something that will be more sellable in the future. And all sorts of people like all sorts of things. As my kid says, "it's not *my* thing, but it is *a* thing."