Christine -- I am very happy to hear that part of the burden has been lifted for you. I am always impressed with your positive, can-do attitude. Please talk to a qualified tax professional about your 2012 taxes. While cancellation of debt (COD) income is generally taxable, there are exceptions. The following is from the IRS website: "Is Cancellation of Debt income always taxable? Not always. There are some exceptions. The most common situations when cancellation of debt income is not taxable involve: Qualified principal residence indebtedness: This is the exception created by the Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007 and applies to most homeowners. Bankruptcy: Debts discharged through bankruptcy are not considered taxable income. Insolvency: If you are insolvent when the debt is cancelled, some or all of the cancelled debt may not be taxable to you. You are insolvent when your total debts are more than the fair market value of your total assets. Certain farm debts: If you incurred the debt directly in operation of a farm, more than half your income from the prior three years was from farming, and the loan was owed to a person or agency regularly engaged in lending, your cancelled debt is generally not considered taxable income. Non-recourse loans: A non-recourse loan is a loan for which the lender�s only remedy in case of default is to repossess the property being financed or used as collateral. That is, the lender cannot pursue you personally in case of default. Forgiveness of a non-recourse loan resulting from a foreclosure does not result in cancellation of debt income. However, it may result in other tax consequences." These links will give you some basic information: http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=179414,00.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancellation_of_Debt_(COD)_Income http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p4681.pdf Here is a link that might be useful: IRS Pub 4681

If there is a coat of paint on there then with a light sanding you can use the old paint as your primer and just paint on top. Make sure that your get any gloss look out of it before you paint. Most SW paints will not stick to any glossy surface.

As promised here are pictures of the supports installed. We couldn't do the steel sheet because on the backside of the 12" cabinets, which face the overhang, is the sink. Stacy at Amastin knew what type of granite we had and the cabinet layout and recommended installing two supports at approximately 31" apart where cabinet boxes joined together and we had extra support below. The supports are 24" long - 12" on cabinets, 12" overhang. We realize that the supports are farther apart than the typically recommend 16-20", max of 24", but it was by far better than not having any supports at all and we are happy with the solution. We also were very impressed with Amastin's customer service and would gladly use him again in the future. Here are the pictures before and after install. If anyone would like more information just let me know.

Household ammonia is an aqueous nitrogen-based solution. It consists of five to 10 percent ammonium hydroxide (NH3) in water, often with added detergents. I would read the label and it should show the concentration. I believe 5% is the most common. If you find 10% then just cut the amount in half. Straight out of the bottle both ammonia and vinegar (5% acetic acid) will kill foliage. I use a 1/3 concentration of ammonia and don't have any problem with it harming foliage. It is overkill for killing slugs, but I look at the mild fertilizing benefit as better with the higher concentration (5% concentration Ammonia). I have a half gallon sprayer and it goes pretty far. The most important thing to do in spraying is to spray around the base of the hosta and all around on the ground under the leaves, any piles of leaves, mulch, any place they hide during the day.