patser - Thanks for the link. I'll probably get those for the switches I was planning to upgrade. I saw them at a house our two while looking for our home and I really liked them. We don't have a coal door on the house. A PO cut large holes into the concrete foundation and put in glass block windows throughout. It was a great upgrade that let tons of light into the basement during the day. Even at night the sparkle of the glass is nice and it feels much more open than with tiny dingy windows. (I just wish they would have kept/left pieces of history like a coal door.) My wife really wants a functioning gas fireplace so we'll probably install one at some point. I'm certain the f/p was never functioning, but I still wonder why it was built like it was. civ IV fan - I'm pretty sure the porch is original. The roof staining matches that of the rest of the house perfectly. The foundation also shows no changes - so the porch was at least there; although that doesn't rule out the possibility that the roof was reworked at some point. Thanks for the compliment on the window seat. I truly love it. If we get a nice sunny day sometime soon I'll open the curtains and take a picture of the full floor to ceiling woodwork that makes up the whole window seat. We've also got blue velvet curtains that look much nicer than PO's ugly curtains imho. Now for some more questions: Does anyone know about the type of brick used here? It's dark brick, which I don't see very often. It also has an interesting texture added to it, which I've shown in one of the additional pictures. Some of the bricks merely have textured vertical lines, but many have this curvy texture in addition to the vertical lines. Is there a name for this type of brick or a way for me to learn more about it and why it was used? Also, there's a patch that was clearly replaced below the kitchen window. It looks like there was something in the place before that window that took up more room, but I don't have a clue as to what it could be. Any ideas? I took a video of the problem with our pocket door the other day, but it's 5 minutes long and 300 mb or so so I'll have to break it up and change format to upload it. Is there someone here that knows about pocket doors and might be able to help? (i.e. is it worth the time and effort to figure out how to make this into appropriate sized videos to upload it?) Thanks for the wealth of knowledge! I'm truly enjoying learning more about my house (and older houses in general by reading everybody's recent and not-so-recent posts). Here is a link that might be useful: More pictures

I have not thought about going to the authorities because I will not sacrifice the one decent relationship with a parent I have because of my loser of a SB. I think that at the end of the day that my SB is a miserable person who drinks constantly just to get through life. I have learned to be able to attend family functions with him there but I keep at a distance. He tries to call me to wish me happy birthday and things like that but I am not at all receptive. I do not know if that is his way of trying to make up for what he did to me or what but he will never be able to right what he did to me in my eyes. However I will still continue to be the peacemaker and refuse to tear my family apart this many years later. Besides, I have found that my father is very loyal to my SM and her children (she has four--3 SS and 1 SB) and I honestly do not know what kind of response I would get from him and that scares me. I do love my SM also and I value the relationship I have with her. I did not think at the time that SB would turn to my sister. I guess I was too young and naive to understand what was truly going on. I honestly had no idea what sex was and it took me a few years to put all the pieces together. My mother's way of dealing with things is to ignore them. Completely! If she doesn't discuss them, they did not happen and will not happen which is why I guess she has never discussed what she found out in my diary or anything else that has happened through the years for that matter. I had a few issues at my dad's house that I was not believed over the youngest SS (who still to this day lies and manipulates) so I was afraid that even if I did tell that I would not be believed over my other step-siblings. I guess after I quit going, my dad and SM caught my SB kissing my sister. They blamed my sister, explaining to her why it was wrong as if she was the one that was pursuing him. I did not know this until many years later either and my sister does not believe that anything was even said to my SB--I guess he was old enough to know better??? The youngest SS has also made accusations about her own brother to my sister once when they were discussing him years ago--I do not know what to believe from my SS because she is such a manipulator and has to turn every incident into something about her but if it is the truth then I feel for her as much as I do for all of us that were subjected to my SB. It amazes me that my dad and SM could be and still are so blind to SB. My dad is a little tired of constantly bailing out SB every time he quits a job and needs money or whatever he has going on that he needs which is constantly. SB has a daughter that he had custody of that for years. I was freaked out that maybe he was doing things to her that he was to all of us and that is when I went to counseling. I am still not sure why but whenever I used to press the way that my SB was raising his daughter to my dad and SM they continually defended him--like leaving an 8 year old little girl at home alone from the time she gets out of school until 10 pm while SB is at the bar is fine. I realized that I was not going to be able to make them believe what SB is capable of and has done because they saw him as the great father that was doing the best that he could at saving her from this awful BM. Too bad that both of her parents suck!!! My oldest SS tried to get the neice but SB would not ask BM to let her go out of state in fear that BM would demand her back if SB did not want her. It was a no win situation for my neice. So I used to try to go get her as much as possible and take her on vacations with me and take her shopping. She wanted a mother in her life and didn't have one and barely had the father that she lived with but she eventually became to busy with friends to have time for me. My SM believed that the alternative of living with BM was worse and sometimes I was not so sure. My neice did choose to live with her BM for awhile because she was craving her mother in her life but realized what life was like with her and is now living with SM ex (father of SB). And at 16 now, she runs wild. Things have been bad with her and she has done some things that truly make me wonder if SB did things to her but she has always led such a wild life between SB and her BM that I have no idea where some of the things she has done have come from. I guess that if I can protect DS from a life like I have had then I will have learned something from my own experiences.

I get the room that only works one way. I would like to be able to do a sofa and chairs or pair of sofas in my FR, but even before we bought the house we knew this room neeed a sectional. Still, it is a pain to try to find one that fits the room. In your room, I would want a pair of matching sofas or a sofa and two chairs. It's hard to know, but it looks like the grey sofa might be shorter than the one you have now - could you do a pair or the same sofa? If chairs, could you do recliners? Not big barcalounger type, but one that looks like regular comfy chair but lets you put your feet up. DH might beat you to the recliner instead and then you'd have your choice of sofa or the other chair. ;-)

Mike - I finally tried the minneola (posted about it in another thread) and here is what I wrote in the other thread - And it's funny you guys mentioning the minneola - well I had posted in another thread that I had been to an international store this past week and found some for sale (and bought 2). I finally tried one the day before yesterday and like a baby, I needed a big bib! LOL OMG, after I peeled it (it has the thicker rind that I guess comes from its pomelo heritage), I pulled off a slice, took a bite, and must have had a half a glass of juice all down the front of me. LOL It had no seeds and also had an interesting "floral" after-taste to it. But no doubt about it, it was juice juice juice. Bite squirt slurp bite squirt slurp. Thank goodness for paper towels (napkins wouldn't have been enough). LOL Nancy - those trees look great! Mine were supposed to ship Monday (the label was created Sunday and I got an email from FW that the trees would ship Monday) but they ended up shipping Tuesday. However since I did the 2-day priority mail option, they are due for delivery today (status is "Out for Deliver" and haven't come yet so they are rolling around in one of those little postal trucks...lol). I do live like 2 blocks from the post office but because of that, sometimes we get our mail last. Denise - wish your daughter good luck for the coming semester! Move-in time is always hectic but I think she will be excited once she gets settled in and you will be relived when it's over... but you know you will miss your baby! :-D You can put some good music on in the car and just roll with the flow! The time for the drive will go by faster.