I remember that time period very, very well. It is the only time I can remember that I just stopped watering the garden and said "I'm done!", and it was only the second week of June. I felt HORRIBLY GUILTY about it, but our water bill was already $300 a month and I was watering like a maniac trying to keep the foundation from cracking (it didn't) and the grass green enough to keep fire from getting too close to the house. Even after I stopped watering the garden, the water bill stayed high, but I thought it was better to have a high water bill than to spend thousands on foundation repair. The fires were horrendous. Prior to that fire season, out little Volunteer Fire Department, which was about 2 years old at the time, had maybe 40 calls a year, and had just moved into our brand new fire station after spending the first two years operating out of a very kind person's metal shop building. For us, the fires started in late summer 2005 and ran almost all of 2006. I remember that for 2006, we had 240 calls.....most of them were raging wildfires. I cooked meals for our firefighters, sometimes feeding them 2 to 3 meals a day, and carried them coolers of water and Gatorade constantly. I absolutely disappeared from GardenWeb that year....was not on it at all. I lost my daylily bed and blackberry bed because I couldn't keep them watered. Lost a lot of other plants as well. In the middle of all that craziness, we came home after a day of firefighting and the air conditioner had broken and our house stayed 85 degrees that night. We got it repaired in a day or so. AND, on a day we had 5 fires in our district and were out all day long....from about 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., our DS's best friend was in a fatal vehicle accident. It was the worst day ever. Despite the heat, the lack of rain, the wildfires and the fact that I quit watering the veggie garden AT ALL, all the eggplant produced until frost, as did about 80% of the peppers and maybe 10 out of a hundred or so tomato plants. I was thrilled because I didn't expect anything to survive. That year is why I always have 8 to 12 tomato plants in containers, because I want to have tomatoes if I ever have to stop watering the garden again. I am not sure I would ever completely stop watering again because it was just so distressing to feel like I gave in and let the weather defeat me. I mulch much heavier nowadays and use the soaker hoses more, and our water bill has never come close to being that high. In fact, it changed my watering philosophy and I water much less now. I think what I learned from that year is that the garden plants CAN survive on a lot less water than we think. In 2005, we had 20.65" of rain, but almost half of that fell in July and August, which set up the wildfires. The almost 10" of rain we got in those two months caused LUSH growth of everything everywhere, but when the rain stopped, that lush growth turned almost instantly into tinder for fires, and by October/November 2005 we were out at wildfires daily. So, too much rain is not always a good thing. That's the only time our home has ever been "threatened" by wildfire, and we had 5 fires within about 1/3 mile of our house. I hope we never see a year like that again, but this is Oklahoma, so I bet we will. Dawn

Thank you SO much everyone! Being short on time at this moment I'll just start responding to as many replies as I can at this moment - even if not in order as my thoughts are flying - and hopefully can finish my replies soon! :) But I just want to thank you for now. I really appreciate the time you each took to give me some thoughtful feedback. I see now what Johnliu meant by curved appliances cause I stopped at Sears today since I was one store away and I saw exactly how they look modern. Chicagoans - Sadly, we don't have gas, and the electric stoves are BUTT UGLY. But it doesn't really matter right now either way since I'm not in the market for a stove yet. As for the same sheen as the counter: the typical stainless fridge (some sheen) is close enough to the counter which is your basic polished stainless (at least it isn't brushed/matte). I'm not sure I could afford a paneled DW but I'll definitely look into it. The thing is, I don't know what our lower cabinets will eventually look like. For now, they're cheap flat things, though solid wood, w/ no detail - no molding. I think they were put in in the '50's or so. Marcolo - The upper ones are the original ones and no of course I wouldn't replace them! I think they're great! I don't know if their doors were originally below or not (never stopped to measure). Palimpsest - I've seen those colorful fridges before but never pursued because I have specifics I need in a fridge (e.g. size, and maybe ice and water or at least on the inside) and I assumed these retro ones would be pretty limited in those ways - particularly size. I also prefer the freezer on the bottom. The old fridge is presently standing right next to one of the doorways into the kitchen, with nothing near it besides the servant's stairs that go up to yet another door. One of the original cabinets is above it, though I had to remove the door and cut the cabinet bottom off (!) in order to fit the fridge there originally. I think the fridge's new location will be on the wall opposite the counter/sink, and it will stand just to the left of a chimney that sticks annoying out into the room and which isn't coming down anytime soon (chimney's plastered over and painted same color as kitchen walls). The only way to make the fridge look built in there would be to get a counter-depth one and even then the chimney only comes out of the wall 25" so with the back grill things and the doors of the fridge, I'm guessing the fridge would stick out a few more inches if getting counter-depth. I didn't want that but maybe it's worth it (the Samsung has a 23 cu. ft. CD french door fridge). Not sure what to do there but the nice 29 cu. ft. fridges would REALLY stick out. Covingtoncat - I like appliances that have some stainless and then either white or black. I wanted to find a fridge that was white w/ stainless handles but none of the reputable ones offered that. altagirl - your link to your "almost done" pics showed it's an empty album (?) so I didn't get to see any examples of old style kitchen w/ new style appliances. :( But I agree w/ the general idea. Like I said, period within reason. Thanks again!

IÂll answer two of the posts here as the questions are similar. mclemens, If you have the 4 x 12 beams on hand, fineÂ..use them. If not, (2) 2 x 12Âs would be adequate for the beams on top of the posts. I say on top of the posts, not bolted to the sides. By bolting to the sides of the posts, the limiting factor is the shear strength of the wood parallel to the grain in the posts. In other words, if the loads acting on the bolts split the posts, you can imagine the result. To cut a long story short, this is the load on the bearing area of the bolt shank in the hole and is expressed in PSI. If the load in PSI exceeds the allowable for a particular species or grade of lumber, you violate the building code. As for the joists at 16" on centre, 2 x 10 is adequate and this is factoring in a 75 lbs/sq. ft. load on the deck. This will be way above what your local code calls for floor loading but I have seen well over a foot of snow on my deck for a prolonged period. Better that little bit over than not. As an extra, it wouldnÂt hurt to put one row of bridging mid span between the 2 x 10Âs. Bsd777, When you say supports along the edges, I assume you mean the edges would be the 30Â long beams. OK, depending on how many posts you want to put in would be the determining factor for the size of the built up beams. For instance, (2 or 3) 2 x 12Âs. Not that IÂm saying thatÂs whatÂs needed but If I knew how many supports the beams would have, I could determine what would be adequate. As to the 20Â span over the sand mound, it could be done with engineered wood joists such as "Microlam" or "Trus-Joists" but youÂd be getting pretty pricy in comparison to sawn lumber. IÂll e-mail you a brochure for you to look at. The structures here arenÂt the problem though, you should both check with your local authorities as to limiting access to the septics. That could be your biggest stumbling block.

Love hearing stories like this. My 28 year old nephew was born 3 months early and weighed in at a whopping 1 lb. 12 oz. My brother's wedding ring fit all the way up the baby's leg. My nephew was/is very fortunate that he had/has no health or learning issues related to his prematurity. He recently became a father but the little knit cap of his that his mom saved all these years didn't begin to fit on his own full term baby's head. Best wishes to your daughter for the next 21 years and more.