First: thanks KT for the post - but the link didn't work today, not here. Kinda hard to dredge all the trash out of orbital space, ain't it, Vgkg? "Who has used nuclear weapons in the past, who has the largest arsenal pointed at other countries, who is expanding use of such weapons (including on conventional weapons), who is talking about deploying such weapons into space, who has hundreds of military bases in some of the most politically sensitive places in the world, and who is acting unilaterally and pre-emptively?" Why, al Qaeda and al Qaeda's helpers, of course. Don't mistakenly exclude "tests" from "uses." And don't exclude "cells" from "bases." Never mind: NOTHING they hit is EVER a "holy site," is it? There goes "religion" again! The "zombie themes" sound SO much more Soviet than American - but we're getting there, all in good time, my pretties, and our little dogs, too... Gee, just like in Hollywood's movies, before long we can expect on our own continent - overdone dead zones. Maybe we should invite Elena over here for a "before" tour, with an open invite for an after tour of the same spots...eventually, some preacher will take up the cue and tell us all what we should do...and we'll do it...or else...again, never mind: preachin'z already happenin'.

howiroll I think the younger the better, for a number of reasons. I am 47 and just finished a custom build in the mountains of VA. My dream. I grew up on the streets of Jersey - loud trucks and stenches that will singe your nostrils. I vacationed as a kid in upper NY state - loved to fish & camp. And I really enjoy nature. Going through a custom build is stressing and takes a lot of your time and energy. I did a lot of work on my home (not the original plan) to save our bacon when we started running over budget. Dear Wife poured in many many hours on the interior design and selections - it takes a ton of time. My hero is Jack LaLane - so I know what seniors can do. But I think if I were even 10 years older, I would have been unable to do a lot of the projects I took on myself. I suggest you follow the method that George Washington used when he built Mt. Vernon (my favorite house on the planet). He started with a main structure that was small - then added over the years. If you do that - you can finish the main structure and get in for as low a cost as possible - but have thought through the enitre long term plan roughing in for the expansions. As a youngster you might not have a large budget - I don't know your financial situation. And land prices keep escalating, so it's hard to keep up. If you can find the nice piece of land and get a structure on it to live in, then you have a great base and can add over time. Here are my answers to your questions. 1) From your experiences, if you were going to build a house what are the "must haves" or things you would without a doubt do? - energy efficient building is a must. - first floor master (love it!) - screened in and covered decks integrated into the house design. Our pergola with witch hat ceiling and wood burning fireplace is by far my favorite room in the house. - a great kitchen that the wife loves. - covered porch (we call it the dog room) with pebbled floor so that doggies can take care of business when it rains or snows. This is my second favorite room in the house - because the dogs love it and I don't have to shovel a path for them. 2) More importantly what was a waste of money? - we did not watse any money - we were very careful on what we put into the house. But we sure got charged more than we needed to on a few items (like excavation). Make sure you know your subs and make sure your aren't getting ripped by getting multiple bids. 3) My wife and I, along with both our families, are pretty handy. Given that how much would you have done when building a house and what is not worth the time/money savings to do yourself? I did a lot of the electrical, A/V , voice/data, security and I am glad I did. If I had the time, I would have done all of the electrical myslef because I did not like how the sub worked and what they charged (but this is just me - and I love doing this type of work). The master electrician was great - but his workers weren't. 4) Anything unique that you'd do/install if you were building a house? I planned out ahead of time what our backup approach would be for winter power outages and summer power outages. I did install a small standby generator to make sure the absolute essentials have backup power. When you live in the sticks, you need to think about being stranded for a few days and just make sure you have a plan. 5) Were any of you ever the general contractor for your house build? Nope. But the wife and I spend a ton of time going over the work the subs were doing. The builder should have paid us a management fee - we found a lot of things that needed to be addressed. 6) What are some money saving tips? Use the internet to check & verify pricies. When you do - make sure you are comparing apples to apples. Any commodities can ususally be found on-line cheaper - but you need to think about returns. Sometimes it might be worth paying a little more if service/returns could be an issue. Use the GW forums to check pricing too. 7) Since we will hopefully be living at this place for the rest of our life, energy saving ideas will definitely benefit us in the long run. Which ones do you suggest? Prices? Which ones are a waste? Tax breaks on using green materials? The tax breaks for energy efficient building are a joke (but that doesn't mean you should build an EE house). Look on the Renewable Energy Forum and search on "Energy Efficient Building". Loads of good info on that forum. 8) How many square feet? (We plan on having 2 kids and don't need a mansion) Just plan on the kids growing up and needing more space. This one is so subjective. One thing for sure - make your garages and storage space are bigger than what they normally show on internet house plans. I have two 2 car garages and love em. The main garage is 25 x 25. The other one (where all of my toys are) has an extra 3 feet or so in width so I can have a work shop in there (I have 2 workshops - another idea I love. One inside in the basement and one outside in the Man Toy Garage). 9) Since it is in the country and it is not uncommon to lose power for a few hours to a few days, anyone have pictures or ideas on a generator shed/hook up and how they disconnected from the grid? Look on the Electrical Forum - tons of posts on this. I decided that it was too costly to backup my entire house. I just did not want to have a 30 kilowatt generator (I have electric heat pumps - lot's of amperage needed to start compressors). So - I layed out that backup plan. Decided that in a winter outage, I would use fireplaces as the backup heat. I upgraded the fireplaces to direct vent inserts (2 gas, one wood burning) that are rated as heaters. I supply back power to the conrols (low voltage) and fireplace blower fans. I also backed up water, hot water, 2 refrig's, SATV, Sat Internet, and some lights. Much smaller genny - but all the comforts we need to ride out a 2 or 3 day outage. When you do the electrical in your home, plan for the gennny. Have the electrician put in a sub-panel and run all backup circuits from there. Make sure sub panel is on the side of house nearest weher genny will be and try to keep the LP gas tank near there too - this minimizes trenching and there are limits on the length of gas line runs. Use propane as you cooking source and then run genny off that tank. You can run for days without ever needing to fill a tank. 10) I plan on building a shop on the property eventually as well. Any considerations I need to make when building the house that will later effect the building of a shop? Electrical, plumbing etc? Get the biggest electrical service you can. I have a 600 amp main service run (3 x 200 amp service panels) - and that cost me nothing extra to get that to the house. Power company ran the line 700 feet from the main road, they just needed a bigger wire gauage to carry 600 amps. With that kind of power you can add on just about whatever you need for the shop later. 11) Any good way to calculate the costs? My wife and I have found some plans on eplans and houseplans.com. We were really just looking at the styles and layouts to find what we want. Should buy something like that or how do we move forward once we have an idea of what we want? It is hard to ball park costs. So many variables. Do a search on "How to Estimate Building Costs" on this forum - tons of posts on that subject. I do suggest looking on line for floor plans you like (and plan to look and look and look). You can always change the exterior of a house plan to get the look you want - focus on floorplan. If you find something you like, you can typically buy review copies for a smaller fee before you make the purchase of the copiable plans. Make little cut outs of your furniture to the same scale as the plans and lay them onto the review copy of the plans - just to get a better idea of the space and how things fit (or don't). It is very hard to visualize how a room will look from a 2D piece of paper drawn to a small scale. Last suggestion. Don't forget about including in the budget all of the toys you will need to maintain that property. Since Jan - I have purchased: a 4x4 SUV, utility trailer, snow blower, garden tractor with 50 inch mower plus attachments, heavy duty chainsaw ..... If you don't plan on this, then you will be forced to outsource it. It is great having land - but there are a lot of extra chores and you need the right type of toys to handle them. The first time I tried to cut a tree that fell on my property with a 14 inch chainsaw - the tree laughed at me. Watch out for the larger scale on house chores - when you go from a small lot in the burbs to acreage in the sticks, it is a very different world. Have fun!

You don't say if your classmate has had other children, but I'm going to assume no. In that case, her home may not have some of the customary things that accumulate with children - board games, craft supplies, markers, crayons, etc. I really think some board games might be great - it will give the new family some time to sit together and get to know each other, while having fun. A craft box of markers, crayons, glues, craft scissors, glitter, paper, felt, etc. will give a young girl and her mom many hours of fun. Her new home will need some refrigerator art! I also think an inexpensive camera (maybe get disposables) and a photo album might be a good gift. The young girl might like to record the first days of her new family life, create new memories for herself. If the disposables are successful, then Mom and Dad can get her a real camera for Christmas/Hanukah. When you said a 10-year old girl being adopted, I immediately thought of the Anne of Green Gables books, although I think the reading level be higher than a 10-year old. The complete Harry Potter books might be great - then the new family can read them out loud together. But I do think a nice collection of classic books might be a wonderful retreat for someone who is adjusting to a new life. Whatever you do will be greatly appreciated. It warms your heart to see a new family get started, doesn't it?

When we've had to move with our kitties, they seem to like it best when they are in their carriers with a heavy blanket draped over the top- not covering the front, just over the top to block out a lot of distractions that can be distressing. Since the weather is cooling now, heat shouldn't be too much of a problem. The best advice I have for you is to line their carriers with old towels, take a few extras along, and have a clean-up kit that consists of paper towels, cleaner (vinegar/water works well), plastic grocery bags for garbage or sealing up a soiled towel, and an extra jug of clean water in case a kitty needs to be cleaned up on the road. As responsible as my cats are, we've had a few travelling episodes that involved cleaning up both ends of a cat. It helps to prepare for that in advance and hope you don't need it! Like the others have said, just make sure the car is well sealed before you let them out of their carriers. I had one cat that we use to take everywhere with us; she travelled in a harness with a leash. She could slip her harness if she really wanted to, but only did so when we left her alone in the car. It was nerve wracking to come back to the car, find her unharnessed and sitting contentedly on the front seat, and know that we had to open the door and grab her for fear she would slip out. She was an old cat who didn't travel well in a carrier :) Good luck. Q