I wrote this message yesterday and I forgot to press send it!! I think is understandable with all this things going on around me and the shooting at Ft. Hood. As I write this I turned on the TV on CNN and they are talking about a shooting at an office in Orlando !! 8 people shot and the shooter is on the loose. When all this madness will stop? Thanks everyone for encouragement. I really need it. I am so stressed out about my sister situation, my surgery and when I came home tonight I heard about Ft Hood shooting, Lucy's scare and all those poor soldiers who's life was cut short. I do not want any more stress and worries for a while !!! Lucy, my sister is 6 years younger than me and she is the youngest of the 4 of us (3 sisters and one brother). I'll let you know how things are progressing. Pat

Joyce, I haen't been doing much reading on this side and this morning I just happened to reread your post. Sorry to hear of your sisters passing. My brother is still with us. After a near death night spent with me staying with my sister in law and the Hos pice nurse and family not being able to get him to respond he woke up 13 hours later just fine or as fine as he can be in his situation. When the hospice nurse Jeff stopped in yesterday expecting to see Larry with a high heart rate and low blood pressure and still in the same shape which was reported the night before, Larry asked him when the end might come and Jeff answered "Who knows with you"!!!! LOL All his vitals were fine. Today he is out viewing the countryside with two old friends!! We are so thankful to still have him with us. He wanted to live to see his grandsons play football and their seasons are almost finished. This is a very fragel thin person who needs help walking part of the time. Thanks be to God for each day he has with all of us. Connie

Is it too late to rip up my floor and put in checkerboard? Maybe I should forward this link to my DH. While I agree that stark black & white might be a problem to clean, some of these tiles look much easier to care for than hardwood. I love my new wood floors, but honestly, if I'd seen Rhome's floor first . . well let's not even go there. Thanks for taking the time to share your opinions and images. I think SIL was thinking blue & something else for her checkerboard. I love the checkerboards in the less common color combos. Don't know if I would of thought of using two colors like grey & white, or tan & brown. I remember a kitchen on this site that had a B&W checkerboard floor. It was a very vintage kitchen and the floor just added to its charm. I was hoping that kitchen might pop-up here. I don't think it's in the finished kitchen gallery. Emphasizing the downside of B&W floors is helping our argument here, so I'm gonna need more ammunition on this one. Anyone else got a floor to share????

Geez, that is so grade-school. No you did nothing wrong. It is only natural you are closer to the the sister that includes you and her brother in her family plans. It's probably better you weren't invited up north, I have a good idea that you would have been probably made to feel out of your element anyway. Good for you for having a nice time with SIL, ignore the rest of them. They need to grow up. ~Cat