Happy Anniversary, YaYa, I'm sure glad that you and Twink got hitched to each other. 2 of my favorite peoples..... Woody and I will celebrate 27 years together in early May. Linda- Happy Anniversary to you and Bob! Bob is very lucky to have you!

Yes, Socks. We still are not happy about the separation, of course. We were spoiled when they lived in Los Angeles, 75 minutes away and close to her uncle and brother. Nowadays, she visits 4 times a year, and we take the boys at Spring Break so that they can tour Napa wineries with his parents for his birthday celebration annually. We call and email a lot. We are happier having them visit us (than us flying to Dallas) and so have not been to Texas with Grandpa offering plane tickets for visits here whenever they can come. Here, they can get around to see friends and ex classmates, and she always has one of the cars at her disposal too. So it works, but not as well as when they were in LA. However, they are happier there than living in crowded, expensive big Los Angeles with a job he loves, so we are happy for them. Having moved all over the country ourselves, we know we can't expect our kids to stay close. They love the quieter suburb with a nicer home, job, schools, and neighborhood. It is hard to leave family and friends, but they are getting to know great folks there too. He graduated from TCU and has a few college couple friends in the area, and she is getting active as a parent volunteer at their schools and meeting other moms. They left really wonderful friends in San Francisco and then Los Angeles, but luckily they are making friends there too.

Gargamel: They are original wood cabinets that I painted. I would never do that again! UGH. Thank you for your response. eedeegan: I had never thought of black hardware! That's a good idea. I love the counters. This particular slab had that large black spot, whereas normally they color is more uniform. I just happened to like that "quirk".

Yeh, you have issues that need to be dealt with. For starters, it appears that the addition is just sitting on the top of a 4x4? post and isn't tied to the post in any way. The post is splitting; the the add-on is trying to wiggle itself off of the post or the post is trying to wiggle out from under the load. Probably both. I see a remedial effort to tie the rim joist to the post with a wimpy little strap of sheet metal that is just nailed on. Forces of nature are giddy w/ that attempt. The corner brace in the 2nd & third photos would not do much in the best case scenario. Looks like it is nailed to only one one joist so it's doing exactly nothing. Just a homeowner here. Not a structural engineer but I see enough to know that you have Concerns and need to get some pros on site to evaluate sooner rather than later.