Ginger, thanks for your interesting questions. Sort of farm--During my growing-up years when my father ran it (I was born in '51), it was basically a hog and grain farm. He grew lots of corn for the pigs and to sell, plus some oats, but started growing soybeans in the sixties as a cash crop as well. We had a few chickens early on, but found it more convenient to buy at the store. (I think even store-bought chicken used to taste better back then.) My mother was a city girl from 200 miles away and hadn't inherited the gardening genes of her father. She did like to grow yellow wax beans and freeze them, which we all enjoyed. During my father's growing up it was much more diversified. At present, having retained about a third of the acreage, 122 acres, our renter/manager/neighbor specializes in grain--soybeans and corn. Organic veggies?--I've gradually gone to organic and permacultural gardening for fun. I really love fruit, and since my husband and I can be on the farm only three months of the year (we teach up in Alaska and fly our Cessna down every year), time is at a premium. Therefore, perennial edibles are my priority, with maybe a few yellow wax beans. So I've planted fruit trees and small-fruit shrubs, asparagus, rhubarb, hardneck garlic (not really perennial, of course), garlic chives, and (my namesake) Egyptian onions, plus many other kinds of herbs. All of these are just jumbled together for a permacultureal type of system, though I do plant them in such a way as to enhance the ability to mow around them. In the east garden, for instance, I planted over the years three rows of fruit trees, plus another row of currants, rhubarb, and grapes. In between the trees, I planted within the rows all kinds of herbaceaous plants, for organic companion reasons, but also so that I could just run the mower all the way up and down without having to go around each individual tree. (I initially scoffed at the by-word "easy to mow around," but soon incorporated it into my criteria of good gardening once I actually started mowing.) Rainbow garden-- Blue: blue flax Darker blue: Veronica austriaca 'Crater Lake Blue' Annual blue salvia that either survive or reseed every year, c.r.n. (can't remember name)--Victoria? Purple: annual reseeding larkpur, Consolida ambigua Veronica spicata 'Blue Peter' Veronica 'Sunny Border Blue' Salvia X Superba 'Blue Hill' Salvia 'Superba Blue Queen' Red: Ground cover rose 'Red Ribbons' (Jackson & Perkins) Dianthus, 'Flashing Light' and 'Brilliant' Orange: Asclepias tuberosa Gaillardia, 'Goblin' and a bigger c.r.n. Gold: Coreopsis, tall c.r.n. Rudbeckia fulgida 'Goldsturm' Yellow: Achillea filipendula Coreopsis 'Zagreb' Green: Juniper horizontalis 'Plumosa Youngstown' Euphorbia cyparissias (am phasing out as juniper grows) Historical restoration--As I view pictures that go all the way back to 1900, I see many changes, including the location of fences, the coming and going of huge trees, and in the ground itself as I describe before with the double terracing. And yet there are still a couple of barns and a corn crib that endure. Times change and new personalities come in. My blood link to the past allows me to both have some knowledge of the past, as well as the capability of gathing more knowledge from pictures, written material, and friends and neighbors whose relationships with the family go back for generations. I cherish this, and often repeat plantings to mimic the past. Yet I can't put it all back and I don't feel the need. As long as I have the family blood, the farm is still evolving as the family farm. I try to do it justice, and though I enjoy it tremendously myself, I'm really only borrowing it from the next generation, whether it goes to my nieces (we're child-free) or whether it changes over to a whole new set of genes. Please check out the gallery again as I will soon have some more pictures in it. Egyptianonion

The best performing, for low temp and otherwise, mini-splits are the 1:1 models. I believe that the better match between indoor and outdoor unit capacity is what does it. I can't, unfortunately, comment personally on their performance at temps that low. Where are you going to run the lines up to the second floor, on the outside of the building? If so, do you have a good way to hide them? (I have a single-story installation on a raised home and mine go through the interior walls.) Why Mitsubishi, Sanyo and Toshiba might offer more versatile remotes or different types of indoor units that fit your needs better. Mitsubishi does not offer electric resistance back up heat for when they are defrosting. IIRC, others do. Please do look into alternatives to the most common wall-mounted units.

Thank you all for the feedback! I really appreciate it! Holly321: the space is 15' long (+ WC which is 5x3.5')and 6.25' wide. We had that icky plastic shower as well and were so glad to get rid of it. I think you could easily trade your shower for a washer+dryer - either stacked with a sink and cupboard to one side or side by side w/counter above for folding/storage. I find a lot of newer W/D are too high for me to have a counter above be useful (and I'm tallish). My in laws have that set up and it doesn't really function well for intended purpose. Our W/D are actually the same brand from different years so, while they are meant to stack they are not meant to stack on one another. We had our counter fabricator extend the Ecotop over the washer and set the dryer above, with a bracket on the wall behind to support it at the back. It works great! I don't have much counter space for folding, which was intentional as we have never done that in the laundry room, mostly b/c we couldn't before, but we'll fold while watching TV at night instead (then DH helps when he might not otherwise!). ;) colorcrazy: Thank you for the compliment! I do not yet know what I am doing for the cushion. I have three seat cushions I need to have made and haven't even begun yet. I am considering a dark brown as I think the chocolate is a nice contrast with the white and blue, and would be practical in a potentially messy space. Or a fun pattern! As you can tell, I love color. Piping sounds like a nice, finished touch. Ideaas welcome! Thanks again.

Hmmm... given that you don't use the linen closet now and that if you relocate it to the right of the window you'd bump your knees on it, I do think I would just remove it and restore the window trim. It is kind of shoe horned in there as it is and even though it is old, it isn't that aesthetically pleasing. Keep the boards and hardware for use elsewhere. The wallpaper is truly hideous, so the first thing I'd do is remove it. Then you'll know what's going on with the wall. You could have a leak or an ice dam on your roof if there is a valley where the addition was added on and water running down the walls. Or, as you say, it could be from shower steam. Or, it could just be failed wallpaper paste! We removed old wallpaper, added two fans with vents to the outside and all new wiring in our 1913 bathroom without removing the old plaster. It can be done. What is in the space above the bathroom? Is the bathroom on an exterior wall? Do you have balloon framed walls? Gutting the walls and installing drywall creates an horrific mess and if you can repair and preserve the plaster while still obtaining the new vent and wiring, I'd do that. Actually, your shower tile looks to be in pretty good condition and (on my monitor) more beige than pink. I attached a link below to a kitchens thread that contains a link to antique baths about a quarter of the way down... those ugly tiles were in vogue back in the old days because people knew what colors to put with them. But, boy I see what you mean about the leaking. Looks like the floorboards under our old leaky toilet that kicked off our bathroom remodel. I'm no expert on showers, but it does look like you are going to have to tear it out and start over. Have you visited the "bathrooms" forum? It is very active and Kerdi is a frequent topic over there. A wooden bath tub. Not my cup of tea, but interesting. Everyone needs to have a way to soak. Our bathroom spaces were so small, and we don't intend to sell our house until we are ancient, so we just have two showers and we soak in our spa. Works for us. Cheers. Here is a link that might be useful: quirky kitchens thread w 1920s bath link