IF you can find them anywhere, Rivolta Carmignati cotton sheets made in Italy are the crispest, lightest sheets I've ever found. And I found them in a bin in a thriftstore! An entire bin filled with these sheets. I had no idea what they were; if I had, I've have bought the entire bin at $1 each. I bought several flat sheets and a duvet to die for. Not until later, when I found a tag and looked it up, did I realize what they are. Other than these, I have Ralph Lauren and Thomas O'Brien, all cotton that I really like, but they really don't compare to the Italian cotton. Here is a link that might be useful: Rivolta Carmignati

Thank you for you wonderfully kind thoughts. Good idea, Tina, to try and get back once more and by myself. I'll definitely think seriously about that. Although we had a wonderful 10 day visit with my parents and family, both the flights there and back were absolute nightmares. Outbound, baggage was so unusually incredibly slow that, despite getting there at the recommended time, we missed our flight. So instead of departing at 6:30AM and arriving in Detroit at (approx.) 3:20PM with a stopover in Denver, we had a 3 hour delay in Albuquerque, then a flight to Las Vegas. A 4-hour wait there before a flight to Atlanta. Another wait there and then a flight to Detroit. We arrived around 12:30AM and after picking up our rental car and baggage, arrived at my sister's home at 2:20AM. Ugh!!! On the flight back, we were so paranoid about baggage check-in, we arrived 3 hours early . . . only to be told that our flight had just been cancelled! DH had a full schedule of patients booked the next day and was able to get the last seat on a flight that got him home here around 12:30AM the next day. The airlines sent DD & I to a hotel for the night and we were booked on the 6:35AM flight out that next morning. The hotel shuttle picked us up and delivered us to the worst hotel I've ever been in in my entire life. It looked perfectly fine from the outside, although more like a souped up motel with a big, new entrance.Three guys lounging in the lobby looked like pimps. They were obviously not guests. The room was dark, dirty and dank. My daughter's bed looked like it had a large area of dried urine on the top sheet. The table and nightstands were greasy. And one entire wall of the room was a plate glass window that looked out onto the deserted hallway. There was a heavy, dark, dusty, rubber-backed curtain across the wall, but would not close all the way. That was the only window in the room. The door locks did not work properly and we could easily hear the tv in the next room. We were out of there quickly, with me in tears by then, calling a nearby hotel and begging them to come and rescue us. They did and had their shuttle there within 5 minutes (bless them!). As our new shuttle driver was loading up our baggage, 3 very emaciated, disheveled young persons (early twenties), 2 of which had the black front teeth of major drug users and were obviously on some kind of drugs then, were holding on to each other , weaving into the hotel as we sat in the van watching them! Our driver just shook his head and said that "they should shut this place down"! I am not going to mention the airlines or the "hotel", as I'm already in discussions with the airlines CEO about it. As for the "hotel", his people are looking into that as well. I had nightmares for 5 days straight about that place! Soooo, that's my long, and hopefully somewhat entertaining saga about our trip last month. I'm still thinking about flying back again later this Summer . . . but probably on tranquilizers! (Edited for typos and to add:) And when we finally arrived back home here, I found a couple live bedbugs in the outside pocket of my suitcase! That was an additional nightmare I had to deal with for days after.

Tijeras: I looked at the curtains you like on the Country Curtain website. I specifically looked at the tie backs to see if I could figure out the size of the check. The tiebacks are 3" wide, and it looks like there are 1 & 1/2 "checks" in this width. So you might need a 2" check size. Here's a link to a yellow buffalo check fabric, if you decide to make your own curtains. It's about $17 a yard, so depending on your window size, you might save some money over the Country Curtains pair. Simple draperies are really easy to sew! http://www.decorativefabricsdirect.com/_p/6110611.htm?gclid=CIG1u6fHxMgCFQqFfgod440OoQ Anyway--good luck in your quest!

Settle for some (relatively) inexpensive synthetic fiber rugs and save your $$$ for good flooring in the future. If it's going to be guest bedrooms it's not a deal-breaker on a visit. Now...comfortable guest mattresses and linens, THAT would be a higher priority, methinks. But YMMV, depending on what your "to do" list looks like.