I've got some metals, but I had them for decades. About 1200 oz of silver bought at $5 per oz and some scrap gold. No one can tell for sure if gold is too high or too low to buy. But if push comes to shove I'd say gold will be higher down the road as our world decomposes around us. Gold is good for those worried about inflation hedges. Used to be the fed at least printed money. Now all that needs to be done to create billions is to magnetize a silicon chip. This is what fuels the hard commodity people that want something tangible for real wealth. But it all revolves around our world not crumbling too much, as gold can be near worthless too. Would you rather have a sack of gold in the desert or a sack of bottled of water? Let me tell you people in need don't want gold they want water, food and shelter and warm, dry clothes. Try cig lighters, seeds, 22 ammo, matches, sewing needles, soap, etc., for barter. You know sewing needles, fishhooks and 22 LR can't be made easily at home. 22 LR may be the small change currency of our future...not bars of gold and silver. What you going to buy anyway when TEOTWAK arrives? A new Ferrari? A vacation home that you can't get to? And gold is so high priced it is not that practical for small change transactions... "I'll trade a banana for your Krugerrand?" Well, maybe bananas are a bad example as they may become scarce as they need to be shipped in with crude sucking tankers. Many areas of free barter items that run through our hands. We go through tons of seeds in a year and they would make good barter items and we get em for free in our food. Especially the high seeds yielding squashes and melons seeds. Another for free area of barter goods is the disposable plastic bottles we drink from. Our family goes though 20 - 25 bottles a week. They can be saved if one has the room (which we don't) and used for barter if need be. (People will need empty bottles.) Edible landscaping will be most important to feeding what is left of us when TEOTWAK arrives. Here are 3 good books for those interested in developing an urban homestead. [url]http://www.amazon.com/Food-Not-Lawns-Neighborhood-Community/dp/193339207X[/url] [url]http://www.amazon.com/Gardening-When-Counts-Growing-Mother/dp/086571553X[/url] [url]http://www.amazon.com/Self-Sufficient-Suburban-Gardener-Jeff-Ball/dp/0878574573[/url] I think we have a real food crisis brewing for the world. Not enough young farmers replacing the old, we will run low of fertilizer as the NG dries up and that food which is grown is devoid of nutrition and not healthy. And to make matter worse, fewer people can even afford to buy produce. With the recent food shortages in the news I have to wonder as Richard Heinberg brought up "Who will be growing our food 20 years from now?" "The average American farmer is 55 to 60 years old. The proportion of full time farmers younger than 35 years of age has dropped from 15.9% in 1982 to 5.8% in 2002. Who will be growing our food 20 years from now?" from "Peak Everything" by Richard Heinberg "Amish farmers can't compete in conventual agriculture farming. 40 years ago 90% to 95% of the Amish were farmers. Today less than 10% are farmers." from: "How the Amish Survive" DVD And even if the farmers keep up with production, many people cannot afford the high prices of produce. At Krogers a butternut squash was $7, a large apple was $1.85, a rutabaga was $3, an artichoke near $5 and a lemon was $1.35, a bag of cherries was $14.75, ONE organic yam was $8.25. And these high priced produce are being offered when times are still relatively good What will this stuff sell for when gas is $10 or $15 a gallon? Peak oil, peak NG, peak water and food as well as peak uranium will fuel mass starvation as our artificial and unsustainable world decomposes around us. As people buy less produce due to affordability issues and the produce stops selling and rots on the shelves, the farmers will grow less produce that just rots unsold and less potential farmers will be entering that field. Book and DVD list. All available from your local library. Beyond Oil: the view from Hubbert's Peak by Deffeyes, Kenneth S. [url]http://www.princeton.edu/hubbert/[/url] The Coming Economic Collapse - how you can thrive when oil costs $200 a barrel by Leeb, Stephen A Crude Awakening - the oil crash Lava Productions AG, Switzerland DVD [url]http://www.oilcrashmovie.com/[/url] The End of Suburbia - oil depletion and the collapse of the American dream by Greene, Gregory DVD [url]http://www.endofsuburbia.com/[/url] Fed Up [url]http://www.amazon.com/Fed-Up-Angelo-Sacerdote/dp/B000CNGC6G[/url] High Noon for Natural Gas: the new energy crisis by Darley, Julian [url]http://www.highnoon.ws/[/url] The Long Emergency: surviving the converging catastrophes of the twenty-first century by Kunstler, James Howard Oil Apocalypse History channel DVD Peak Oil Survival: preparation for life after gridcrash by McBay, Aric Powerdown: options and actions for a post-carbon world by Heinberg, Richard Resource Wars: the new landscape of global conflict by Klare, Michael T [url]http://www.amazon.com/Resource-Wars-Landscape-Conflict-Introduction/dp/0805055762[/url] A Thousand Barrels a Second: the coming oil break point and the challenges facing an energy dependent world by Tertzakian, Peter Twilight in the Desert: the coming Saudi oil shock and the world economy by Simmons, Matthew R. Well written book examining 12 of the key Saudi oil fields. Who Killed the Electric Car? Sony Pictures Classics release [url]http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/[/url] Zoom:the global race to fuel the car of the future by Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran. .."In a shipwreck, one of the passengers fastened a belt about him with one hundred pounds of gold in it, with which he was afterwards found at the bottom. Now, as he was sinking--had he the gold? Or had the gold him?" ~ Ruskin

I would hold onto it... Gold is the only real money. Paper is worth nothing--unless someone confers some sort of value on it. The government could decide tomorrow our paper money is worthless. Money in the bank or other investments.... well, we all know how volatile that can be. Gold is the one thing that is and always will be worth something. No, I haven't sold my old gold jewelry, and no I haven't sold the gold I'm holding as an investment. If worse ever comes to worse, that may be what we have to rely on to put food on the table and pay our bills. We believe stronly in holding onto any gold we can get our hands on--it's a good investment that will always have some value, and in bad times, it's the one thing that's usually worth a lot.

I'm not sure. All of the fixtures (lights, doorknobs, cabinet pulls, faucets, towel rods, etc.) in my house are of the same type (brushed/satin?). I don't think it would be faux pas to have different fixtures, however, it wouldn't suit my personal preferences. I think you should pick what you like best.

Susan, yes they are too tall. They should ideally be no taller than than about one inch-maybe 2 inches-higher than the sofa arms. Yours are 6 or 8 inches taller than the sofa arms. Possibly look into having the legs shortened?