Don't be paying others to do these tasks. They can be part of the learning curve moving from XP to Vista. This is not a race, you can move forward at your leisure. If you are a nervous type person always remember you can walk away for a few minutes or more at any time. Just be sure to click Cancel rather than OK at those points in the process. Cancel stops things, OK approves the last move. You will not find 'My Documents' as they are now just 'Documents'. Same with My Pictures etc. Other things seem to have been needlessly moved but a few days of playing around will soon acclimatise you to Vista. Decide if you need the installed anti virus, it probably has a free 90 day intro. Vista firewall is 2 way so you can stay with that. Microsoft also provide an anti malware program on Vista, I think it is called Windows Defender and it seems to do the job. Friends have had it on their new HP since May and have stayed clean so it must be a capable program. Remember at some point sooner than later that you need to burn a set of recovery disks. My friend's HP required 3 DVDs to accomplish the task and you can only do this once. (I wonder why the restriction?) Enjoy your new machine. You will have to work very hard to fill that humongous hard drive.

What is the specific model of your machine? There were three Intuitive Eco models sold on the U.S. market -- IWL12, IWL15, and IWL16. IWL16 uses a different method to detect off-balance spin than IWL12 and IWL15. I have an IWL12. Rarely have off-balance situations. No trouble ever with sheets. Items of hugely-differing fabric weights ideally should not be washed together (large cotton bath towels with lightweight knit casuals, for example). I also don't wash towels with sheets being as sheets are typically lighter-weight fabric. I have on occasion washed a set of sheets with typical casual, oxford-type button-down shirts ... the fabric weight is similar. When loading sheets, do not wrap them around the agitator. Gather up a sheet into a loose bundle and place it in the basket. Gather up the other sheet the same way and place it on the opposite side. Fill the space between with the pillow cases or other similar-weight items (lingerie is fine). If you have two sets of sheets to run, place each one in a quadrant of the basket, with the pillow cases evenly/loosely on top. Note that there is a designated LifeCycle for comforters. It's preset for high water level, a specific agitation profile, and runs two deep rinses, with no spin until after the 2nd rinse (the softener dispenser cannot be used). As a safety factor, the machine pauses before the spin, beeps for attention ... the display advises the user to press the item down below the medium-high water level marking on the agitator, then press Start to continue. Overstuffed/bulky items such as comforters may trap air and float/billow somewhat up out of the wash water. The pause and advisory before spin is to insure the large item is not sticking up out of the tub where it could get damaged/ripped/torn from contact with the machine or tub top. The creasables option reduces the spin speed from 1010 RPM (high) to 300 RPM (slow) ... or 600 RPM (medium) if the option is changed accordingly in the secondary menu. It also increases the auto-sensed water level one "step" higher (but of course not higher then maximum) so the clothes float more loosely in the wash water for less wrinkling, and adds an extra rinse before the first spin. Looking at my User Guide right now, it says A. Add detergent - Add detergent down the center of the agitator stem. There is no mention of mixing detergent with water before adding it to the machine. I've *never* done that, with either liquid or powder detergent. The instructions do say to dilute chlorine bleach with water.

Commenting on the skills and tools to make frameless cabinets: Our local community college has the best furniture making/wood working program in the west, maybe more than that. They actually call it Cabinet and Furniture Technology. One of the things they offer is a certificate program in making cabinets. Framed and frameless cabinetry making are totally different classes with separate and unique building techniques. Each has some specialized tools for that type of cabinetry only. The head of the department has aggressively pursued state of the art for 20 or more years and is a kitchen cabinet maker himself. He got the European makers of the big machinery needed for frameless cabinetry to donate the pieces to the school so that there would be trained frameless cabinet makers out there, a win-win. I never took that class, but I saw the machinery being used - we're talking stuff that takes up a lot of floor space, significantly bigger than large stationary table saws. You know all those holes they put in for adjustable shelves? There's a machine that makes whole sets of those holes so they'll be perfectly spaced. You need to train on the machine to make it come out right. The guy beekeeperswife talked to has never trained in this technology and doesn't own these very expensive tools. I can see that he maybe wouldn't want to be totally up front about that. The rest of the world has gone to frameless because their native wood supplies are not what they once were. By using "furniture board" with the good stuff laminated onto the outside, less premium wood is needed. As consumers, we care more about look and function in our space, but it's good to see the bigger picture sometimes.

And yet there are those who swear that their machine is at fault. Well, sometimes it's pretty clear. I currently have the bottom of the line frigidaire top loader and the agitator comes down to about 3/8 in above the floor of the tub, so anything with strings gets caught and wrapped around and around and around the agitator. Also, soft fabrics get caught in there and pinched and sometimes even get little burn spots from the friction. It was put in by the owner when I was renting and I would have done the same thing in his situation. I endure it for now because I'm debating whether to keep the same laundry setup, which is a small hallway between dining room and powder room with washer on one side and drier on the other, or put a pantry on one side and go to stacked FLs. Hesitating because I prefer a TL to an FL, and the pantry would make working with the laundry tough because of the limited floor space.