Gee, thanks everyone for all the kind words. Designing the room and the farmers porch was a lot of fun with the software. My contractor even had me print out copies to use for the permits. cady, you are right; I am sure I will actually save money on heating with the addition, because it is better insulated than the old house (even though there is blown-in insulation in all the old walls) and because those two, drafty plank doors are gone. They looked cool, but they were terribly inefficient and were not even used as entrances. As for a house tour, Id love to host anyone willing to drive all the way up here. With my travel schedule and location Im never able to attend all the great functions everyone coordinates on this forum (sniff). There are five bedrooms (and two barns), so plenty of crash space. August is the best garden show time up here, because all the big players e.g. phlox, rudbeckia, echinacea, heliopsis, etc, are in bloom. Unless everyone likes snowshoeing in the winter. claire, pokeberries I have in abundance. I should take some pics of them before they die back. Now, regarding cadys ideabeing a bachelor, I am intrigued by the idea of having a tarted-up hussy at the house, at least for a while. Is it possible to rent a variegated Artemisia? White wood asters sound nice. I have something that looks kind of like a faerie garden. There is a path off of the lawn through a copse of evergreen trees down to the pond. It is not very large, but it is kind of cool, with almost an enchanted feel. There is not much under the trees except for ferns and a few struggling brambles. Id love to add some woodland plants that could provide some interest and color. Any ideas? diggerdee, we dont have termites up here, but do have carpenter ants. The wood pile is now up on pressure-treated posts, so it is probably safer than it was when it sat right on the ground. But, I do spray around the house perimeter as a precaution. When we tore into the old walls, we found some evidence of carpenter ant activity, but it was not recent and didnt affect the integrity of the walls, fortunately. As for repair of an old house vs. a 1950s cape, Id have to say that they dont make them like this anymore. The house is pretty much built like a tank. Except for the fact that it is irregular in its measurements and has the original horsehair plaster on most walls, it is great to work on it. martinetct, your husband is totally spot on. One of the exterior walls (on the el that houses the kitchen and garage) was/is 2 ½ inches wider at the base than at the top. Try lining up trim against that. And, the floor in the kitchen slopes such that the new room is level through the French doors into the kitchen, but there is a 3 ½ in step up into the dining room (yet you dont notice it in the kitchen). The wall behind the farmers porch weaves like a drunken sailor, which made it fun to line up. And, of course, nothing is level and nothing is square. But, thats part of the fun and certainly part of the charm of an old house. As for the windows, they are Harvey replacements with the grill between the panes. Not practical to try to match the existing windows. When I bought the place all the storm windows were shot and all the main windows needed to be reglazed. I had the option of having the work done or just replacing the windows for the same price. I wanted to keep the look, so opted to have the old windows redone. But, even with the new storms, they are not very efficient. And, they are a royal pain to clean, they stick in the summer, some are missing hardware so dont stay open, and in general they are not fun. Now that weve put in these matching vinyl replacement windows that have a snug seal and that tilt in for cleaning with no grills to get in the way, I see how much easier they are to use and to maintain. Despite the cost, I think that, once I redo the kitchen (this winters project) I will bite the bullet and have all the windows replaced. True, they are real 12 over 12, but they are not original to the house (they are the kind that have the two metal buttons on the sides you push in to open and that lock into slots in the frame at two locations). There is only one place where there is original glass over the front door. The door is original and even has the bar across it to fend off attackers (as in "Katie bar the door") as well as the original skeleton key still in the lock. Over it are six small panes of glass. They are wavy and bubbly, and I believe have been there from the beginning. As for the original family being upstanding, yeah I think they had some money. The rooms are really big for a true colonial with the all the front rooms on both original levels being approx.15.5 x 14 feet and wainscoting pretty much everywhere. There are closets in almost every room, and if you remember that the British taxed houses based on the number of rooms and considered closets to be rooms, the owners either had a lot of money to spend, or, being in northern New England, just thumbed their noses at the British and figured no one would ever collect the tax from them. I prefer to believe the latter. I'll pass on your congrats to my contractor. I may come up with the ideas, but he does all the work. He was my house inspector, a carpenter, and it turned out he liked to work on old houses. We hit it off, and he has done all the improvements (or GC'd them) over the past few years. Another project I did not mention was one we did the first year I bought the place. It is a tradition that my entire family comes up for Thanksgiving two parents, sister, brother-in-law, six kidlings and a dog. It is an invasion on the scale of the Allied landing in Normandy with similar, if not greater, logistical requirements. Anyway, I needed places to put everyone and the house only had three bedrooms on the second floor (one space was converted years ago into a master bathroom, a guest bathroom and a laundry room). So, I talked it over with my contractor and we took that attic and converted it into a finished third floor. There are two bedrooms and a full bath with tub up there. It hardly ever gets used, except when my sister visits and we throw all the kidlings up there. We kept the massive roof beams exposed and used V pine for the ceiling. It looks pretty neat. We did get rid of the trap door to the roof, since it was covered anyway by the metal roof, and we also eliminated the musket holder in one of the windows that was there to steady the gun for plunking Indians or British, I assume. People have asked me if the house is haunted, especially since I live alone (not counting Cord, The Wonder Chow). I figure I am at least the 12th generation to live in it, so there is some history in the place. But, I have never been bothered by anyone or anything. Before I bought the place, it was in a state of semi-disrepair and no one had lived in it for a number of years. I figure that, when my whole family, from three to eighty two, is gathered around the dining room table for Thanksgiving laughing and talking, the house is happy. Anthropomorphic and stupid, I know. But, I feel like a steward and hope to eventually pass on the house in better condition than when I bought it and ready for another 200+ years. Of course, if one day I suddenly stop posting to the forum, youll know that the house got me. narcnh

Shelayne....thanks! Not quite sure how I feel about the LG yet....I think the cycles are too long....DH and I work in offices...do our clothes really need to wash for an hour? I think the shortest cycle is speedw wash and I think its 35 min....which was about how long my 15 year old Maytag did any cycle. And water temperature is pre selected,maybe you can override it buti haven't figured out how yet. Drying seems to take longer than my Maytag as well. But boy, can you fit a lot without an agitator! I've only had it a month and I probably need to read the manual some more, but the jury's still out...

Pricklypearcactus - that is a pretty sofa. Were you thinking that I'd put the long part of the sofa down the wall opposite my currnet sofa and have the chaise stick out along the kneewall? dd50 (and everyone else) -- I'm glad you all agree that this is a tough room - I was afraid I was just missing something obvious. I think maybe (maybe this weekend, if I can sweet talk the hubby into helping, LOL!) the best thing for me to do is drag the chair and ottoman out of the room (not so easy, as the chair folds out into a bed and is very heavy!) and try putting other stuff into the room -- I can borrow the sofa and chairs from the formal living room and play around to see what looks best. I wish I had the ability to picture stuff in my head without actually having to see it in front of me, but I just don't -- I have no spatial visualization skills whatsoever. (Anyone else have this problem?) I've tried and tried with floor planning software and photoshop and cardboard boxes and painters tape and still, it always looks different (and usually worse!) than I expected in real life. So my only choice is playing dollhouse with real furniture, which my dh hates. But I just remind him that it's cheaper/easier than having me buy the wrong size furniture over and over. If I do get the chance to rearrange, I'll take pics of the different versions and you all can vote! Oh, about the TV. It's relatively new and not a flat screen (the built in area for the TV is taller than it is wide and most flat screens are wider than they are tall, so in order to get the most screen size, we went with a regular TV -- we're possibly the last people on earth to buy a new non-flat-screen! I've considered putting a flat screen TV above the fireplace but a) the fireplace is very much a 1700s colonial farmhouse style mantel and a big flat screen would ruin the look and b) the woodstove that's tucked into the fireplace pretty much heats our entire house all winter, so that mantel and everything on it is boiling HOT for half the year -- I have heard that so much heat is not good for electronics although some sites I've seen say TV's are ok above working fireplaces, so who knows?? I assume though, that our woodstove probably cranks out a lot more heat than a regular fireplace for a lot longer period of time (we'll burn it for a couple months straight without letting it go out), and that just seems like asking for a fried TV set. I did think about getting one of those slide-out swivel mounts so we could pull the TV out a bit and swivel it for better viewing on the other side of the room -- that would solve the TV viewing issue, but I know that the TV would always stay pulled out -- we'd never slide it back in cause we're lazy like that -- and I think that might look bad. Also, I was worried that with the TV slid-out on a mount, it might be dangerous for my kids (they could pull it down on themselves) but now that they're older, I guess that's not a concern anymore. So maybe I will also look into one of those -- anybody have one or know of good place to find TV mount type stuff?

marti - no, the woman I talked to immediately said they'd ship a new one and that she was noting on it to put it IN a packing box this time. I told her I didn't know if the globes were broke, that I hadn't even opened them yet. She said, don't worry about it - they probably are. She did express wonderment that anyone would ship something w/o putting it in a packing box. I know I was shocked to see it on my steps like that. She said they'd put a claim in w/ UPS and they'd deny it (as they should) and then they'd move the claim on to the mfgr. Whoever shipped it out is the responsible party. thx shades. It's real similar to the one I'd posted about some time back. I was about ready to order one only to find it no longer available - it had 2 lights on it and was about 30.00. The only one I could find like it was 82.00 - a lot more than I wanted to spend. But I would have done it if I hadn't rechecked what was available online before actually ordering. I found the one I posted above - it has 3 lights instead of 2, is 10" longer and pewterish rather than nickel. but I think I can live with those differences for less than half the price. It was only 32.00 or 34.00 I forget which. I did need each light part to swivel - and this one does also. And use regular bulbs - I'll have to buy up a good supply of them! I don't think the color will even matter in my bathroom w/other nickel/silverish metals used. It'll be up on the ceiling and I seldom look up there. previous fixture I was going to order -