dreedree, this is the first chance I've had to respond to your thread, but I've read each post and would like to add my perspective, because something not too different happened to us once. By the way, our kids share a common heritage of being half Irish, half Chinese. But mine thankfully never received any comments about fitting into the demographics! Anyway, I think that as our kids are growing up, inevitably, some things will happen occasionally that are unfair. I believe we have to decide which battles to fight, and which to just let go of and chalk up to "lif'e not always fair." I myself made one decision that I regret, because it just seemed at the time like a futile effort. But I believe I should have persisted until I got the matter settled. When my DD was graduating grade 8, all the students who made the Honour Roll were asked to come up to the stage to receive their award when their name was called. My daughter made the Honour Roll, but her name was never called. For a second we thought perhaps they were giving her a special award, since she had earned the highest marks of her graduating class. But that wasn't the case. I obviously didn't want to make a scene right on the spot, so I waited until afterwards and went to the principal to ask why she wasn't called up for her award. He told me I could speak with him the next day at the school. When I went to talk with him, he told me that since my daughter was the Valedictorian, and had received a certificate for that, he hadn't felt it necessary to give her an Honour Roll award as well! My daughter was very happy to receive the certificate for Valedictorian. But it was not reflective at all of her scholastic achievement. She ended up giving the Valedictorian address because when the teachers asked the students who would like to throw their hat into the ring, no one volunteered. But since DD had represented her school in Public speaking for the past 5 years, she was comfortable speaking in front of large crowds, and agreed to do it. The Valedictorian certificate has her name and the date printed on it. But DD had nothing that says she earned a place on the Honour Roll. The Honour Roll award was a gold medal with the date, the student's name and "Honour Roll Recipient" engraved on it. It came in a nice box and had a blue velvet ribbon that it could be hung from. Her Valedictorian certificate was not only in a cheap plastic frame, but more importantly, it is not reflective of her academic achievement at all. When I pointed out to the principal that she should have received something commemorating her hard work to earn such good marks, he acted like I was being trite, because she had received something. It was especially important to her because the school had been giving out Honour Roll medals since grade four, and DD had earned one every year. So now, the other students who had also accomplished this(like her DB) would have 5 medals to put in their collection of school awards, but DD would be missing her medal for grade eight. We almost felt like she shouldn't have agreed to give the Valedictorian address, since that's why she ended up not getting an Honours medal! But when I tried to impress upon the principal that she shouldn't be excluded from the Honour Roll medal just because she happened to get a certificate for Valedictorian, he just said that he wouldn't be able to get a another medal now, it was the 2nd last day of school, etc. etc. I tried to offer to get it myself if he would put in the order, but he insisted the place makes medals and trophies in bulk and wouldn't make up just one medal. That sounds so much like what happened to your daughter! There were only 2 days left of school and the principal was obviously too busy to care. I debated about going over his head to someone higher in the School Board, but ended up deciding they would probably just consider me a whiny mother and not want to bother with something so 'trivial' when they were closing things up for the summer. My DD was upset about not having the medal, but she was also caught up in the excitement of graduation dinner and party, and didn't dwell on it too much, so I kind of let it go. DD is now a happy, well adjusted 20 year old who won a scholarship to university. But even today, whenever anyone is complimenting her on her academic achievement, she mentions that the one thing that disappoints her so much is having that empty space in her grade 8 album where her Honour Roll medal should have been displayed! So even though it wasn't a Pulitzer Prize, that medal meant a lot to her, and I shouldn't have capitulated so easily. Of course we always think of things too late, but I should have informed the principal that I would be calling back the following June when the school was ordering the Honour Roll medals for next year's recipients. Even if he wanted me to pay for it, at least the school could get one made up for her along with the bulk order. Unfortunately that thought didn't pop into my mind until DD was entering university, and it was too far in the past. So I thought I'd just mention that if the company just isn't able to make up a single badge at this point, don't hestitate to let DD's troop leader know that you will be requesting they order one for her in next year's batch, even though it will be a year late in coming. They would have absolutely no reason to not be agreeable to that!

From what I can see in your pictures, I would keep what you currently have as a backsplash and paint the strip over the top of your cabinets to blend in. Your kitchen looks fine if you are going to sell. Just keep it all clean a simple. SAVE YOUR MONEY FOR YOURSELF :-) I had just renovated my kitchen in my previous home...new white glass-front cabinets, beautiful gray tiles on the counter and backsplash, new gray retro vinyl floor tiles. My kitchen was a diner style with a great old Wedgewood stove and new white appliances. I ended up selling which wasn't the plan. I had renovated the bathrooms, new roof, new closet doors...all required to sell and my home sold in one weekend. When I went back to visit my old next door neighbor, he said the first thing the new residents did was rip out the kitchen and they threw those new cabinets in the trash....PEOPLE ARE ODD!!! Moral of the story, don't spend to sell, keep it clean, do just the basics and save your money. Your kitchen is really nice looking and the new appliances are certainly a strong selling point.

These ideas are so great! I was getting a little frustrated trying to figure out the problem with the room, but you guys have made it exciting again! Thank you thank you all again! I think I have the rug for under the sofa nailed down to two options. I added a “customer photo” after each rug to show what it looks like in an actual living room. Any thoughts?

First of all, it looks fine the way it is. Negative space is needed in a room--you don't have to cram stuff into every nook and corner. Secondly, the big question is what do you want to DO in the room? This is the most important question to answer before you start furnishing a room. Does the room fulfill its purpose? If not, what purpose do you need--a place for children playing/game table/reading nook? If it does fulfill its purpose, then you just need to rearrange the furniture that is there. I'd take down the mirror and move the ladder shelf a bit further down. I'd also remove that little triangle table as it doesn't seem to serve any purpose. Finally, as I am not a fan of over-scaled leather recliners, I might get a new upholstered chair and ottoman in place of the recliner.