I had no idea there were so many types of scraper! The one I have said "paint scraper", has a handle and a removable metal square with a blade on each side. 2 of the sides say 'rough' and 2 say 'fine'. I may be dead before this labor of love is finished. Or the house might just fall down around me, judging by the way the "roof project" has expanded in the last 24 hours (other post). Our chandelier is matte black spray paint over the standard brass!! Thank gods something was done easily! Pink foil wallpaper huh? Nice! LOL My parents bathroom when I was growing up (inherited from the PO) was black tile floor tub and toilet (which I learned just never looks clean), white counters, red sinks, and the wallpaper ... oh the wallpaper! Silver foil, black and red! And I think it was some exotic bird print. It may have been flocked as well hehehe I often wonder what people will think of our choices 50 years from now!

I am hopeless when it comes to doing anything with yarn and needles or hooks, I have tried and I just cannot get past the awkwardness of it all, I become fumblefingers. So I gave up trying, I knew if I needed something knitted or crocheted, I could get Mum to do it for me, or find someone other sucker, er, friend to help me out! lol And I think tiny stockings might be harder than full-sized ones. I could sew some, but I think the knitted ones are just so precious. Thanks, Janie, for the offer. Send it to the Buzzard, though, because she's going to need it! Buzzy, watch yer mail, yarn is heading your way. Thanks for giving it a good home.

Aliris19, I'm so with you on the counter edging! I like to hold the trash can right up to the lip of the sink and sweep the crumbs or whatever into the can. Edging would really work against this! I'm currently leaning towards the walnut butcher block counters from IKEA. I wouldn't put edging on it, although I might paint it black. Desertsteph, it doesn't seem that your junk drawer is truly a junk drawer. If you get a drawer organizer or some cute little boxes, you could very easily organize your batteries, flashlight, scissors, rubber bands, etc. I'm not against a drawer that contains miscellaneous items, I'm just against junk drawers where stuff is kept for years that no one ever uses, and where it is crammed full of stuff so you can't see what's in there, and where no one in the household knows exactly what's in there, haha! If you PM your address to me, I'll send you all the twist ties your heart desires. I can get them free. :-) I have learned two things about this forum lately. One, you gw people have turned me TKO! Haha! Not really! I've been decorating obsessed for years, and right now I'm just focusing on kitchens, because it's the first time in my life I've gotten to design my very own kitchen! Two, the folks here on gw come from many different backgrounds, income levels, and opinions--and that's what makes them (us) so fascinating! I've also discovered, as scone911 so eloquently put it, that if you do a bunch of stuff that you hate just for the resale value, you will not be happy with it. Unfortunately, sometimes we have to do things we don't like, but it's hard when that thing is your environment. I'm lucky with this reno in that I will live in this house for the rest of my life, and then it will go to my daughter. So resale is not an important factor in any of my decisions. Nor is equity. When I'm done refurbishing this old manufactured home, it will be worth more than it is now, but less than what I'm going to put into it. I don't need to worry that if I do such and such I won't get back my money on it. I agree that the fanciness of a kitchen doesn't add to one's quality of life--to a point. First, it depends on one's definition of "fancy," and two, it depends on the kinds of things one enjoys. For example, my range. While I do cook, and enjoy cooking, especially with my daughter, I'm not a gourmet chef. I'm going to purchase an electric range that can switch from regular to convection and has a radiant glass cook top, in black. Is that fancy? To my mind, no. I don't need a Subzero double wall oven and an induction cook top. I wouldn't mind a range with an induction cook top, but I can't afford it. But to some people, my range would be fancy. It's not the cheapest one Sears sells, and I'm not getting it used off Craigslist. I could get it cheaper in white. But that comes to my second point. What do you love? I'm a homebody by nature. There are times I can go two weeks without leaving my house. (I'm also a big international traveler too, which might seem weird.) I can do most of my work from home. And I enjoy being in my kitchen. In my new house, I will have a living room/ eat-in kitchen great room. And I'll be in there a lot. As a researcher, I spend several hours a day reading. And I won't do that in my little guest room/office. I'll do it in the living room. I decided a few years ago that since I'm in my home so much, I'm going to surround myself with beautiful things and create an atmosphere of peace and harmony. But beautiful does not have to mean expensive! I'm a great shopper and bargain hunter. I live within my means (no debt), and my means are not substantial. Yet I have managed to create beautiful living spaces that make me happy! For some, the whole remodel process is a chore, and thinking about design is a waste of time. That's a perfectly reasonable thing to think and feel. But for me, poring over design magazines or surfing the web for home makeovers and obsessing over cabinet hardware is a joy, something that takes me out of what I do for a living and relaxes me. Mrs. Pete, I had wanted to mention to you that my mom was a fifth grade teacher for many years. When my SIL and I cleaned out her home office, we discovered she had kept every single gift, card, and note her students had ever given her! It was a hoarding nightmare, lol! One of the funniest things we found was a letter from a little boy who is now a very famous professional football player. It was an apology for stuffing paper towels down a toilet and flooding the boys' bathroom! We couldn't stop laughing, picturing this hulk of an NFL player being a little boy getting busted by mom, who was a tiny little woman! Cherish your apple mugs because they will always remind you that you were an important influence in someone's life. :-) Oh, by the way, I'm a Siamese cat. ;-)

I second what mizscarlett said. PTSD or even TSD is a very real thing that happens to many people, not just soldiers. Arcy- I understand why you wrote what you did, it is the common stance of the general public to abused and battered persons; I used to feel much the same. BUT....unless you have lived through it yourself and had the same crushing emotions, guilt, worthlessness and self loathing that these people have experienced from years of emotional abuse, you really are in no place to judge. It is easy to view as an outsider and say, "you should have just left", it is FAR more difficult to do when you've been, slowly over time, made to live in fear for your life and the lives of those you love or been made to believe that you are, in fact, worthless. The worst damage people like OPs husband do isn't physical, it's emotional and mental. Her mother was willing to pay for the divorce but she was so worried for her mother's safety from this lunatic that she was willing to endure additional abuse to keep her mother safe. You berating her for something she already regrets is simply blaming the victim and encourages other people to NOT come forward. Many people who are abused (not saying this is necessarily the OPs stance) state that their abuser is quite charming at first, a "catch". Slowly, over time the verbal and emotional abuse escalates but they still say, "s/he's so great, and they've never hurt me!". Then the first time comes and they are physically abused. They are so shocked that it happened and "it's never happened before" that they write it off. It happens again, a few months go by and it happens again...and again....and again. At this point it is happening at an alarming frequency but by this point, the battered person is so broken, so ashamed at not recognizing what was initially happening, that they stay silent. The victim blames themself. THEN, in worst case scenarios, they begin to actually believe what the abuser says. They believe they deserve this. They believe they messed up, believe they are worthless, believe they are at fault. Frankly, as much as I want to judge and blame someone for their past mistakes, I can NOT sit by and blame a battered person for their poor decisions regarding their abuser. It's not right and it's not fair. msgenie- you've been given some great advice already. The only thing I can add to it is that you've already given him power and control over 50 years of your life. He is gone now and you can finally live. Try to NOT let his ghost take any more of your life from you. You only get one life, one chance at this big game; make it count. Regret nothing, learn from it.