If you have ever been to Kansas, you know it is very rural and the only retirement village is in the Kansas City area...and that is just too expensive for us to live there. I asked DH if he thought we should "look ahead" 10 years and what we might need....his reply was "you and I both know that no one is guaranteed of a tomorrow, let alone 10 years....we will take each day as it comes." And he is right...my first husband was killed in an auto accident when I was only 33 years old...he was 37....left me with three small children to raise. I spent the next 25 years of my life making a home for them and making sure they got a good college education. When I was 58, I met my present DH who was widowed for 10 years, so we do know that it makes no difference how old we might be, we might not be here tomorrow, let alone 10-15 years from now. We do want a nice, handicapped accessible home for us to enjoy now and when we are done with it, a house that our kids would have the best chance selling it....and that would be in the larger town. The smaller house is in a "bedroom community" for a somewhat larger town about 18 miles away and the economy of that town is in the toilet...lost most of their industry due to the bad economy...so there are quite a few empty houses there right now. The builder of the new house in the little town, sent me pics of the house and it is certainly not handicapped accessible, so we'd have to do modifications to that also...and believe me, it is very generic...but for $135,000, that is to be expected. His health is so very good and I have arthritis, but thanks for replacement parts, I am managing. DH was "well fixed" when we married, but through some bad "futures" on the SM, and what his son has done to him, those funds are gone....so we must think of how best to handle what assets we do have....namely, our present home. It is on the market for $342,000, which is at the top most price range in this town. It has only been on the market for 3 weeks, but might have to consider lowering the price soon. All of this "planning" has been good for DH...he has been "lost" after the business had to close and this work is all he had known for 60 years, so has spent countless hours drawing plans for the new house and for the remodeling of the little house...as well as figuring the costs of doing both.....so it does give him back a little of "his old life"...and I think that has given him a "boost" to be able to do some work again. Yes, I could personally finance the buying of the $77,000 house, but will not be able to do the remodeling...but we could live in it while remodeling is being done....it might even clean up better than we think. He has drawn plans for a 2,080 SF, 3 car garage, new home and it will be built on a very beautiful lot that we bought for $21,000, 3 years ago on a pretty little lake...oh how peaceful~~~ and he thinks after getting all of the bids back, we should be able to do it for about $180,000...which after selling this house would be very doable and have some left for "playing". Chisue~~As far as the "land under the house"....in the small town, not much, it is only 50'wide x 140'deep.....under the house that we build (about 3/4 acre), it would be worth at least the $21,000 that we gave for it. Both pieces of property are in the same county, so the tax rate would be very similar.

The faucet you linked is made by Elements of Design (signature hardware likes to rename their products so you can't comparison shop...) I believe it's considered good mid range quality solid brass/ceramic disc valves and would be comparable to Chicago Faucets quality. (I'm NOT an expert in these things, just repeating what I learned from the plumber and my guy at the hardware store.) And I agree with dianolo-I wouldn't worry about flow rate/water pressure, and I also agree that this is somewhere it makes sense to spend if you can to make sure you get something that will not need to be replaced in a couple years. I've heard many excellent reports about those Chicago Faucets, but not much about the EoD faucets. I'm linking some EoD faucets below-I have NEVER shopped with this vendor and am not recommending-but I spotted your faucet here and thought you might be interested in seeing the other models and prices. Here is a link that might be useful: Elements of Design Wall mounted faucets

"I regret asking. All I wanted to know was what other people use and is safe and effective." Organic discussions tend to become scorched earth topics over time. Insults and rudeness are a major part of the playbook. My approach is pretty simple, with the exceptions I noted earlier, if I can't grow something without spraying, then it isn't worth growing. Organic produce is affordable and available everywhere in my locale. As more and more people vote with their dollars, non-organic chemical laden foods will eventually be the exception. Check your state or county agriculture dept. website for their suggested integrated pest management (IPM) info. Here in California we have a great IPM resource: http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/crops-agriculture.html 

I removed the wallpaper from an entire house of similar age and style, although on a smaller scale. Other than one small storage space and bedroom closets, every wall in the house was unpainted plaster under the wallpaper. I had one guy who did the quality of work I wanted at a reasonable price and I kept him occupied for many months, now going on 12 years of personal and business projects. When you own a beautiful vintage home, it is important to find someone who will honor the quality and craftsmanship and be happy to have the opportunity to work on your house. Owning a beautiful vintage home is a lifestyle choice and I was willing to spend the money and devote the hours required for many years. It is expensive to do the work right and cheap fixes cause more problems and cost more money in the long run. There are many competent painters out there but many of them are focused on the profit side and historic house projects are more difficult to predict and manage. I would be looking for a small company where the owner runs the jobs himself and stay away from companies with multiple crews doing different projects. Rarely does the attention to detail extend equally to every member of a large crew and I want the boss on site. In my house, only the ceilings were canvassed. We ended up removing the canvas in a couple rooms because once the canvas is torn, it is quite common for the problem to spread. We were able to repair one portion of the living room ceiling but it was not guaranteed to work. That room was about 350 sq ft and I was willing to take the chance rather than pay more to remove to bare plaster and skim coat. I did a good portion of the wallpaper removal myself, working with the painter on a time and materials basis. He was not comfortable giving me a bid for that part of the work because wallpaper removal is just too variable. One benefit of plaster walls is the surface is more forgiving than drywall. If you are relatively handy and healthy enough for the work, it is not difficult, just time consuming and boring. Turn up the music, protect the floors and woodwork and just get busy. I was very fortunate that only the crown molding in the foyer, main floor hallway and back hallway had been painted. We stripped that paint and it was a good decision despite the amount of work involved. It is expensive, but done right, it will never need to be done again.