Thanks for your replies! These aren't things "I" have to have... most of these came from a thread from about 3 years ago and I wanted to eliminate things that are unnecessary or overkill which I know is quite a few. Allison, I apologize for the length. I, many times, have opened loooong posts and quickly returned to the main page. Thanks for coming back. ;) David - I should have removed Cat 7 from the list. Electrician already told me he uses Cat 5. You're right they were copied, that's why they don't make sense. As far as expense, if I pre-wire for many of these will that cut down a lot on the price initially? I should have added that in my first post. This is a whole house remodel and addition, and unfortunately we won't have a garage anymore, just a storage area, so the outlet for the extra refrigerator will be in the laundry room. I'm deleting extras now. I thought the 4 light switches were a bit much myself. Thanks for your help.

A month and a half later ... I'm feeling more complacent about the driving situation. And find that I drive less than earlier (apart from the gas-cost issue!). I've been working on my substantial garden, recently ... but have pretty well run out of space, with quite a few seeds let over - but the corn's sort of spotty, so unless some of the laggards come up pretty soon, I'll be putting more corn seeds into those blank spots. And no potatoes planted, either: no room. Planning on some major travelling this summer - to Mom's family's reunion at my retired brother's farm near Regina, capital of Saskatchewan, north of ND-Montana border, with possibly visiting with some KT people en route. Plus travel to a reunion of former Korea missionaries at Methodist Conference centre at Lake Junaluska, NC, at the end of July, with a visit with my niece and family in nw GA ... and possibly a visit with a KT person or two (visited Pooh Bear, near Chattanooga, three years ago). Plus ... daughter, who recently bought home near Phoenix, tells me that I'm to visit her for 80th birthday, next Jan. Who knows ... maybe I'll stay on till spring?? I've been looking for someone who'd share two houses with me - here in Ontario in winter ... and in FL or AZ in summer ... but it seems that folks willing to agree to such an arrangement are about as scarce as ... hen's teeth (as Dad used to say). Just some more musings as I make my way through the interesting experience called "retirement" (or something). ple joyful

Well, I used the U.S. Consumer Price Index calculator (available from several Web sites), so, for better or for worse, that's the number I came up with. I'm not even sure if $100 was a reasonable price for a washer back then; I couldn't find any vintage ads with prices on them. It is mildly amusing (to me, anyway) to hear people in the U.S. and Canada whine about (US)$3/gallon gasoline when it is $6.00-7.00 throughout much of Europe. The problem is that gasoline (and diesel) have been so cheap for so long here that our society didn't bother to think about not having petroleum available at low prices. This has had its pluses, as North Americans enjoy detached-single-family homes at a rate that people in many cities across the world can only envy. But it also causes some hardship when someone who bought a "me-too" SUV or pickup finds out that they're filling it up twice a week at US$60-70 a pop. Pays yer money, takes yer choice. On this morning's news they mentioned that U.S. Senate Republicans are talking about a US$100 rebate to (U.S.) motorists to help alleviate the high price of fuel (funny considering how much of that increase was brought about by their Supreme Leader, but I digress). Only hitch is that the rebate will be tied to drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. Now at least we know the actual wage of sin. :-(

Looking forward to your starting to build and us seeing it come together PI. I don't want to carry a phone with me all over my house, and before I had my whole-house generator, having just a cell phone would have meant it spent much of the time in the car charging. Carrying a phone around with you in the house can be the smartest thing you can do as you age in place. Why? If you fall for example, your phone will be right there to call. DH and I never even answer our home phone anymore because we know the only calls we get on the home phone are spam calls.