lies? truth? this really is driving me insane..I leave to pick up the kids in a couple minutes from school..I'm going to have to ask my son what he thinks, he is so good at riddles. He solved that one from Einstein, that supposedly only 2% of people can solve..he did it in 10 minutes!

Sometimes a new machine needs a couple of rounds of leveling and foot balancing. With due respect for your contractor, he may have just checked it with a level, but not done the extra check to make sure each foot is equally loaded, and the lock nuts are (still) secure on each foot. Also a tile floor offers significant opportunity for slight but vibration-making differences of thickness, particularly at corners and edges, and for many types of tiles, in the field, too. These small hills and valleys on the tile can create a situation where each foot appears evenly balanced but in fact is not, and your are actually only weighted on two or three. It's very important to check each foot individually not just run a level across the top of the machine. Once you have the feet all correct mark the floor with tape so you can get the feet exactly back in place after you clean or move the machine for other purposes. Because feet leveling and balancing is a fidgety job, I like to do the washer installation first so I'm not bumping into the dryer. Lord only knows how people manage this in closet installations or under granite counters. I have enough trouble and my machianes are placed two feet from the nearest wall. Some people have reported here that they have used vibration-dampening mats to quell the worst of it. However I think it's really important to try to get the machine correctly balanced rather than try and correct it externally. I think it will cause excess wear, in the long run, to have the machine out-of-balance but synthetically dampened. I would only use the mats after I was very sure the problem was structural not just incomplete leveling and balancing. Try to separate the sound impression of the full-cry spin from the vibrational quality in your mind. The sound is normal, excess vibration is not. After you have run a few dozen cycles, check the balancing again as I find new foot-nuts tend to loosen up sometimes, Don't know why. Regarding the K/S comforter ... does it actually fit in the machine? If it does you might try a test wash. If it's down-filled it may be a problem, but sometimes other ones do fit. I have the smaller 5K Mieles and I wash heavy q/s down-filled comforters regularly. I have posted special down comforter-washing instructions here, which you can probably fid if you search for them. HTH, Molly

Talia -- I'm so glad you decided against the firm! I didn't want to offer an opinion before as I have no experience with a kitchen reno in your budget. Mine was a relatively modest $20k - no structural work but I replaced every single thing. The one thing we do have in common though is that I didn't have time to manage my project either -- but I didn't have a choice, having a "more than full time" job/career. Yet when I fantasized about having a GC, I realized, "who am I kidding? I'm gonna be all over this no matter who is in charge! It's my home!" I did luck out though, finding the best licensed, insured, experienced carpenter, contractor -- George -- I could have found through asking around a LOT. Amazing, really. As the "GC" I hired the electrician, plumber and floor tile guy, (all referrals) but not without consulting George, my carpenter first who had a ton of experience and knowledge of other trades who checked their costs first for me, helped me tweak and negotiate, etc. George helped me with my lighting plan, a rather extensive one, for me and then he came here with me and "supervised" to make sure it was done right and according to plan. When I couldn't get out of a work meeting and get home for my granite install, George jumped in and then fielded a major problem with the island -- cut wrong size -- fabricator error. He called the fab and quickly resolved the problem and a new island top was put in the following week. And George? He removed and demo'd old cabs, installed the new ones and moldings and trim, cleared all trash and did cleanup, made me a second pantry with new door and shelves, put in new sink and faucet, new range and micro, new dishwasher and fridge, moved a misplaced chandelier (my fault) and patched/painted ceiling hole, kicked out the sloppy painter and found me a new one, patched kitchen floor after I decided to move a radiator a month after floor had been done, added new saddles... and I'm sure I missed a few things... which came to about $2,500. I gave him an additional $500.00 which he finally did take... not just for his extra supervision of others (that he throughly enjoyed doing and did so well with a very gentle touch) and jumping over here when I needed him and answering my 1,000+ questions about everything, but for caring about this job as if it were his own home. (I also gave him a like-new circular saw that I used only once some months ago and have been too scared to use again.) I also gave him 2 referrals that have turned into good jobs for him. Really, I feel like I owe him so much more! I think there are some real GEMS out there at reasonable cost that just need to be found. Of course with your budget and plans, you need more than a lone super-dedicated carpenter, but I'm hoping you'll find a firm or KD or GC or all three that will be your "George!" Note to Lovestocook -- I found 2 great Mauviel pieces at Home Goods! More great gems at...

I've used a lot of the freebies. Softhome was my favorite since I prefer using POP/SMTP over webmail but the ones I use primarily now are all Yahoo. Never liked Hotmail, partly because I'm pretty anti-Microsoft, but there's other reasons. Gmail I find clumsy and it's been problematic with email checkers. The best spam filtering has been with Yahoo. I've had a lot of experience over the years with different accounts. For a while I had to change accounts about annually because some people who wouldn't use bcc but I've been using Yahoo now trouble-free for probably 10 year without having to change accounts. Try different ones and see what you like. I still use email checking programs for some of them so I don't have to use the webmail accounts other than occasionally I check the spam folder for something that went there erroneously.