WC8- Thanks for the welcome! Since I was coming in late, i figured I'd try and fit something for each of the thread topics in, to get caught up, and it all started with a phal...I've already gotten some great ideas on how to change my setups (from the on-topic forum), can't wait to try. I love hanging out with the kids at school, it's so interesting to watch the little wheels turning in their heads and see what they'll come up with next. Logic in motion! Computers and I don't really get along, I'm a pharmacist, working in long term care. I make sure everybody's meds are playing well with others and that the Rules (big book o' stuff here) are being followed. My IT Dept probably has me on the list of serial computer abusers, they're always having to bail me out of some electronic disaster while in the field. Ah, the fun of politics. I wind up staring, fascinated, by the talking heads, usually while shaking my own. But, I keep listening, at least with half an ear. We've been listening to Nim's island in the car on the way home, has anybody seen it, would lit be good for a 6 yr old? Speaking of cars, time to spring the kiddo, thanks again for the welcome, looking forward to lots of topics. Liz

Hi Loretta, I thought I remembered you saying that you were reading, just not typing much! It is good to hear your contributions again. I have a half bath that is situated where the halls to the foyer, kitchen and laundry all meet. It is smack in the middle of the house. It is our only extra bath, and I have considered making it a wet room with nothing in it but the toilet, a sink above the toilet tank for washing hands (your wash water becomes the flush water for the next flush), and a shower head in a tiled room. I guess a towel cart would be on wheels and would get wheeled into the hall when a shower was in progress. A shower curtain would have to be drawn over the inside of the door to make sure it did not leak out into the hall. I would move the door to the long wall, giving the option to have it be a wider door, and making a bench space for the wall that is a 90 degree angle from the wet wall. One could sit on the bench and adjust the taps. There would have to be a good heater/vent fan in the ceiling. This would have to be my accessible bathroom. Our big bathroom has a tub in it. It also has two sinks, and the big vanity keeps us from being able to widen the door. I have thought that when we remodel it (the tile is beginning to show its age), I might do a smaller vanity in order to have room near the toilet to transfer from a wheelchair, but that pushes the vanity back by the door again, too. Making the half bath accessible by making it a big wet room might be easier. This house was built in 1978, when multi-levels were popular. We got rid of the level change from foyer to living room and we made a ramp down into the family room from the kitchen when it was remodeled. The only two level changes now are from the foyer to the rest of the house (4 inches) and from the laundry to the rest of the house(also 4 inches). I have ramps made of aircraft aluminum for these two steps. I also have one for 2 inches and two for 6 inches that I no longer need. We have a composite wood ramp coming up to the front door of the house. It is a little steeper than code, but works well for us. Here is a link that might be useful: Ramp from kitchen to family room.

Finally able to post here again. Probs with using upper case letters in my user name. Even so when I tried to log on this morn. first few times I was asked to register as a new user then with exactly the same user name and password i was able to log on??? Don't mind being asked to log on in order to post - it happens in a lot of forums - just so long as the bloody log in system works. Re mummsies security alert when visiting this page. If you keep your eye on the status bar as this site loads you will note that we are served data from DoubleClick.com. This company a well known advertising server on the web. Probabaly giving us a dose of tracking cookies to watch our journeys across the net - all the better to serve us ads based on our net preferences. Reasonably harmless but some anti spyware tools (Pest Patrol especially) identify this as spyware and give you a security alert. Can I just suggest a cooling off period whilst things settle down and shelve all talk of setting up alternative sites. Seen this type of thing happen a few times on forums I've belonged to. All these splinter sites do is dilute the available number of posters, split the communities into less functional, viable and interesting sub groups and then usually collapse through lack of interest. Would prefer things as they were but would hate to see this place denuded of some good posters because of the ham fisted efforts at "improvements" by the curent owners. Maybe they'll learn something from this little debacle - I hope so. Larry

I have enjoyed this thread so much! I love seeing everyone's homes and where they spend there time when not in the garden. I enjoy renovating and decorating almost as much as gardening. We have an old farmhouse (first a strawberry farm, then a Christmas tree farm) we have been renovating over the last 15 or so years. It has been a labor of love! Also, I plan my garden from the windows of the house...house and garden go hand in hand for me. I couldn't have one without the other. During gardening season, my house is usually more cluttery....but my mom came for a visit and I snapped these pics yesterday before she arrived (and I had tidied up!) This is our living room, which we haven't renovated yet. This music room used to be an old porch, which was enclosed by the previous owner. The view from these french doors is of an arch set in the middle of a boxwood hedge...the future home of my Florence Bowers Pink Tea rose! The dining room is one of the rooms that is almost finished. I just had this Laura Ashley wallpaper hung which I love! Here is the little dining nook in our newly renovated kitchen. Those are Pearly Gates roses on the table :) Here is the kitchen, which we renovated in 2013. I love to bake, so I have the marble on the island. I also do a lot of dishes...hence the huge sink! The wood counters on the sink wall were made from old Douglas Fir trees on our property. The french doors look out onto the back garden. There is another set on the other side of the stove. Everyone, and I mean everyone, tried to talk me out of these doors in my kitchen. But I wanted the garden to almost be an extension of the kitchen, and when the doors are open on a summer day it is! I don't miss the cabinet space at all! This kitchen is a Gardenweb kitchen....that's how I discovered this site: during the renovation (or actually, just before). I designed it with the help of all the amazing people on the kitchen forums. Without that forum it never would have turned out so well! I would love to post more pics, but something is wrong with my computer this morning...so I will have to do it later when my husband is home :)