Lisa, I think the common name thing is a BIG problem. On second look, the one I bought as "Tropica" does look like the photo that you have of Tropica. But my psitt x spathno "ALan Carle" looks a lot more like "Guyana". I bought a "supposed" H. caribaea "Prince of Darkness" years ago, from what was SUPPOSED to be a reputable nursery... finally got it to bloom size (its 20+ ft tall) and it ends up "probably" being "Criswick" instead.(I already HAD a blooming Criswisk...now I have TWO. I really wouldn't have used additional greenhouse space for the second one, had I known...)ALso, I bought what was labeled as "H. purpurea" several years ago from a very reputable vendor at the Fairchild Gardens...when it bloomed it was the classic caribaea flower, but a weird color like a purplish, not a red...I deduced later that it might be a cultivar called "Burgundy", which, according to Berry and Kress, is another name for "purpurea", however, while it may be another name for the same plant, this isn't exactly the same plant. And it too is very large growing and a real space taker. I may remove it and let the Wagneriana "Rainbow" planted near it have the space. This reminds me of the debate a few years ago over H. schiediana, and whether there were REALLY actually 2 separate cultivars..."plain" H. schiediana, and H. schiediana "Fire and Ice". Many people said that a certain nursery in Louisiana had tacked the name "Fire and Ice" onto regular old schiediana in order to make people think that there was a "new" plant on the market that was actually more cold hardy than the "old" one and therefore sell more. Now, I know that this happens all the time. Take Musella lasioscarpa...when it first came out from tissue culture, it was sold as "Chinese Yellow Banana". Now it has also acquired (here in FL, anyway)the name "Golden Lotus Banana". Who stuck THAT name on it? I think that there are a lot of vendors who perpetuate the name confusion to their benefit. I also think some vendors make up new names for plants to try to sell more. There is a NOTORIOUS aroid seller on eBay who does this. They make up all sorts of named for Colocasias, ALocasias and Xanthosomas to make people think that there is a "new" elephant ear out there to collect. They have even tried to sell regular old Caladiums before as new, rare elephant ears and made up names to go with them. Fortunately, there is a hard core collector on Aroids who stumbled onto this vendor early on, caught on to what they do, and exposed them (at least to the folks on Aroids). But it doesn't stop them. They list and list, and when they get complained about for fraud, their auctions get yanked, but it doesn't phase them. I think that there has ALWAYS been a difference in names between Hawaii and the mainland on heliconias. When I first got Golden Torch in, gee, I guess 1992, I got it from a lady in Hawaii and it was labeled "Parrot". She also sent me Golden Torch Adrian (labeled TORTUGA) and Keanea Red (which a friend of mine grew as St Vincent's Red)

Last week my 18 yo daughter said "oh by the way I think the car needs brakes." She has been using my car to go back and forth to college each day and I hadn't driven it in 2 months or so. Get in the car and it is metal on metal. So off to the mechanics and with all that needed to be done the bill was over $700. The mechanic then informs me that I must get new tires - all four are bald and dangerous to drive. The tires have only 28,000 miles on them. So I went directly to a Goodyear store and they told me that since they were considered to be performance tires they had a zero milage warranty - in other words - lady you're screwed. He did offer to give me a $50 credit on each tire for new zero milage tires and I said "thanks but no thanks". Needless to say, I went to the local Tire place that has the best prices around and $900 later I have new tires. Okay, so the charge bills are coming in January with all the Christmas gifts, plus now I have nearly 2 grand in car repairs and did I mention the 3 grand due on the house taxes??? When it rains, it really friggin' pours sometimes!

Newbieremodeler, This is my opinion but there are few things that are necessary in making a small home function well for a family for a LONG time, not temporarily until you buy a bigger house. But a well functioning home where you can raise a family. I am thinking about this alot lately because we are buying some rental properties and trying to make these homes "livable" for a family so they are easily rentable. These are things I am thinking about.... 1. Eat in kitchen is not necessary but a kitchen that is close and CONNECTED to an eating area is. (there is a difference) You can connect to an eating area with visual and physical connection. 2. Easy access to the nice green space in your backyard/sideyard that allows you to connect to the outdoors. This allows you to enjoy summer BBQs and perhaps entertain easily in the summer. (I would put sliding glass door from your dining room to make it happen easily in your house). You can't afford the linear foot without cabinets in the kitchen. So you have to put the slider in the dining. This is a typical small home solution. An easy way to make your house livable is to put a deck across the east side of the house (kitchen dining side if this give you a nice access to the yard and increasing the entertaining space without adding on to the house.) 2. Dining area that accomodates a larger group of people with rearrangement of furniture to host occasional parties, ie Thanksgiving, birthday parties, having another family over for dinner is ABSOLUTELY necessary for long term staying power of a small home. I think this is a more important criteria than actual eat-in kitchen. When the house cannot accomodate life's meaningful events in your own home, you feel that your house is not "good" or "big" enough. I think older home designs (pre-WWII) understood this well and gave generous spaces to the dining area even though they did not give enough to the kitchen. Imagine feeling that you can never host a Thanksgiving dinner for 10 at your house because there is no way to make it happen even with rearrangement of the furniture.... In your current kitchen, you can probably seat 6 to 8 adults in the dining and a card table with kids in the living room. Set the table close to the dining opening near the fireplace and have a nice Thanksgiving/holiday party at your home for 10 or more people. This allows you to create memories for your kids. In many of your plans, there is no way you can host the holidays at your home: ie the banquet kitchen and the kitchen eat in table.... These are great for larger homes where there are other areas to host a large party but not in a small home, IMHO. Do you forsee yourself hosting family parties? Dining rooms that are somewhat open to living room rearranges furniture easier for parties. There are people who never host sit down dinners (informal for families. I am not even taking FORMAL) at their homes because it is impossible. On the other hand, I have been in homes that are much smaller but the house makes holiday dinners happen. If you think having these life's events in your home is important to you, then you need to design for it. I think many of your designs show 36 inch opening between the dining and LR. I think this is smaller than what you already have. (58 inches, I am reading). I am not sure what the reason is behind this.... I would open up dining area as much you can given the load bearing condition. Figure out the house first then the kitchen. This is really important! This is not easy because you have to optimize everything and look ahead to the kind of family you will have. You need to have a reasonable plan for various phases of your family's life. For example, if you are a family that will watch TV in the basement, then you need to plan for the basement media room. More questions about the house: How will you use your basement as you have kids? Will you be satisfied with 1 bath on the main or wil need/want to add 1/2 or 1 bath on the main? Where is the nice part of the yard? How will you access that? Do you use the garage to park? If so, do you enter the house through the kitchen? Do you just use the garage as a storage and never enter the house that way? You can add storage in the garage easily to put overflow kitchen stuff in there IF you move the kitchen to where the dining is currently. (as is one of your ideas) In a small home, I actually prefer this type of arrangement than making a kitchen that is too big for the house... (there should be a balance of rooms in a given house) Do you have places for young toddlers/school aged kids to go and play on a rainy/cold day? Where will the toddlers eat? (I had a small toddler table next to my kitchen island for couple years until my kids were old enough to climb the stool easily. The booster chair streapped to the stool did not work for us as well.) Do you have places for teenagers to hangout and have some privacy? Do you have a place for adults to have a little quiet and solitute from one another. (Bedroom is fine for this if you design for it) Do you have a place for occasional overnight guests? How do you enter the house? Where to you drop your stuff as you enter? When I look at your LR, it looks underutilized to me. i would close that opening, and put a wall there so you can cluster the seating arrangement next to the FP. Then you move the kitchen where the DR is now. You create some storage in the garage that stores all your large occasional kitchen stuff. The dining room should have a large opening to the LR which makes the rearranging for large parties easy. You can see into the dining and you feel more connected to the family. (if you DH watches TV and he won't budge from that, then you need to be able to see the TV from the kitchen to feel connected to the family) The couch should face the FP and you can have a console behind the couch which will create a space near the front door a sense of entry. These are some ideas to get you started.... Good luck.

It seems I've fixed it! At least, I've completed four loads in a row, so far, without incident...BUT in case the problem reoccurs, for others coming across this post experiencing a similar problem or just because I'd like to understand why, if someone can offer an explanation, I'd appreciate hearing it. All I did was further loosen the three belts. I suspect only one of them would have been causing the problem but I have no idea which. None are so loose they are moving on or slipping off the pulleys or anything but they seem to me to be more slack than I would think is ideal: there is now a deflection of about .5 to .75, perhaps even 1". I've read of some (mostly newer) machines that shut off the motor if it begins to encounter resistance. I believe some washing machine motors incorprate some sort of thermal protection. What in this (40+ year old) machine would cause this behavior? Why would a tight belt (sometimes) prevent a washing machine from initiating the agitate or spin cycle?