Happy birthday, Dee Marie! Hope it's a wonderful birthday. It's finally cold here after weeks of being in the 70's and 80's. The temp is actually dropping this morning. It's now 25 degrees and very windy here in north Texas. But, it's also about time. QOD: I've got lots of picking up, then cleaning, to do, and laundry as always. My last day of work is Monday. I have such mixed feelings about things right now. The parents have been so sweet, but the children are being awful which will actually make it a little easier to go. LOL I have a dr.'s appt. on Tuesday for my pre-op workup, dentist appt. Wed., and helping son move into his first home on Thursday. NHSuzanne, I think it's great that your dh is bonding with the new donkey. Raeanne, I hope the PT works out as you hope. Sounds so ambitious to me. Marci, we had our Valentine party on the Friday before the actual day, sugared them up, then sent them home for the weekend. Tuesday, I brought heart cookies and they each had one. It was a very nice day. Donna, we're going to try to see "Last Holiday" this weekend, too. Hope we all like it. Joanne, sending good thought and ((((hugs))) for you and your dear mom. Zig, being without power is the pits, isn't it? Once we were w/o it during a January ice storm, and I had to finally break down and take a shower and shampoo my dirty hair. It was pure misery, but I had to keep a dentist appt. since the ice had melted, so had no choice. Tikanas, how is your knee now? My knee-replacement surgery may be delayed so that they can attempt some in-office procedure on my other knee so that it's in good shape to see me through. Hi, Maddie, BJ, and Happyto! I miss reading y'all's interesting posts. Happyto, please start posting here. It's such good therapy, and you are such a neat person to read. Take care and stay warm, everyone!

We use natural gas for heating. For my new house it is a 5 ton Trane. Natural gas is cheaper than electricity here although last 8 years, the natrual gas price increased a lot compare with electricity. Our electricity is cheap, too due to hydro power clsoe by (the electricity company just ask for a rate increase to 10c/kwh including everything). So if we use 500kwh per month, the cost is about $50. By the way, during summer with AC on, I might hit $60 to $70. Once hydro power settlement is done for NW, the electricity rate would be drop again (15% rebate to private utility customer). But natural gas is still slightly cheaper (about 85% of electricity in same kwh energy, used to be only 50%). During winter, we do need heating on all the time. This could run the gas bill from $50 (summer time) to $170+ peak (winter time) per month. I have to live in the house for more than 10years to consider heat pump or high efficient AC. Thanks for suggestion anyway. So anyone can comment between Ruud AC and Trane XB13?

You should post this question on the Kitchens Forum. Sinks have been discussed endlessly on that forum. You also need to examine your base cabinet (if you've already chosen it) to see if it will pose a limitation on how big overall your sink can be. It sounds like you are still in the design phase of your kitchen. Then you can choose the size sink you want, and make sure you have the right size cabinet to accomodate it. Also, do you want to stick with porcelain surface, or are you OK with stainless steel? Kindred and Blanco are companies that make large double bowl stainless steel sinks (Fqp25, you do NOT need to go commercial to find large double bowl kitchen sinks). You may also want to ask yourself whether you would be OK with a large single-bowl sink. That's what I have, and I would never go back to a double-bowl. The single-bowl sink decision was also recently discussed on the Kitchens Forum, in this thread (with cute pix to boot). In any case, you can also do a search on the Kitchens Forum for "double bowl sinks" and read a whole lot of threads on the subject. Heck, here it is: Search results for "double bowl sink"

Throughout the years as we have worked on the house, we have been very cautious and done everything possible to do sensitive renovations that fit the period of the house. I too hate to see lovely old houses where people have butchered them. In fact, last night as I was once again watching "Flip or Flop" on HGTV I thought to myself how sad that they are coming in and just rearing down all of those great lathe and plaster walls. We have three kids, and our "illegal" bedroom worked as a bedroom for one of them for ten years. We just stuck a wardrobe in one corner, so we know all about using a space that isn't technically a bedroom as a bedroom. Now it makes a great office, something else that I would think might be desirable to a lot of people. We know for certain that in our neighborhood a master bath would be a huge selling point. In fact, about five years ago, a Realtor told us that this is the only thing our house is lacking. I am starting to think that there is just not enough space in the existing footprint to justify doing this. We know that many people do want move-in ready which would make doing this a selling point. However, amazingly enough, in our highly desirable neighborhood many people do buy these expensive houses and then come in and make extensive renovations like additions. We always ask ourselves where in the world do they get the money to make a purchase that expensive and then immediately also sink a ton of money in the house. Thanks for all of the help.