Satine - Thanks so much for your thoughts. I'm happy you had a chance to talk to your friends. That's a great big hug for sure. Just be sure that the male friend won't try to burn the candle at both ends - if you know what I mean. Also, make sure you don't get sucked into that as well. Go ahead and enjoy the new relationships though - sound like loads of fun still to be had. RE my daughter - she was a passenger (in my car!!!!!, believe it or not, but I'm not going there!!!). The idiot driving wasn't familiar with the narrow back roads in D'wood and I think tried to pass someone on a 2-lane road that started winding. When he did that, he probably saw an on-coming car and slammed on the breaks. My car didn't have anti-lock breaks, and of course they locked up, and the car veered right into a HUGE tree, on the edge of the road. That tree no longer stands - they cut it down because there were several accidents there within a few weeks of each other(even 2 days later) and decided to widen the road - DUH! Even though the car veered right, and up an embankment, the wheels were tured as though the car was trying to go straight, on the road. OK, that's the accident part - as most people believe, including me. Witnesses pretty much said the same thing, but it was dark and basically, in the woods, so you never know. They were about a mile from the house. The first responders were about a half-mile away, and a friend who knows the fire station, gave us a copy of the report (which we aren't allowed to have, BTW), so I know they were there pretty quickly. The report says w/i 4 minutes of the call, and the call was right away. They were taken by land to different hospitals because his injury was supposedly worse than Cheryl's. He has a ruptured pelvis; Cheryl, for the moment only had dislocated shoulder and leg fracture. He also was on suicide watch (friend was nurse at "his" hospital). Since Cheryl was 18, they could do stuff w/o my permission (thank goodness because again, I was in MB). She did call my sister, who went to the hospital. They joked about who was going to be the one to tell me about my car (almost paid off) being totaled - actually blown up!! My sister was an almost RN and knew some stuff when they put in a catheter and the fluid was a very slight pink. That's when they realized she had internal injuries - a nicked aorta!! They did an angiogram and then medi-flighted her to a major trauma center in DC. My sister saw the chopper land, but it was about 5-6 hours before she saw them take her into surgery - YIKES! No one said anything to my sister. I happened to call "home" to check on things and a friend told me about the accident. I knew Cheryl was a good driver and wasn't worried. BUT, why was my sister's friend answering her phone - he never does. Also, he told me to catch a flight home. Another friend paid for my plane ticket home and I went directly to the hospital. When I got there, they were wheeling her into an elevator for the 2nd surgery, and the Dr. in charge just looked at me, and shook his head - basically saying there was no hope. Good news after the 2nd surgery - they even set the fracture this time. After about a day, some friends and I were looking at her - still wouldn't wake up, and noticed her face began to change. Basically she went from OK looking except from a scratch over her eye, to a pie-faced look. To me, that meant she probably wouldn't be OK even if she survived. The next day we were called to the hospital early in the AM (DD's guidance counselor's boyfriend was a nurse at the hospital and would tell her all the details they wouldn't / couldn't tell us, which she relayed to us). When we got there they told us that she was brain-dead (sorry, don't mean to be gorry). We had to decide to turn off the machines. We told them to wait until visiting hours were over since a lot of her classmates were on the way. At 8:00 that night they shut everything down and she "went" about 45 min. later. The nurse told me that we would know if we made the right decision if that happened. Still, ya kinda never get over not knowing if you did. But, that's my long story about my DD, the bicentenneial baby - 10 lbs, born on the first holiday of '76, and died on Memorial Day - 18 yrs later. Hopefully everyone understands the detail here. I'm OK with it - believe me. We all just question her care when they transferred her. The Dr. at the 1st hospital was SHOCKED that she didn't pull through. He told me that if he had any idea that things would have ended this way, he would have done the surgery there. He just didn't want anything to happen and they not have the truama experience to handle it. The 2nd hospital handles lots of gunshot traumas and he thougth they would beter equipped if anything went wrong. Ya never know. It was good she lived long enough for us to see her alive. Dr. said only 10% with that injury make it to the hospital; only 1% make it after that. I just believe in Malichi 3:17 - she is now a jewel in God's crown (the gathering of the jewels). The driver - he has a permanent injury/limp. I met someone three years after the accident that knows him well. She said he was still sufering from Cheryl's death. That did give me some closure because we never knew him - won't go into that either! BUT, DD was a good kid, and unfortunately, things happen. He had an alchohol problem but was very different and respectable when he wasn't drinkng. So... One thing - WEAR YOUR SEATBELTS! She wasn't, although we had JUST had that conversation the day before. Dr. said DD's injury was typical in accidens w/o seat belts - blunt force trauma. Enough of me - but there is a message for everyone here. Have faith, and you can get through anything!! I'm not Bible-toting, but know that without that faith, I coulnd't have gotten through it - even now. Thanks for listening! Wishing all of you well - sunny side up :)

this is what we have and we are very satisfied with all: Miele DW, diamante plus, but i think its discontinued, cleans great Miele speed oven: Love this oven. if u get this u don't need a microwave, its does it all!!! Wolf "E" series full size oven. we got a floor model from appliance store so saved $$, no problems with blue flaking although others have a had this problem. cooks beautifully, even/true temps Miele 36" induction cooktop, Love induction, would never go back to any other type. easy to use/clean, just a great appliance. other brands also get pretty high marks on here, i really never read a bad review about any induction tops. i guess u decide on layout, looks and cost. was going to get wolf, but miele was cheaper and i loved the look of it, no SS edges like the bosch, just a real clean, simple design. Liebherr 36" FD frig, love it and no problems. looked a sub-zero, but liebherr was much cheaper. i wanted a paneled frig, so that really narrowed down my choices., not a fan of SS frigs so i knew i was not going that route at all. we are a family of 5 and the frig is more than adequate but we also have a freezer in laundry room. you can also check out ebay and your local craigslist to try and save some $ i know gwers love the thermador frig/freezer columns, so that might be worthwhile to look into. these appliances are around 3 years old.....

Does it matter that it's a European miter seam (?) that joins in a circle shape at the corner? The silver lining for me is that if it's so clear that our out of level is a problem, then there is no question that the counter has to be replaced. A replacement was offered by our contractor due to his workers leaving too big of a space for the dishwasher that took space from what we wanted in our overhang. I really don't want that inch of filler vs. overhang space but I didn't have the heart to make it into a $3,000 mistake for him. I guess they'll be able to figure out what's wrong when fabricator comes out to take a look. Thank you for your guidance. I learn a lot from your comments on different posts.

A couple of follow up points... A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush. A sale today without marketing has real value. You will have access to the equity today and can use that money in the build and you will not have to worry about the difficulty of selling the home. Additionally, a sale without realtor's commission has real value. These two things give you some leeway to make a deal that nets out being better for both parties. You can give a discount because you are getting real value above the traditional sales method and if the buyer is flexible he can also get some real value. However, depending on the financial situation and your local real estate market, it is entirely possible that you will lose money doing this. You note that your house is paid off, but in a rent back situation you are going to have to make rental payments and probably at the market rate. It is entirely possible that given enough time or the right market conditions this will destroy any value you receive. ---- There are other options out there. Residential real estate has relatively few and pretty simple transactions, there are many other sales arrangements out there that are atypical for home sales but fairly standard in commercial real estate. For example, you might do an option contract on the property with a guaranteed sell by date. In that case he would pay you some amount today (usually between 5% and 10%), this secures his right to buy the property at a later date for a set amount. In a residential transaction that payment would probably be a credit toward the purchase if he agrees to complete the sale and would be held in escrow by the attorney. You agree that you will offer the property for sale no later than X date, but may offer the property for sale on any date before that with a 60 day notice (or whatever you are comfortable with). If he passes on purchasing that day he loses the money. Inspections would be done when the option contract is executed and you will have a refund period just like a typical contract but the final home sale wouldn't have an inspection or an appraisal contingency. He can still pull out at any time, he just loses the option payment he made. This protects him from things like a slowdown in the economy or a major loss of value on the home (he only risks the option payment he made), and incentivizes his going through with the sale. It also means you don't have to make rental payments. ----- I used to do options in rental properties quite often. Frankly, I just find the houses that look like they could use some money and offer them a few thousand dollars for the option to match any offers when/if they sell. Nine out of ten times they just call me up and ask for an offer before they even call a realtor and I get multiple properties close together over a period of a few years which really lowers my costs. Note: To relieve my conscience I only make fair offers, I am not trying to take advantage of people and although that certainly costs me money, I do sleep better at night. I despise those people who offer pathetic amounts of money to people in desperate situations.