Musicman: wow...Pacific Northwest, huh? Somewhere up by Rainer? I was living in Seattle before I moved back here. I had to live there for work as I am in the technology field. I was there for about 2 years. I have to say, when it is sunny, it is a visually stunning area. However, those days are few and far between. I thought I was going to have to build an ark. It rained for 95 days straight the first year I was there, then stopped for one entire day before it rained some more. The second year was more of the same. Rain, more rain and then some more rain. Oh, and some snow too. When I had a chance for a job transfer back to Florida, I jumped on it. Puget Sound was not my 'cup o'coffee' (a little Starbucks pun...). But, I do know loads of people who love it there. I assume they hate sunshine and love paying $6 for a half a gallon of milk. From a gardening perspective, I was frustrated there as well. It seemed the only things that did well were azealas, ivy, spruce trees and that ugly colored 'cabbage' plant. The faux cabbage plant was everywhere. But, the azealas were huge and major show stoppers. Nothing like we have here in FLA. As for me, I don't think I'll ever leave Florida again now that I am back. I'm still not tired of one sunny day after another.

I have been very busy and not checking in to this forum. Thanks to all for the comments. The contractor installed the Duravit Vero sink/counter and the FOGO vanity, and I am not happy. Having been very busy with my day job, I was not able to watch closely how thoroughly they installed the blocking between the studs, and came home one day and the wall was closed (tiled) in. So I had no choice but to trust the contractor and wait till he installed the Duravit. Now the vanity seems to be hung solidly, but the countertop/sink (one piece ceramic, which wieghs about 80 lbs) is about 1/8th inch away from the wall at the top, but touches the wall at the bottom of the skirt (5 inch high skirt) I can move the sink up and down that 1/8 inch. When I open the vanity drawer, the top of the drawer bumps against the bottm of the countertop skirt. The contractor says when we put things in the drawer, it will weigh down and this won't happen. I knew at the time this was bull, but was so dumbfounded at his attitude, I was not sure how to respond. I suspect that he is affraid to tighten the two lag bolts the extra 1/8 inch for one reason or another. On possible reason is that he is affraid to crack the ceramic. Another is that (I am just guessing at this) he mounted the bolts too deep into the wall, so that there is not enough of the bolt left to turn (?Guessing) Does anyone have any ideas on (a) what went wrong inside the wall, and (2) how to handle this contractor, who is very moody (some days very accomodating and other times, very stubborn). Note: the instructions call for mounting this entire ceramic one-piece sink/contertop (41 inches wide x 19 inches deep x 5 inches high) with two lag bolts (about 1/2 in) through the back of the ceramic skirt into the wood framing. So I imagine the ceramic is strong enough to handle it.

We listed in May of 2007 with a local realtor with a good reputation who had been in the business for a few years. Our asking price was $10k less than the house two doors away which was a bit smaller than ours and did not have a new kitchen, bath, and other features ours had. We saw three houses that were in our neighborhood, one listed at $5k more than ours and the other two listed even higher sell in the first 3 months we had ours listed. I'm very realistic and just knew that ours wasn't being marketed effectively. Also, I could look at the good and bad in our home and knew ours was in much better condition and in a better location than two of the three that sold. Two of them were on a busy street while ours was on one of the most desired streets in our town. We ended up cancelling our listing after promises similar to yours of people who were "really interested" never materialized. We were going to forget about moving for awhile and relax about the whole selling situation. However, I saw an article in a local paper the week after our listing was cancelled about a real go-getter in the RE business. She didn't promise to sell in any specified amount of time but this woman sold houses that others didn't, even after being listed for months. Two months after listing with her and having had three times as many showings as we had in 7 months with the other realtor, we sold our home. The couple who bought our house wanted to look at it after driving by, they hadn't been looking in our area but our home caught their eye. Their realtor called ours after hours and they saw the house at 9:00 P.M. on a Saturday night because they were scheduled to fly home the next morning. When she asked me if I would leave the dining room drapes, I knew we had sold our home. She said she walked in and knew that was it. We had come down in price about $40k, but it was only 5% of our original asking price so I was happy to sell when we did. We had also cancelled a contract we had on another home that we were going to build when our home didn't sell with our original realtor. In the long run, we ended up getting a bit less for our home, but we also bought our new home for less than we would have and received even more builders' incentives so in the long run, things worked out for the best. I know that is hard to hear but I kept telling myself that everything happens for a reason and it is true. We just need a lot of patience to believe that and keep telling yourself that whatever happens is meant to be. I'm not making light of the situation for those who have to sell and haven't been able to but I really do believe everything happens the way it's supposed to in life. If you're not happy with your realtor, evaluate the situation and think about finding a new one if you don't think they are doing their job. Take a good, hard look at your home with a critical eye and ask your friends to tell you what you can do to improve your home. We had friends offer excellent advice but because we lived with it on a daily basis, we never saw our home the way others did. Most of all, your home has to be priced right. I've noticed in the area we left, homes have come down an average of 5 to 7% since we left and some of them were on the market at the same time ours was. If it's not priced right, it won't sell, no matter how nice it is. Good luck to everyone and may the new year bring you a buyer for your home!

What a different world it was before 9/11. I was at work in downtown Minneapolis getting ready to help out with a United Way fundraiser event in our office. My co-worker in the cubical next to mine just stood up and said the World Trade Center had been hit by an airplane. As the saying goes, the commonest things happen most commonly, and I immediately thought of the World Trade building in St. Paul and the tiny downtown airport there and knew it must have been a terrible accident. Terrorism never even occurred to me. It wasn't until I went to the internet that I understood what was going on. I had a very close friend who was a flight attendant for United at the time and she called to let me know she was alright. She was in absolute shock, watching TV and telling me that a second airplane had hit the towers as we were on the phone. My husband was working in St. Paul at an office that faced southeast. He watched plane after plane head into landing formation towards the airport. The airplanes in the air were simply told to land at whatever airport was nearest and the huge Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport could take a lot of traffic. The rumors began that the Sears Tower was going to be hit next and the IDS Center in downtown Minneapolis, so our company told us all to go home. Out in the suburbs, my brother-in-law and nephew immediately went to donate blood when all of the eastern hospitals were gearing up for the thousands and thousands of wounded patients they were expecting. As we know, that didn't happen. I used to walk to and from work, and when we went back to work the next day, it was incredibly strange to hear the silence. No airplanes were allowed in the sky for several days and it was soooo quiet. The Sunday following the attack, church ended and people began leaving and the choir began singing The Battle Hymn of the Republic ("Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord....") and everyone just stopped in their tracks and began singing. It makes me tear up just to type this. A member of my book club made a strange statement that still haunts me. It was 6-9 months after 9/11 and she said some of her co-workers were STILL wearing small flag pins on their lapels every day. She couldn't understand it and thought that it was appropriate right after 9/11 but that enough time had passed and that people should now put that kind of thing away. Thank God people won't ever forget 9/11.