Hi All, Wanted to make sure you saw this in case you haven't seen the any news about this yet. Houzz is currently running a sweepstakes open to US residents to win a $10,000 shopping spree on Houzz! To enter, you just review a designer, builder, plumber, painter, or basically any home pro you have worked with. You can also enter multiple times. :) Didn't want you all to miss out. You can see the full terms and enter here: http://bit.ly/1M64EaV Oh, and please spread the word and share with your friends!

I have quad outlets everywhere. I did them anywhere I d@mn well pleased in the kitchen, too. I can't tell you how many people said I didn't need them. Until I reminded them that electrical needs of the 30s and 40s changed dramatically in the 80s and 90s. Imagine what they'll be in the next 50 years. Just the list that looklakelaborcamp listed isn't even the beginning, if you really think about it. How many chargers? How many battery operated tools and cleaning implements do we have these days? OT: I had my windows and sliders on the front of the house taken out. I think I'm going to brick the front (after much research here on GW/Houzz) but first things first. I'm replacing my horrendous windows and sliders with Anderson casement windows and two sets of beautiful, 2" thick antique doors where the sliders were. Those sliders just plain sucked, as did the windows. Talk about leaky... My house looks like it's foreclosed upon, all boarded up. Doesn't help that my lawn was up to my waist. Who needs to buy grass seed? Just grow your own. I'm sure, though, that the scummy neighbors figure it's now mowed because it's going up for sale. I'm kind of afraid to leave! CL: 7 new windows $500. 4, exterior, antique doors $200. Labor: to take out? Free. To put back in? $100 a day and they will be PERFECT. If it takes longer than a day, given my weird house, it's $100 until that window is done! I can afford this.

Neolith is perfectly fine for a countertop material if all the boxes are checked for the proper fabrication and installation. Alot depends on the thickness of the slab for the installation. Tile countertops were used for decades in homes. Now they just make it in a larger format. Anything less then 2cm need so be supported and bonded 100 percent. Cabinets need to be 100% level and any drop miters need to be fully supported and bonded as well. Just like any tile application it needs to be level and bonded 100%. Have you ever seen the golf ball test on floor. If a tile is not bonded correct it will sound hollow when the golf ball is dropped on it. Eventually it will crack. Most likely a corner or something. We do not install anything less then 2cm for actual countertops. There are to many variables. 2cm in most cases can be installed just like any another stone counter.

Yesterday morning, as I got dressed and was putting on my gold chain necklace that I ALWAYS wear, I heard something "clink" on the floor in front of my dressing table. I looked down and there was a tiny piece of gold there. I realized it had come from my gold chain necklace. I went ahead and put on the necklace. BAD decision as last night, I could not remove it - that tiny piece was part of the clasp. So, I slept in my necklace. Today, I took it to a nearby jewelry store. I knew they had their own henchmen there - none of that "we'll have to send this out and it will take 3 weeks stuff". I had not been in this store in 3-4 years and was shocked at how low the inventory was and how pedestrian it also was. It used to have a lot of really beautiful, often unusual fine jewelry. No more. One of the henchmen is the owners son and I asked him about the small inventory. He said they do mainly repairs and re-settings these days - women are no longer buying fine jewelry. I was stunned until I thought for a bit and realized I should not have been surprised. About 10 years ago, I was asked by a woman I knew who owned a small jewelry store that carried lots of high end fine jewelry, to come help her at a small trunk show at out town's most expensive ladies clothing boutique. We sat there for 4 hours and did not sell one single thing!! I told my friend that this was not their customer. This customer liked "showy" clothes with lots of details - lots going on with these clothes. Jewelry requires simple, plain clothes that allow the jewelry to shine. Well, today, not only do women prefer "showy" clothes if they actually bother to dress up (yes, they still DO dress up for Derby here!), but most often today, women are dressed casually to the point of it being rather "careless". Just what jewelry goes with Lulu Lemon work-out clothes? Work clothes? Pretty casual these days - even lady executives no longer wear beautifully tailored suits and dresses for work. With "casual", a simple necklace, a bracelet (maybe - some people have trouble typing on the computer while wearing one), perhaps a ring (again, some have trouble typing) and perhaps earrings (always having to take on off to talk on the phone). When women go out to dinner at night, it's "dressy casual" with more emphasis on the "casual" than the "dressy" part. Church? If they go, it's either VERY casual or dressy casual. When I went to church Easter Sunday, one woman greeted me and said she was hoping I would be there as she always looked forward to see what lovely brooch I would be wearing. These days, the Queen and I are about the only ones who wear brooches anymore - occasionally the Duchess of Cambridge, but pretty rarely. So yet another "pretty" thing that has gone the way of the Dodo bird. I wonder what my DD will do with my jewelry? Will she actually wear it or sell it? I only have one granddaughter and her mother and maternal grandmother have tons of jewelry, much far nicer than mine. And then there are the three grandsons. It rather breaks my heart to think that probably no one will even want my lovely jewelry, lovingly collected over the past 50+ years - some even earlier gifts from my parents. I hate change...