Oh boy… I second Autumn on the sore part. We painted this weekend. Master bed, bath & closets. ½ bath, laundry room, 2 Up beds, closets & full bath. Started spraying trim & doors. Got some lights going, more electric finish today. There are 100 plugs. Lol Idk how many switches, a bazillion. 40 some cans, and 40 lights. I swept and as soon as I was done, I’d have to sweep again. Cutting out all the drywall goop left in the boxes pain in the butt… I can’t wait to hear my electrician (who’s a friend of ours) complain about my main light fixtures. Oh boy… lol Hoosier ~ so glad they’re finally out of there! Whoop whoop!  Good deal on the columns! Saftgeek ~ I’m the same way about knowing what we’re using. I know most of it, b/c I’ve picked it out, but I knew it when I picked it out, and now that info is out of my brain… lol I’ve been trying to write things down, but I can’t remember to do that either!! RB ~ so glad you are loving your new home! I can’t wait to be posting that also! Bummer on the propane/weather ;( it stinks here too! Hilltop ~ I’m an internet shopper for sure too!! I bought tons of stuff off build.com. Loved it.  Maggie ~ sorry about the crazy glossy paint. I can’t stand anything glossy. Went flat with everything. I’ve got tons of people telling me I should have went semi gloss, but I just can’t stand shine…. Good luck :/ the hinges being painted seems crazy. I would definitely make them put new ones on!! I am with y’all on the anxiety thing. I just ate a whole roll of Thin Mints and yesterday just started crying for no reason. I am NOT a crier….Luckily I was already outside, so I just jumped in my truck and left for a bit. Just said I had to go get something. I just don’t usually lose it like that! Thank goodness we have each other to keep it together!! 

Oh good Lord! As if I wasn't already torn between the Tuftex and the Mohawk SmartStrand carpet. After reading these earlier comments I am really baffled! Originally I started my search for carpet by looking at nylon only since I heard that it is much better than polyester for wear and tear. But I happened into another carpet store today that carries both Karastan (Mohawk) and Shaw and the sales person seemed to push me towards the SmartStrand carpet. She wanted to show me the Karastan carpet that has been underfoot in their store for the last 10 years. She proceeded to push a heavy display fixture out of the way so that I could see how the carpet sprung back. It was amazing! Plus she pointed out that the SmartStrand's stain protection never washes out, while the Shaw Stainmaster protection washes out after 3 professional carpet cleanings. I am so confused on which way to go. And I need to make a decision quickly since I will be moving into my new home soon. The former owner left me with a surprising welcome gift---183 square yards of dog-urine stained carpeting. It was so filthy that I gagged several times while pulling it up and dragging it out to the garage. So I will be replacing all of that filthy floor covering with new carpet and my head is spinning as to which choice to make. Although my head could still be spinning from inhaling the very strong shellac that I had to use to "seal" any dog urine odors from making their way up from the sub floor. UGH!

I've been skimming quickly, and have a few comments based on my quick read. First, everyone's work on their ranches - fabulous! However, and apologies if I've misread or misinterpreted, but cathleen has or will have a relatively limited budget and is not a DIYer. pirula's gorgeous reno looks like one that had a nice-sized budget, and joanneemb, you've said you and your DH did all the work yourselves. mtnr is 100% correct IMO that if cathleen has the budget to do all that kind of thing herself, she also the budget to get a nicer house from the start. "Built ins, higher baseboards, solid wood doors, new windows, custom moulding, new kitchen and bathrooms...... All of that is very expensive, especially if you are not DIY, and if you were you probably wouldn't be asking us. It kind of begs the question, if you can afford to do all of the above, you can afford a nicer house to begin with (especially since, often, all of the above are cash expenses and a nicer house you pay for over 30 years)." That list above - baseboards, wood doors, and so on - those are just the things you can see. Sometimes (not always, of course, but it could happen), there is basic work you have to do first, or you may have to do it in order to make the changes you envision. We had to have lots of electrical work done before we even got to the good stuff. Our electrician is great, a true artist if you will, and reasonable, compulsively careful and concientious. He told us that for what he had to charge to do the work on our house, he could have rewired an entire new house. We did everything we had to for safety plus some things we wanted to do - and there is still work we decided not to do because of the cost. We were so lucky to have found an excellent, very reasonable contractor. By our calculations, had we gone with anyone else, our total reno costs would easily be two-thirds higher than they've been. We would not have been able to do this work; it simply would have broken the budget, so badly damaged as it is anyway. That leads to: if you are not a DIYer but will want to make many changes to a house to transform its look and style, you will need to be confident of your ability to hire the right people. Our contractor has great taste and an aesthetic sense, as well as technical skills, and he has worked on many old houses. The guy before him, let's just say the work was perfectly competent, but he would have done only and exactly what we told him to do. That means we would have had to have been thoroughly informed and completely educated before starting anything. Through word of mouth, including our contractor's own recommendations, we now have competent, trustworthy people to work on every conceivable part of our house if necessary. The last find - finally - a great plumber. We just paid him ~$400 to fix a kludged-together mess with the kitchen plumbing.... That leads to another thing: cathleen, even after you've bought what you hope will be your perfect house and have budgeted for molding, wood doors and all the rest, you will still need to have plenty of funds available for fixes and problems that could pop up over time, things you might have failed to account for in the beginning. "If anyone knows where to find detailed cost breakdowns, please let me know. I have not been able to find this information." Can anyone steer cathleen to some websites or other places where this info is available?

Stanton, Mashland, Karastan (higher end) are wonderful products, and I would go wool. However, Smart Strand is a good medium priced option. Agree with Elizabeth B…the padding makes a huge difference. I always recommend SmartStep. It has a waterproof barrier which keeps spills (and other liquids…(woof, woof) from seeping into the pad. Ever tried to remove a stain from a rug, think you have accomplished it and two days later it is back? It is because the culprit is in the pad and not the rug. If. the pad needs to be seemed, have the seem duct taped or as I have always called the product DuckTape.