One year I finally said, "To heck with it" and called the electrician to come and put an outlet at the end of the mantle. What little damage he did to the drywall, I patched and painted over. Not an expense one wants to have in the month of December, but since then, every Christmas I smile as I plug things in. Now, more to your question: Sometimes I want tiny lights down the center of my table. I had a new leaf cut out of MDF and had a big hole drilled in the center. I attached a surge protector to the underside. From the surge protector, I run an extension cord under the table and down the table leg. I tried and tried to think of something that could camouflage the extension cord from the bottom of the leg to the wall outlet. I came up with NOTHING. So, instead of trying to hide it, I took the cardboard roll that holds Christmas wrapping paper (sort of a very long toilet paper roll) and threaded the extension cord through. Then I wrapped Christmas paper around the roll and tied off the ends with ribbon, letting the extra paper at each end flair out. Now, instead of trying to hide it, I purposely bring attention to the cord - which I think is a good thing, as I know people won't be tripping on the way to the buffet table. P.S. Of course, I have to put a large button hole in the center of my table cloth, but if I don't use lights, I always have some sort of centerpiece that sits on top of the buttonhole.

We also have much more recycles than trash. So I need a larger bin for recycle, and a small one for trash. I like the idea of keeping the trash smaller because it will get emptied more often too. I want to keep the pull out narrow so not to give up much cabinet space. So the trick is to find 2 trash can that are narrow, and together take up about 24" depth. The double bins I saw on Rev-a-shelf were all at least 12 - 15" wide, and much less than 24" deep. Also they are much shorter than under counter height, so not an efficient use of space. The photo from Judydel looks closest to what I want. What other brands should I look at? We also started composting recently. Right now I just use an old bread bag to collect stuff during the day, and then dump it in the compost bin after dinner clean-up. My BFF was composting years before it was fashionable. She didn't even have a disposal. She keep a small pretty ceramic pot w/lid on her counter next to the sink. She lined it with a bread bag, and collected her veggie scraps there. Every other day she would dump the contents into the compost pile. So I plan on getting a "compost pot" for my counter too.

In a way, yes, in other ways, about the same. Financially, about the same. I have a happy marriage with a great DH and we've had quite a few fun adventures together. My parents had a very happy marriage, albeit with less adventure, just way too short. They never had a mortgage on their home and always bough cars with cash. Dad was what I would call a "gentleman farmer" in the sense that he ran the farm and other ancillary operations from an office and Mom, with a fine college education, was a stay at home Mom until Dad died far too young, at 52, leaving Mom a widow at 44. While Mom would have preferred graduate school, instead she stepped in and ran the farm and excelled. She was the first woman on a number of agriculturally related boards and not just local small time ones either. While she enjoyed the challenge, especially in a male dominated world, and loved our small farming town, I also think she was trapped by the circumstances. Her plan was for my brother to take over the farm completely after 8-10 years at which time she planned on going back to graduate school, but my brother never got around to taking over the operations (I don't know any other way to put it, he's smart and knows the land well and will work hard on something that interests him, but he never developed the stick-to-it day to day work ethic). While this was going on, I went to law school and then got my LLM. Mom ran the farm until her seventies, but by that time we rented out all our land. Unfortunately about 8 years ago the farm started going down hill financially, most income was going to debt service, and at the same time Mom was developing AMD. Our banker and accountant realized that that something needed to be done to save the farm and came to me and suggested that we move to professional management. Mom saw that this was the right move, but my brother was resistant although eventually went along with it without a family fallout. That was a tense time, but he liked the bank management/manager and was not cut out of some control especially with marketing the crops, which is his forte,and now agrees that it was a good decision, actually I think it was a relief. We also sold off about 30% of the land, which was enough to retire all debt and pay the capital gains (basis was from the 1930s, so ridiculously low), with a bit to spare. The farm, though smaller, is doing very well, throwing off nice income to the three of us, while retaining a contingency fund, so all is well, and it's still a nice legacy even after selling a bit of the land, it is now a bit over 5000 acres total, cropland and timber. DH and I are both professionals and have had fairly successful careers. I am a lawyer, a partner in a great law firm, and DH is a dentist, who sold his practice when we recently moved. We are both scaling back. I am staying with my firm, working remotely, with regular trips back to the office for a couple of weeks every few months as the need arises. DH lucked into a two day a week job as an independent contractor with a good dental practice in our new location. We will probably continue to work along these lines for another 2-4 years. We have a wonderful, responsible daughter and son-in-law and a precious grandson. I think we will be better off than Mom in our later years, not so much financially because she is in great shape (she also had some money of her own and was a good investor), but because we planned ahead. She had planned to stay in her large house in the small town for the rest of her life. However that became impossible for her to manage. She moved to independent living in the city where I worked last year and now she moved to Colorado with us, living at a wonderful independent living center less than 5 minutes from us and I can go see her everyday. She seems content and loves having me so nearby, but it is hard to move to a new state and town at 86. We built our retirement house, actually a duplex, at 62 with (for) our DD and SIL, near all essential services and making it easy to maintain. As we age it will be easy for our DD to check on us as necessary, just pop over for five minutes and then go back to her regularly scheduled life. But, for now, DD also has a built in babysitter much of the time. If at anytime as we age we need more help than I am willing to ask from our DD, we can easily hire a caregiver for far less than Mom's place costs on a monthly basis and still stay at home (at least if our health is as good as Mom's is right now).

Really? My light photo isn't showing up! Ok, this is the one from curry and company: Looking for frosted rather than clear or seeded (3 mini pendants over an island 51” D x 96” L). The island is for prep (with sink) and I prefer a lot of light – have cans in, don’t want cans over island or cleanup sink. I’ll be using the sink, Instant Pot pressure cooker, and sous vide on island so steam is an issue with clear glass, and I don’t want glare. Matching or close to matching schoolhouse light for over cleanup sink on perimeter behind the island, centered over the passthrough window. Perhaps another one in front of pocket door (not yet installed). Below is the actual space, without and with flooring (ignore the chair rail please). Below that is a render I did long ago (ignore door style, pull style, all the various ‘feet’ styles please. This is just a front-on render to show that side, with island in front, and fridge side as well. Looking for antique brass, but I can antique polished brass myself if needed. ETA: Adding overhead view as the above is rather confusing: All help appreciated, links or manufacturer names so I can locate any suggestions, thanks!