I want to say thanks to all of you who helped me out on this thread. I have decided to return the mirror, & I am concerned about getting it to the pack & mail store in one piece! I'll probably attempt to do this Friday. After carefully considering all of your comments, & moving mirrors & accessories around all day (oh, my aching back!) I have decided that I really agree w/those of you who see the ornate mirror as too top-heavy for the console. Even the somewhat larger console, I decided, is too delicate & wispy for it. Nothing I own has the needed heft to carry the piece visually, & style-wise, though I still find it quite fetching, it is probably not the best choice for me. Y'all are helping me to learn some valuable lessons! Again, thanks so much!

OJ, glad you were able to rehab the cultivator. We had a free-standing mailbox when we moved in, but it kept getting knocked down when we were negotiating the driveway. So we bought a large black box that mounts on the house. Love it, MIL saw it and liked it , a lot, or so she said. So one year for her Birthday or Mothers Day I bought her one just like ours. She looked at me and said her standard "I can't use it. Can you exchange it?" I took it back, gave her the money and more or less told her I wouldn't be giving her any more gifts, she never liked them anyway. That solved gift buying for her for a few years, then she passed away.

Florantha, your mind was on the bottom line. If you thought it was a good deal that you could not afford to pass up, then you got those sinks for good reason, in my opinion. Besides, what is an extra sink or two? My new sink (old-from the Habitat Re-Store) has been half-blocking the entrance to what would be a living room if we did not live here - along with the faucet and backsplash tiles. (For us, it is a library/music room.) The cabs are in the garage and third bedroom, the light fixtures on the dryer. Tile samples are in the foyer, and our samples for all of our finish surfaces live in DH's car. Co-ordination is the key in a project like this. Sometimes I think that those of you working with multiple professionals have it far worse than I do with my little middle-class kitchens. It is just me - armed with opinions from DH - and my retail purchases and my contractor - one guy with the license to do it all, a GC. He hires help when he needs it. I cannot imagine giving up control of a kitchen remodel by hiring a KD. And subs! Aghaaa! you would have to tie me down the second time one of them slowed down my project with the shenanigans some of them pull on you guys. I am so very grateful that I came upon my builder. If any of you out there are in SE Michigan (or anywhere - he works up north, too) and want to avoid the trouble you hear about on this forum, send me an email. I swear - this guy shows up every day. Your job is the only one he is working on. He tends to run late on starting and finishing, but that is because he does a good job and is committed to you until it is done. If he is late starting (was 3 weeks late starting this kitchen for us) you don't mind because he is giving the previous job the same attention he will be giving you next. We learned in early April that we were doing this remodel. That was when I bought a used kitchen. We had to special order our wall oven and downdraft, but they were "normal" items and not specialty or high end. We shopped Craigslist for items until the week in which we had to order each item from the "real" stores in order to get things on time. So I ended up with a cooktop, faucet, and counter stools at half price new on Craigslist (The stools were a year old, but like new. They had lived at a downstairs bar in a half-furnished McMansion until the owners lost the house.) The oven, downdraft, and garbage disposal were retail. We did get the oven for the same price as we could have gotten at an online store, though. ;-) If you want that Ferrari, though, you have to get the order in early and wait for them to build it for you. That is something to take into consideration.

I struggle with forgiving others and myself all the time. When I used to be a professional hypnotist there was one session that I felt was very helpful. Please bear with me as I try to explain it. This is not meant for severe cases of abuse or mistreatment. You need to let go of bad feelings toward another person. This person has wronged you. To let go it helps for you to understand that what they did was based on several factors. Their education, how they were brought up, their physical health, their personality strengths and weaknesses, their current situation in life etc. Basically except that how they handled the situation was the "best" they knew how. Understand that maybe they don't have the self confidence or the social abilities that you do, etc. EX: Your parent was lacking in parenting skills. Understand that they maybe didn't have good role models, or that they were dealing with stress that you even know didn't know about, etc. So except that they did the best they could and let it go. You don't have to analyze this, just tell yourself, yes they could have done better, and let it go. You are not making excuses for them, just acknowledging yes they screwed up, maybe they never apologized and never will. In your mind forgive them, think good thoughts, and let it go. Imagine letting it all go. Perhaps she feels terrible about it all and doesn't have the abilities to talk to you about it or the ability to apologize. Sometimes a way of apologizing is doing something nice for that person. Except that and move on.