that is so cute..my cats are a little too aloof to play with me outside..but Mitzi has been stalking the fawn..which will stamp his / her feet at Mitzi..and glower. Greystoke is content to stalk anything that moves except me. Joel's kitties, Garfield (who I call Garfinkle..and Patches who I call baby girl) do spend more time wanting loving from me..than my own cats.. while i was raking the last few days, they totally ignored me, probably figured i'd pull out another rake for them

Schoolhouse - lol. Yes, it is a challenge on one's own, and Kathy, I love that remark - I agree!!! And of course the cute younger men are scared of cougars!! Seriously, though - I understand about not wanting to wait for someone to come, take the mower, fix it on their schedule, and then return it on that same schedule. I tried repairing my own gas mower, but wasn't that good at it. ;-)) You could put an old blanket over the access to the trunk, then use the ramps to get it up there and in. That way you don't have to be too careful wedging it in.... With this recession, and people not having jobs, I am waiting for the return of the door-to-door repair guys. Remember the ones who came around ringing a bell, and would sharpen all of your knives and scissors?? In my Aunt and Uncle's snowbird park in Florida, a Cuban man came around in an old pickup with vegetables that he had grown, selling them. It's hard to even get kids today to cut grass or shovel snow for $20!!! That's just crazy. I talk to people every day, and many are unemployed. Some have just been laid off as I call!! I had one woman rip me a new one cause her hubby had been unemployed for 5 years!! I'm sorry, that's just lazy, not unemployed. People need to realize they're not in line for the corner office anymore - time to get out there and make some money. Sorry, what was the topic again?? Nancy.

We GC'd our own kitchen reno and it went beautifully. None of ours was DIY, all subtrades were pros, and we were without a kitchen for less than a month. A lot of excellent advice above. We found the keys to success were: 1) Personal recommendations for all the trades. And by that I mean we'd either had personal prior experience with them, or we knew people who had. I don't mean that we called their supplied references, I mean they were referenced from people *we* already knew. If you can't do that re. being new to an area, or other reasons, I would reconsider being your own GC. 2) A lot of pre-planning. We didn't rush into the reno, we planned it in some detail over the course of 6-8 months. We had all the supplies (tile, lighting, sinks, faucets, etc ordered and delivered in advance, and the appliances ordered and paid for with delivery scheduled in advance). We planned the timeline in detail as well which leads to the next point: 3) Once you've started, stick to your schedule RELIGIOUSLY! When you're dealing with many subtrades (in our case there were the electricians, tiler, cabinet maker, gas fitter, quartz fabricator/installer, disposal bin firm, and then contractors who did cab tear-out, plumbing, ductwork for the range, drywalling, appliance install, painting, and a bunch of other things) you have to manage the timeline very carefully. None of these guys are going to care if your project gets delayed for some unrelated reason and you want them to come a few days later at the last minute ... they have jobs lined up for other customers that they need to honor. So if you do NOTHING else, ensure that you have every single thing planned and ready for each trade when they arrive. Because they need to get in and out of your job on time or your are screwed (and by screwed I mean potentially without a kitchen for months, and you can't know how painful that is until you've been without one for even a week or so, it's horrible). 4) As mentioned above, make sure you can have someone home at all times. There are always little things that come up (do you want the cab handle at the top or the bottom, do you want the faucet this way or that, light here or there a few inches, etc.) We had the flexibility to work from home when needed (main contractors, tiler, and cabinet and counter installers), but other work we had done evenings and weekend (electrician, gas fitter, etc.). 5) Check for any issues regularly, and before you let the trade go for the day. Keep detailed lists of what you want, and check each item at end of each day and before you let the trade go. E.g., if the item is "prep faucet installed", you check that it's installed the way you want it, facing the right way, the spray hose pulls out properly, it doesn't leak, etc., before you cross it off your list ... but if there are any issues you can either get it fixed right away before paying, if it's at the end of a job, or put it on your list for next day to have fixed if that same trade is back). So bottom line, if you can be there during the job and more importantly if you are organized enough to plan, plan, and plan some more, you can get a fabulous job done and save a boatload in the process. Don't be scared of doing it yourself if you have the time to plan and prepare. Good luck to you!

Considering that there was a point when I was about 2-3 years old, out playing on the front grass while my mom worked in the flower beds - and some guy in a van parked across the street but not directly in front of the house...mom heard the phone ring and in the time it took her to go in and tell whoever that she'd call them back, the guy had gotten out of his van and was proceeding towards me like he intended to snatch me up and drive off...before she started yelling at him and he ran back to his vehicle then sped away...I get that parents need to be watchful when it comes to who, what, when and where their children are. It's not like I'm advocating for 6 year old kids to freely roam their street or walk 3 blocks to and from school by themselves (if the bus drops them off at the stop sign on the corner 5 houses down, depending on the neighborhood and the child, it probably isn't a big deal if you wait for them in your front yard instead of insisting on being physically and exactly there at the drop point when they get off the bus or get on the bus until they're starting high school...or maybe not before they're leaving for college - presuming they're going to be allowed to go to college that is far enough away that they will be living in a dorm - if one is a *bit* of a helicopter type.) The problem is, everyone imagines that the worst is only possible if there's a stranger lurking around to cause such things. We don't like to think of the uncomfortable truth that children are most often victimized by someone they know (sometimes it's someone living in the home, sometimes it's a neighbor, a church group leader, people the parents know and believe they can trust, even spouses and their other children...I'm not trying to scare people here, but our society currently struggles to understand that some of the problem is...we teach children to unquestioningly respect adults and do as they're told, we believe that a child molester or a rapist must somehow look the depraved, obviously evil, criminal-minded look in their eyes 'after school special depicted' part while they lurk in darkened alleys or loiter on the edges of the emptying playground as the sun begins to set, lying in wait for the 'ideal victim' - one who acts/dresses/associates with 'good' people only/never goes places where bad things could happen - and we raise girls to keep their voices down, to go along to get along, and let a guy down gently no matter how persistent he might be - but continue to teach boys that they must take charge and aggressively pursue what they want, that they won't succeed as men if they don't swagger in and take what they believe is their due, all of these things set children up for problems with self esteem, difficulty in how to proceed w/regard to their right to their bodily autonomy and the boundaries they set with others about such matters to be respected, self-doubt and issues with how to go about being an independent adult when their entire lives up until they finish college or begin working for more than just some 'pocket money' have been overseen/dictated/helicoptered by their parent(s). Basically, I think that it's not about when they can be left alone for a while, the real need is for parents to teach their kids the things that they absolutely must know for the time when they are no longer children but adults on their own - and this has to gradually happen from the very earliest point in their lives, give them the chance to take risks and potentially fail when the consequences aren't the kind that lands them in prison. If parents must work multiple jobs to keep the lights on and a roof over the family's heads then the community needs to find ways to be empowered - the proverbial village - that can help guide children and provide structure, purpose - rather than simply complain that there are too many who seek a 'family' of the sort that a street gang offers them, or looking at the issue as "not your kids not your problem" kind of thing.