Why can't your husband watch the kids? Arrange your party to be on a day (or weekend) he has off. I would suggest you have some drinks which contrast with the sweets. I especially like a somewhat sour lemonaid or strong black coffee with chocolate. The contrast in flavors really brings out the best in both. For games you could do Pictionary or Taboo. Or, depending upon the personalities of the party, Blind Date (a silly girls game about BOYS!!!!). I have a book which could be fun as a conversation. IF by Evelyn McFarlane & James Saywell. It has questions like "If you could decide how many times a year you saw your own parents, how often would it be?...If you could be given a personal tour of any Hollywood celebrity's house, whose would you want to see?...If the world were to tun to one single source of energy tomorrow, what would you want it to be?...If you could live in a past era just so you could wear the clothes in fashion at the time, when would it be?" This could be a lot of fun with a bunch of friends.

Since the walls are rocked, it's a little late to address changes in the duct system. Hopefully, manuals J & D were addressed to optimize your system. You should inquire as to the type of furnace (number of stages). Model numbers would be nice. Since you have a large house, how will a single stage unit handle things if only one zone is calling for heat. Is there a dump zone? Would a third zone give you better control? Unfortunately, the best time to address this would have been at or before signing the agreement of sale (after doing a lot of research). Now, you're kind of at his mercy. How about air conditioning? Other home qualities are excellent (insulation, windows, slab heat for basement). If basement is to be air conditioned, will need to have controllable supply and return registers (off in winter). Good luck with your home. V

Whoa, if you get a degree in industrial arts you get to acquire carpentry textbooks along the way?!? Sweet! Kim, I've always enjoyed/appreciated your contributions; given the wisdom of trial and error that was behind them, I see why they stood out. My mom got us a couple of the Reader's Digest fixit books (have to run downstairs, one of them might be the very one you have); I like the way they are encyclopedic and detailed. I know Jane Powell but not the Small Houses books (do you mean The Not So Big stuff by Susanka, or the Small House anthologies from Fine Homebuilding?) Thanks for mentioning books; I think I might start a reference book thread for this forum. Hey Casey, THANKS for taking the bait. And you are NOT a bloody genius, you are an old house DEITY for crying out loud! Would you please start your own show on youtube? Or maybe just a house tour? Even Petch house has youtube videos. Or, do you already have a project blog and everyone knows about it but me? Actually for someone with a degree in historic preservation, I am impressed with how low-key your posts come across; they read more like an old friend who's "been there" and wants to pass along lessons learned along the way, it's really very nice and encouraging. But if you ever want to browbeat me feel free; I would take it as a compliment. To be honest if I post about something I'm thinking of doing to my house, and you don't opine, I figure one of two things is going on: 1) you're not on the forum; or 2) you're politely disapproving. Most of the time I assume it's 2 because you seem to be pretty consistent around here. But I just want to say, and I hope I speak for many, that I love love love your posts, especially when I'm searching on a problem I'm trying to solve and something from you pops up! (PS I finally got around to using that general finishes gel varnish you recommended and it was fantastic, thank you; I will post photos to the woodworking forum sometime before the next census.) Oh, and I love the way you "aged" the color tones in the new pine beadboard in your kitchen; reminds me of the pine in my grandmother's kitchen. When I was really little I used to look at the gleaming pores and think it was the closest wood could get to 24K gold.

A few things about double ovens. They need to go into a cabinet that will inhibit the release of heat. The motherboard that controls electronics is sensitive to heat. This means, never run the self-clean cycle. It's so hot and so much heat will be trapped, you will end up frying the mother board. If you can afford it, get convection for both ovens. This way you can cook six trays of cookies at the same time. For residential use, 30" ovens are superior to the 27". If your motherboard gets fried, there are companies that can rebuild it. This is a good thing to know when the ovens are over 10 years of age. Don't try to stack double ovens in a cabinet with anything else. People try to put microwaves and warming drawers in the same cabinet. Don't do it. If you are short, you will never be able to reach the top oven. I love my double Thermador 30" convection ovens. While they don't heat up in an instant, they get hot quickly enough.