Fabulous color. I have two that are similar in my house -- EK Mustard Seed and C2 Radiate. They are happy, happy colors. Just right for that happy, happy baby! And good for you for figuring out that you can't necessarily pick colors by looking at other people's photos. It's a great place to start....but it just isn't that simple, as you well know.

Hi phoggie, I'm in a bit of a fog as to what investment you have. You say that it's an annuity, but in my experience an annuity is a situation where you give an insurance company a pot of money, and they give you a promise that they'll pay you a given amount of money, usually at certain intervals over a period of time. Often made at retirement, and may be made to cover the investor, (usually the one who's retiring), and may be set up to cover a spouse, as well, often at a reduced amount (e.g. 60%), until death of the last of the couple. Sometimes there's a deal where the insurance company promises to pay for 10 years, 15 years, etc., for on occasion both spouses died within a year or so, and in the ordinary course of things, the insurance company would happily keep all of the remaining amount of money that had been paid in: they'd done as they promised. Some people were quite unhappy to hear of such events. When I sold mutual funds, one of our staff had client in another city who considered buying an annuity, at age about 80. He cancelled some appointments on the following day and arranged to meet the lady, her relatives who were interested, and the annuity sales person. When the lady and her relatives asked the annuity sales person what residue would be available to the lady's estate were she to die next year (or next month), the sales person said that there was no such provision: the insurance company would keep the rest of money. The rates of payout that annuity providers are willing to offer usually relate substantially to current interest rates, and are somewhat higher, in that the payment includes some of the principal, as it is gone at the end of the contract. Actually, it was "gone" at the beginning of the contract ... all that the person giving it up had was the insurance companiy's promise to pay the amounts that they'd contracted for. So few people want to agree to an annuity contract when interest rates are low, for once the rate of agreed payout is put into place, it isn't changed. People who made annuity contracts back in 1981 or so, when Canada Savings Bonds paid 19%, were happy campers, but no such rates have been offered in recent years. Then ... you speak of the value of your account shrinking as your regular accounting statements appear. That leads me to feel that you are invested in the stock market, whether through mutual funds or having bought stocks directly. On the other hand, perhaps you have bought bonds, whose current value fluctuates upward when interest rates drop, and vice versa. While one can sell a bond at any time, usually when interest rates rise, the value that someone is willing to offer to buy one's bond reduces. The bond will be redeemed at face value if one holds it to maturity (assuming that the issuer is solvent). So, in my opinion, something doesn't seem to add up, with regard to what you're saying regarding your investment. If I'm in error, no doubt someone will set me straight. ole joyful

I have a Eurodib portable (from Costco) that I used during the renovation before I committed to a Miele cooktop. I was super impressed with the portable and am even more impressed with the cooktop for all the reasons listed above. Everyone talks about how easy the cleanup is and fast it is to boil water, and yes, that is true, but I also love it for its low settings. Hollandaise without a double boiler (and no scrambled eggs!), oatmeal in 20 minutes with no sticking or intervention (thanks sjhockeyfan325!), simmering for hours without burning (couldn't do that on my gas with stirring a lot), My neighbour borrowed my portable during a heat wave to do tomato sauce without heating her entire house (she has a gas stove) and has yet to return it..... I'm not sure if I will have to rip it out of her hands or not. So glad I made the switch. Love the sleek, clean look of the induction flush mounted in my soapstone countertop (and I am so over the look of "pro" gas cooktops!) I'm with all the other converts here. No regrets here either.

You can put solid stain over the paint and never paint again. We have a similar lakehouse and we did ours dark wine color, I love it. You can put any medium to dark color. We first used a red barn color and we loved that for years but then I saw a place done in the darker color and we had to restain after 7 years as we are surrounded on three sides by water and the sun faded the red in some spots. I suppose it will do the same on the new stain but I wanted a change.