I want to thank you all for replying to my post. It was very generous of you to take the time to help me with this decision. You all made some great points for me to consider. Looks like we'll be putting it on the market but I thought I would address some of the comments in your posts at this point: Play up what 'spoke' to us when we bought it issue: That's gonna be tough. I dare say I do hate EVERYTHING about this place: but I know that can't be entirely true. Mostly is though! I'll give it that it has a pretty good floor plan and a nice neighborhood. Period. Why did we buy it? Well we had a list of things we wanted the new house to have and this one had many of them, when we looked at the list on paper and put checkmarks next to it, it looked ok. i.e. 2 car att garage, 4 bedrooms, office, screen porch, playroom...Plus basically had the square footage we wanted for our family of 5, a nice quiet neighborhood, and was in the school district we were trying to get into, which was our #1 priority and could close in time (#2priority). That's about it. Nothing of the actual house itself spoke to us, other than to say" you'll need to fix this , clean that, update this, repair that"....ad nauseum. It had been neglected by previous owners and showed its wear and tear but we thought it had the bones to work with and once we put "our mark on it, it would be nice" and we'd be in a good school district. I remember saying that. We had left a lovely new house that I had drawn the plans for and needed nothing done but was in a poor school district. After the move I sunk into a very deep depression which I have been able with much effort to scratch and crawl my way out of but as a result I think I'll forever resent this hellhole since it robbed me of a couple years when I was depressed. We have done a lot of improvements and in fact it is considered by most (not me) to be quite nice. It is nice but I am too emotionally tied to hating it to ever see it as really nice. We could stay and continue working on it since there are a few mre things we'd like to do. The only thing is the more we do, though in a way it helps, in another way it just reminds me of what a mistake we made by buying it in the first place. The $30,000 lost issue: I think I was referring to the fact that the market has depreciated by that much here so I was seeing it as a loss IF we move but I agree with the point that it's actually already lost! I had never thought of it that way. Thanks for pointing that out. The can we afford to move question: I'd say that's the million dollar question. And the answer is a definite yes but with some caveats. We'll be paid off here within 9 years. Oldest will be starting college in 6 years. If we move, we'd need to go back up to a 15 year mortgage and payments would be about the same as now. Yikes, I am very frugal and paying a mortgage for an extra 6 years is a tough pill to swallow. Tougher even than the Prozac maybe! We have lots of friends who have lovely houses and 30 yr mortgages but I can't handle that, though we could have one S W E E T !!! house if I could. Not in the cards for me or my DH since I hate debt. a 15 yr mortgage again will be a little tough to take but less so than living here where I'm unhappy. And you know what they say: "If Momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!" Life is short issue: Sure is which is why we are planning on selling. It's a tough market and we're only willing to lower the price such that we can get a nicer place with a 15 yr mortgage. We won't go so low on price here that would necessitate us getting a 30 yr mortgage for any new place. That would definitely make me resent any new place such that I'd be in the same boat as now. Hopefully we'll get lucky and be able to sell with not too big a loss. So, have I mentioned that I have a lovely house to sell????? LOL

starfish, for what it is worth, I would highly recommend having them custom built vs the "cabinet without door" look. If I can find pics of my old mudroom I'll post them and I think you'll see what I mean. My old mudroom had pantry cabinets without doors and I feel like this looks so much better. It also cost less to have the local guy custom make them and match the stain to my kitchen vs having the cabinet company do it. It was a leap of faith that the local cabinet guys could match the stain, and their first attempt was ghastly. Luckily they knew it themselves right away and they fixed it. The guys are adjusting the drawer slides and such right now so measurements will come later today. For right now I grabbed two quick dimensions while they were outside. The total width of the room is 7'6" wall to wall. The walking space between the lockers and my desk is 4'2". When I'm seated at my desk there is still plenty of room to move behind me. I typically stand at my computer so I installed the desk high at about 38", just higher than kitchen counter height. I bought a barstool like those in my kitchen for the mudroom as well for when I do want to sit, or when the kids are using the computer. More later. Thanks for the compliments! I love this space. Anita

Root starters not really fertilizers but are typically plant growth hormone-based and sometimes with additions of various vitamins (like B1). For the most part, they are really quite unnecessary (especially the B1) for already growing plants but can be helpful when taking cuttings and propagating. They tend to be promoted by nursery staff as add-on sales but without any real understanding of what they can and can't do. One of the reasons that fall planting of trees and shrubs is so often recommended is that these plants in fall naturally undergo an extended period of root growth and root extension that will continue until the ground gets too cold. Plant roots are quite capable of growing perfectly well on their own without us messing about :-) In more than 30 years of professional gardening and countless 100's of trees planted, I've never used a root starter or stimulator product and never had a tree not do well from just a proper planting technique and adequate water. Just make sure you rough up the rootball or release any circling roots - that is ALL the stimulation or encouragement they need!! Myth of root stimulators.

We need a floor but IMO to make a kitchen smaller for your clothes would be a bad idea. And yes we need pictures and a floor plan to scale.