"Interestingly, it is a disprportionate amount of the sons and daughters of the poor and disenfranchised that bear the burden of military service. " Lakeguy, Not really sure where you're going with that. If you're implying that the US Army is taking advantage of the lower class by enticing inner-city high school dropouts to join their service (no GED required), I'd have to disagree. I don't think that taking a kid off the streets, replacing his .22 pistol and pants around his knees with an M-16A4 and BDUs and paying him $34,000 a year (or over $40k for an E-2 in a combat zone) is a bad thing. Of course when we lower the recruiting standards the end result is a sub-standard armed force, but in the fifth year of the Iraq war, with the US Army running on empty for the past two years, that's what it's come to. Say the kid decides it's not a bad career, and stays in beyond his initial 4-year obligation. At that point he's a sergeant (E-5) making $45k a year (not counting deployment pay/re-enlistment bonuses). While he's on active duty he finishes his GED, and starts taking a few college courses, and maintains a 3.0 average (being reimbursed for 75% of the fees by the government WITHOUT using his GI bill). He applies for a commissioning program, and gets his degree (using the GI bill, while being paid full time as a sergeant during college). Eight to ten years into it he becomes a lieutenant, and continues the promotions through the officer ranks, making a salary his boys back on the block could never dream of. At around 15-18 years the mustang (prior enlisted officer) tops six figures. At 20 years, he retires, pockets the pension, and takes on a secondary career as a civilian government employee for slightly more than his previous salary; he now has medical care and a steady income for life. He buys 30 acres and a few horses in Virginia, puts his kids through Georgetown, and never looks back. Culturally, it's a completely level playing field. Racial or sexual discrimination is absolutely not tolerated (the highly revered CO of the largest Marine Corps Installation on the East Coast is a black female). I can't imagine a better escape from poverty than the US military. All it takes is a strong work ethic, average intelligence, heterosexual orientation, an aversion to narcotics, and an ability to perform while scared out of your mind. Of course, the entire scenario is predicated on the fact he didn't get his legs blown off by an IED in the first year, or shot out of the sky by a shoulder-fired SA-16 in the tenth year. But that's where the love of your country and willingness to sacrifice kicks in--if it's not in you, no amount of money will get you to put yourself in harm's way, especially if you have a family. Here is a link that might be useful: enlisted pay charts

Not sure on what might go on in your bedroom, but are you really concerned about durability of leather on a headboard? Leather gets a patina that is attractive. There is more wear and tear on a sofa than on a headboard. Any leather or fabric headboard can be sprayed with a standard waterproofing you use on shoes and boots, to protect it from any water stains. If you're concerned about hair products staining on leather or fabric, I'd recommend Crypton Fabric Protection being sold by the furniture stores. Success for the room is dependent on where your windows and doors are located & how you lay out the room. I have attached a somewhat standard layout using the Universal bedroom set dimensions you noted with the King Size bed, dresser and 2 nightstands. If you use a King size bed, you'll want the larger sized nightstands so the proportions are appropriate to the bed. I'm not a fan of putting the dresser across from the bed, but I don't know where your windows are located. I don't recommend the use of mirrors over dressers. It's passe', and it's only promoted by the furniture manufacturers. People get made up in their bathrooms and closets. I recommend a full length mirror be installed somewhere for your use in your bed/bath suite. If you want a flatscreen in the bedroom, it could simply be mounted on the wall alone or with a small shelf beneath it. The bedroom pic in my first posting only had the bed, 2 nightstands and a chest for the husbands clothes and that room was pretty close in size to yours, but only 2 windows to deal with.

yes,,,get the audit. a comprehenisve audit will show you air leakage sites and pinpoint any problem areas.it will also provide you with an estimated payback period of each upgrade. from what you have listed as repairs/upgrades it will be a hefty investment. to invest in an energy rating is a small cost compared to the improvement costs audits can be the blueprint to what will improve the home. beware of things like insulated siding, and deals that sound too good to be true. they usually are. look at hvac and ductwork for upgrades and sealing also. always install a good moisture barrier and drainage plane that is well sealed behind siding..windows should be properly flashed so that water drains down the wall and not into walls. metal roofs (light colors) also save energy. windows should be .30 (or less) solar heat gain coefficients and ufactors. check with RESNET for a certified energy rater their website is www.natresnet.org best of luck

We had a pretty good experience at most of the slab yards we visited. There was one in our area that wouldn't tell us prices - said we had to tell our fabricator which stones we were interested in and he could call for a quote. That was one of the smaller slab yards and they didn't have anything we were interested in. Most would ask our fabricator's name and then quote us a price. My impression was that their discounts to fabricators may vary based on the volume that fabricator does with them or something. Most let us browse on our own. When we needed help such as when we wanted slabs moved to choose which ones in the lot we might want, we went on a weekday. They were crowded on the weekend and it is hard to get individual attention then. We found a stone that we really wanted. Only two yards in our area carried it and one had very small slabs and the other had slabs that weren't as long as we would have liked and would have required an extra seam. The latter was a regional chain. They held the slabs which we were willing to buy but also checked their inventory and found large slabs at another of their sites around 100 miles away. They moved the bundle of larger slabs to the local yard so we could decide if we wanted them and select the slabs. I can understand slab yards choosing to not allow minors - especially young children because there not necessarily kid friendly with heavy equipment moving slabs around at times. Possibly it is a requirement of their liability insurance. But they could have handled it more pleasantly and shouldn't object to a 16 year old waiting in their lobby. Our fabricator didn't accompany us - we were to select slabs and they would then visit to vet them to make sure they didn't have any significant defects that we had missed. Our fabricator quoted one fabrication price (not including the material cost of the stone) regardless of which stone we chose. They have been in business a long time - I think they quoted a high enough price to cover their risks and costs over a range of stone. We chose a fairly expensive quartzite and they did comment that they had to be extra careful because they didn't want to have to eat the cost of a replacement slab. Quartzite being hard also takes extra time on the fabrication equipment. Most of the yards are sellers of stone, not geology buffs. Even the pleasant ones are often pretty ignorant about details on the stones like which ones are really quartzite.