Hi misssherry - Sounds like you are already very busy with the leps. Good on you. Health issues are fun huh? Not! Looking forward to all the great pictures you post every year. Jmcat - We get three forms of P. coloro here... rudkini, clarki and comstocki. For some reserchers rudkini is a synonym of coloro, but there is three distinct forms here however you choose to lump or separate them. The ones seen so far have been mostly rudkini, with a few clarki. Not as much wild Thamnosma montana right around here as there is further NE and south, but they still wander into the outskirts and edge of town where I live to nectar. Hey susanlynne - As you probably remember I have always "had" to use toxonomic classification because of the crowds I ran with and have never relied on common names. I don't know all the localized common names of either leps or plants, but now days I also don't keep up on all the reclassifications and so changes in taxonomy either. If it's any comfort to you and others here, I am usually as confused with the abbreviations of localized common names used here so much as you may be with taxonomic names. Manage to figure a lot of them out by other facts given in a post, but it's comical sometimes when I don't have a clue. So if I loose/confuse any of you, sorry, but lets just say I am getting even with all of you. LOL And yes, I am starting to learn what these abbreviations are.

What pretty pieces, no matter their true name. I wish I had a closer picture. It's in our lower level den. Pretty carving. It was previously in the MBR (last house). It was the first large piece DH and I purchased together 26 years ago. It used to have TV and sweaters, now it holds games, embroidery and needlepoint things and wrapping paper/ribbon. This armoire was in the LR of our last house, but we use it in our MBR now. We've had it 22 years. Holds extra bedding, flat screen TV, DVD player and my sweaters. This one is new (not vintage/antique) and was purchased for DD1's room when she turned 15yo. so it's been with us 13 years. It's got a great crackle, chippy, glazed finish. This is in the main level guest room, and is holding small TV, baby things to send to DS's baby-to-be and a few things stored in the bottom two doors/shelves. Here is a link that might be useful: house tour

desert, I plan to get out to some showrooms this week to see what's there and I'm really hoping that will help move me forward a lot more. When we built this house, we hooked up a trailer and drove to Dalton GA and came back with all the flooring needed to do the entire house. It was easier to make choices when we were looking at the entire roll and not just small samples. We got terrific deals and then just paid the labor to have everything installed by a friend of DH. For the majority of other items we spent hours at Lowes. lanval, I plan to give the island a new top along with whatever we choose for the countertops and I know that will help spruce it up more. Originally we were told there was no room for an island at all, but our cabinet guy designed the funky shape to fit one in. I wish we had space to redesign it to allow more of a rectangle shape with an overhang to fit a couple of stools, but there is just not enough space around the u-design of my current layout. Anne, DH is assigned the reno to his brother. He doesn't have time to get involved in the work itself. That's probably a good thing since we end up disagreeing on details most of the time. I've learned we just see things from different perspectives because I'm considering details he thinks are not important. And since the kitchen is not really his domain, I don't want to get into a power struggle over the choices I make. I tried to discuss the timing with him yesterday and he sees no problem moving ahead with the April schedule. I pointed out the events coming up that will coincide with the time the kitchen is torn apart, and his basic outlook/comment is "it's no big deal"...he's just a 'get'r done' kinda guy. I tried to remind him this is not one of his empty houses that is unoccupied and the fact there is more involved than just slapping on a countertop and being done. Maybe I'm just thinking too hard, but I can see the entire kitchen torn apart and me being stressed enough over that while trying to juggle our spring busy season and my DD's precious time left living at home knowing the activities associated with that. Plus the responsibilities of finishing up our eoy business details is difficult enough alone, and now I'm sposed to be doing research/legwork to plan a kitchen reno. I'm sorry if I'm rambling, but when I say 'overwhelmed' I'm not exaggerating. If I could just put everything else in my life on hold right now, it might be no problem, but everything else is not going to just stop. I'm glad you see what I'm feeling about the timing of my DD last days at home. Just last year when she wanted to have her after-prom party here, I had some mini meltdowns feeling overwhelmed with my regular daily workload and then adding more to it. This year isn't looking much better... Anyway, to clarify some of the questions you asked: I broke the measurements into 2 sections since the bar seems to separate it into 2 areas. The nook area is 13'x9'8". The kitchen area is 9'5"x13'2" but that is only the actual floor space. The cabinets are 25" deep so you could add that to the width of 9.5 for a size of the actual room. The garage is on the other end of the house. There is door to the backyard patio in the nook area. The original plan called for columns and a more open floorplan. DH chose to change it to large c.o. I posted pics from different angles to try to show this. I measured everything you asked to help clarify; fridge is 35"Dx35"W - cab depth is 25" - MW cab is 29"D - raised bar is 12"D. I checked the face frame of cabs and it appears the only ones sharing is the section to the right of the sink where the raised bar is. The rest are chopped up due to the DW, stove, and corner that leads to the MW cab. I'm trying to visualize the changes you suggested...I guess I need to sketch it out to understand it completely. Since his brother is doing the reno, it actually gives me more comfort b/c I know is fully capable of any little details I bring up. At this point...right now...I'm in panic mode after talking with DH last night and he totally doesn't get my lack of enthusiasm about the schedule. He makes it sound so easy. The ct can be done in one day, the floor can be done in one day... what's the problem??? Arrggh!! happy, Glad to hear of your wp sucess, painted and stripped. I hung every bit of the paper in this house and have 3 baths of wp also facing stripping.

We have now looked at this property several times, and we have decided not to purchase it. We are looking at other options. We just decided that it was not to our liking. It was going to cost too much to update relative to the owner's price demands and there are better options in this range. One of us is currently very taken with a home built in the 50s that was gutted and added onto in the '90s and '00s. The finishes on it are much nicer.