I replied to you yesterday, but somehow my post ended up in the wrong thread! Here it is: ------------------------------------- I recently bought a Maytag HE toploader (no agitator; made by Whirlpool), and I absolutely love it. It is ULTRA QUIET; I can hardly tell it's running. If I were going to have one in my closet, that's definitely what I'd get. There is a handwashing cycle (among other choices) and the washer uses far less water and energy than traditional TL's. It has a HUGE capacity; I wash king-size comforters with no problem.

You can test for latex by putting some rubbing or denatured alcohol on a rag and trying to rub some paint off. The alcohol will not affect oil based paint so if some paint comes off, then it is latex. Really, it does not matter much if it is latex or oil though because the prep is the same. It is highly unlikely that it is oil based paint anyway. Dirtex is a good cleaning alternative to TSP. I would also sand lightly before painting. Metal will not repel spackle....just push it below the surface of the wall and patch over it. Are you sure that the shelves are nailed down anywhere? Usually, they are just placed up there, which is why you will always see a gap. I suppose they are not nailed down so that you can remove them easily for cleaning or painting, but you certainly can nail them down and then caulk the gap underneath if you wish. It will definately look cleaner that way.

Poster said they never have to water anything across that area- why? Sounds like neighbor is using huge amounts of water. We haven't had rain for months in most areas of So. Ca., Might have a casual discussion with neighbor about his water bill. A 120x55 lot is allowed 24 units of water for 2 months with rationing in effect in our area. If his bill for water alone is $200-300 he is using way too much unless he has 10 kids or 6 babies!! I have to water beside my garage every 3-4 days to keep my roses going in the narrow bed about a ft wide. It drys out fast & I will be mulching it soon. This sounds like water is sitting below the 1st few inches. take a shovel & dig down between plants & see if it is saturated before tearing up your house! Has he a hose running from his washing machine to his side yard, that is gray water which you can use but it can get too wet & soggy. So see if you can spot a hose laying in same spot pretty much in back yard or see it with water running out, if gray water it will have a dull slightly soapy look. Another thing might be worth going in under the crawl space & digging down a few places if it looks wet, & maybe you have a leaking pipe & don't know it. If your hearing is good you should be able to hear running water. if it isn't go check that every thing is closed as far as faucets go- so no water on & see if meter is still going around. If so you have a leak! If it is soaked only all along your side of house where neighbor lives & you don't have a leak then it's coming from his place.

Thank you very much for thinking of us and posting pictures of your mom's beautiful dining room, mojomom. I certainly hope that the choices we make for our home will age as gracefully as your mom's. : ) Thanks for the pictures mdln. Those are very nice. Awww, no worries sheesh. This technological stuff is so hard to keep up with, isn't it. Our video screen for watching movies is hooked up to a speaker cabinet from 1978 (the record player is even still in it) because neither dh nor I are up to figuring out the new sound systems right now, LOL. We'll leave out the electric fireplace, jlc712. In fact, we've had an about face with the whole project...Now why I didn't do this earlier, I don't know. I drew everything out on graph paper (always better than doing math in your head-oy!), and with the other furniture in the dining room, I was stunned (smacking forehead, here) that there really is only room for an 8' table. Ummmm...we're outgrowing our 8' table already, and 1/2 of our kids are under 10. That lead to a whole house evaluation, and a complete rearrangement of furniture and room functions. As a result, we flip-flopped our living room and dining room today. (Fortunately, the kitchen is smack dab in the middle of the house with the other rooms on either side of it.) The living room (I mean...new dining room) is 15.5' x 25'. It can handle a dining room table, a big dining room table. Like 16' long big. And that's with putting a closet at one end of the room (so all these closet ideas? They won't be wasted!) For DH, this means doing the longer, more extensive project of supporting the ceiling with beams rather than a closet, but it will make for a wide open and airy living room(yay, I love airy!), and a long dining room with plenty of room for a larger table. Phew. Since we often have large groups of people over, this should work very well for us. We were even able to work it so that we got more couch and chair seating in the 14'7" x 17' room than we could logistically work in the 15.5' x 25' room. It all seems good. It is so true that it pays to live in a house for awhile to see how the space functions before making major changes. Thank you one and all for helping us think this project through. You have been incredibly kind and helpful and I love the creative insights and ideas that you brought forth.