sheesharee: Oops! Only one year. I've seen a few of those for sale on CL. I wonder what type of decor they are meant to go with? You know, we really are very discriminating here on the decorating forum. I've had comments too that something I love doesn't go with the rest of my room. Does that mean we automatically need to take it out? The key here is do you love it or does it have sentimental value to you? If it does, then if definitely belongs. On a related thread there was a comment about how every room should have something "whimsical" to it. Perhaps the lamp is it? Ultimately our homes should be a reflection of who we are and what is important to us. The flow of your room is much improved and I think once you put more art on the walls and around the room, the focus won't be so much on the lamp. Right now there is not so much on the walls so naturally the lamp does become a focal point. BTW, have you considered painting the walls?

We have a Thermador FD and I absolutely love it. I love having the freezer on the bottom most of all, so you could have the same thing with a single door on top. I'll never have a top freezer again. I love that I can look down into the freezer and see what is in there, and can easily move things around, to see what is on the bottom without a frozen steak falling out on my foot. The Thermador also has a top drawer in the freezer that that slides out and that is where I keep things I use most frequently. That is also where the ice maker is. I love that also because it is so easly to scoope ice out and my kids can reach it easily and get their own ice. I had a side by side when we moved into this house and I despised it. Never again. As for the french door vs. single door on top -- I like the FD. We would have clearance issues with a big door opening into a fairly narrow aisle so the FD works better. And I have the fridge paneled with cabinetry. I think the FD has more of a furniture look than a single door. The Thermador is also fully integrated. It is totally flush and doesn't stick out at all, and I love that. But the shelves in the fridge are pretty high up, and if you are short, it might be an issue. And my kids can't really reach into the fridge yet, although they will soon. And I do mostly open both doors every time I open the fridge, but it is more a habit than a necessity, and it doesn't bother me in the slightest.

Hi Rob, Not much to add ... and hope that you're back at least part way out of your blue funk. Brother, retired farmer who lives 1600 miles way, has one son, only child, in a city 100 miles from here, a couple of small grand-daughters from son's second marriage, and comes to visit them a couple of times a year. He'd called to say he was to be in the neighbourhood, and we got together on Friday, I called son and he and his partner were there for lunch, as was brother and wife ... and a couple of favourite cousins were, as well. Brother spent a few years when he was very young with the family of our Mom's brother and their two children when she was ill, so he considers one as almost a sister: the son, a local farmer, died several years ago. The other cousin lives locally and I see her at church fairly often - she, who had voice training, has sung in the choir for 75 years. The brother and I went to deal with some complications over inheritance of cemetery plots that Dad owned ... and it looks as though resolution is to be easier than we figured. Then we sat and had a chat ... and he's rather worried about future viability of his son's marriage. We don't see one another often, but we've been close, over the years. Our brother died over forty years ago, when his kids were in their teens, and our ready-made sister that came with our stepmom lives near brother in Saskatchewan. It's a red letter day when we get together. ole joyful

I don't remember ever getting an actual spanking, I am sure when I was really young I did get them just don't recall it. I would get sent to the corner however. I had gone shopping with my mom and big sister in the BIG city (we were from a very small town), they were looking for a special dress for my sister for some event. Well I was so tired of being dragged around that I crawled up under one of the round dress displays (it had a floor to it) and just fell asleep. My mom finally noticed I was not right there and went into panic mode, they searched and then started hollering then the store workers got into the act. I never heard a thing I was so insulated in my little nap spot sleeping soundly. Someone finally saw my little shoe poking out from under the dresses. My mom was about to have a stroke by then. She screamed at me then nearly hugged the stuffing out of me. I tell you one thing I never did that again. Another time I got a talking to was when mom came out on to the front porch and looked at me and my dog and said what are you eating? Well it was a box of doggie treats, but I was sharing with my dog!! I thought they were regular cookies! My dog really loved my cookies LOL I thought they were a bit dry myself. Now this one not so much did I get in trouble as did my 2 much older sisters! Our house was just down the road from my grandparents so we would walk or ride bikes back and forth. There was a huge barn at my grandparents with a hay loft and a big opening on one end to load the hay in and out of with a rope dohickey out of it to raise and lower the hay. We did not know it but my mother could see that barn and opening through the kitchen window at the sink (at our house). One day my sisters decided we would go up to the loft and swing on the rope thing, which meant we were dangling in the air very high above the ground. Then they decided to make me do it! So of course I did. They lift me up and I grab on to the rope and the push me out of the hay loft, there I was dangling. Well at that very moment my mother was at the sink and looked out and all she saw was me(her baby) dangling out of the hayloft by a rope!! I do not know how she came across that field over the fences, I think maybe she flew... My sisters got the whipping of their lives and I got the stuffing squeezed out of me again! And of course told to never do that again no matter what my stupid sisters said.