**As far as a "10 year old" car goes, who cares? If it's maintained, it's a young car.** True...and not. Buy a new car and odds are it will go 10 years and 100k or more miles requiring little more than putting gas in the tank, regular oil changes, and maybe one set of tires. After that, even if basically sound, the never ending stream of worn out parts begins. I drive a 20 year old car that had 25k miles on it when I bought it 3 years ago. Since buying it I still had to replace the water pump, battery, belts and hoses (looked good but too old), tires (good tread but too old), brakes, two headlights, repair one headlight motor, replace power antenna, power window switch, repair a bad ground wire, replace hatch struts, replace maf relays, replace one set of u-joints. Probably a couple other things that don't come to mind at the moment. I know the right front shock is bad, and though the ac compressor still works, it's slinging oil and making noise so I imagine I'll have to replace that some day. Same with the steering rack. Works fine warm, sticks when cold. O-rings gotten hard over time I'm sure. Got a '98 dodge we purchased new that now has just over 100k miles on it. It's accumulating a similar list of things to do now. Told the wife if she's going to keep it I'll have to start replacing worn parts...shocks, pitman and idler arms, adjust steering gear, replace ac condenser, hatch supports, repair oil leak at transfer case, new tires next summer, and so on. Not seeing a new vehicle she likes better, she wants me to maintain the old one. Fine, you know what I'll be doing every weekend from now on...or I can take it to a shop and pay someone a few thousand bucks to do it. Then after a couple years it will need more of the same. Different list of worn stuff, but a list just the same. Point is there really is no such thing as a young new car. Whether you drive it a lot or it sits in the garage, it pretty much wears out just the same. All the rubber, gas charged parts, sealed bearings, ect goes bad in time, imo about 10 years, no matter what you do. One of the hassles of buying a car is getting rid of the old one. In the case of the original poster, the car is sold already if they want it to be. If they were ever thinking of selling or trading that car, now is the perfect time. If they like the old one and want to keep it, that's fine too.

Hello all! This is my first post here, though I'm a frequent lurker! I bought two chests that I found on Craigslist - here's pics of the chest-on-chest; I also bought the matching lingerie chest. The chest-on-chest is 51.5" x 36", the lingerie chest is 51.5" x 24". The hardware is solid brass and heavy, no lacquer that I can see. (Normally I'm not one for brass but I think these are beautiful.) The drawers are dovetailed and the pieces are solid wood, no veneer or particle board. I don't know when they were manufactured; certainly they're modern... I would guess the '80s or '90s. They're in pristine condition... a wonderful find for $300.00 for the pair, I think! I didn't find a manufacturer's mark, though, and was wondering if anyone here could tell me who the maker might be or how I could find out. I'm going to post this on the home decorating forum, also, so you may see it there, too. Please ignore the green (ugh) carpet, clutter and white walls... the room is a work in progress! ;-)) Thanks! Claudia

That bit of dry rot--and any that might be covered above-- certainly wouldn't deter me. As long as the price was right, i.e., you factor in the cost of repairs, hassle and lost time before you have full use of the home. The off-plumb wood post in your other thread is a minor correction. Whenever I buy an old house I automatically assume replacement of lots of service components--furnaces, plumbing, roof. And moreso if there have been the usual array of incompetent "improvements" over the years. A contractor friend of mine likes to say that there should be a licence before anyone is even allowed to buy a nail!

Added to what others have said... the corner in the lower right is going to feel like a cave with the tall fridge so close to it, and the wall cabinet will be mostly out of reach unless you're quite tall. I agree that losing the corner cabs and the bottom of the U and making this be a galley kitchen might be a better option. Questions: Are you wedded to the idea of the tall pantry cabinet? It would be much easier to juggle appliances if it could be a normal base + wall. I know you have a shortage of storage here but the tall cab may not be the best way to solve the problem. How many people in the household, and how many cooks at once? If you only have 2 people you might be able to fit a small semi-circular table (even a dropleaf) against that big window at the top of the plan, with stools that slip underneath when not in use. As a previous poster said, a standard 30" wide table just isn't going to fit. Then again, with only 2 people, why such a big fridge? Consider dropping down in size even as far as an apartment size fridge. I would try losing the cabinetry at the bottom of the U, then on the left wall, left to right, have counter/sink/counter/fridge: on the right wall, left to right: counter/range-oven/counter. All counter sections could have wall cabinets above them. You could have a large counter area one side or other of the range, and a short setdown section the other side. You'd even have your sink under a window. Dishwasher left or right of the sink, as desired. On the wall around the window at the bottom of the plan, there could be narrow storage like spice racks, pot lid racks, or pegboard for holding all kinds of stuff. The arrangement I just described is very similar to an 8' x 8' kitchen I lived with for 13 years, including cooking a sitdown meal for 18 people, and lots of baking and family cooking. It works best for 1 cook but you can fit 2 in if you're friendly :)