122) Chiggers love the sweet perfume of OFF! Wear it well at clothing openings and about the ankle. (Deer ticks are optional here but plentiful.)

Suero accidentally got two copies of the first floor and no second floor so here is your second floor... Then, my comments are below. re your dilemmas: 1) Friends of mine have a direct-vent two-sided gas fireplace on the wall between their great room and outdoor covered patio. It is the kind with a single firebox that you can see thru. It seems to work fine for them but we're in a warm area of the country so the fireplace is really pretty much for decorative purposes only. Well, on cool winter evenings they may turn it on occasionally to add a little warmth out on the patio but it doesn't have to be terribly efficient. Nor do they have to worry much about heat loss thru the glass when the fireplace is turned off. I would imagine that with the burners off, the fireplace it has about the same insulating R-factor as a double pane window. Personally, if I had your situation, I'd probably go this route rather than worry that my fireplace would take up too much of my screened porch space. Besides, with the old fashioned Franklin stove kind of thing, you also have to worry about people bumping into the stove so that when it the stove is hot, you have to leave a fairly good amount of "safety zone" space around it - leaving you even less usable porch space. 2) Re getting furniture up and down the back staircase, my main (and only) staircase is 4ft wide with U-turn in the middle AND an L turn two steps from the bottom. I haven't had any particular trouble getting furniture upstairs. Mine is an "open stairwell". (i.e. no wall down the middle or along one side... just railings) I'm not sure how wide you staircase is but it looks like the same size as mine so I don't think you'll have any real trouble getting furniture up/down it either. That said, I too LOVE the elegance of a beautiful staircase visible from the main living area! And, if that main staircase has been just about the only thing your DH has requested, I agree you ought to accomodate him! He's agreeing to y'all spending the money for an absolutely gorgeous house - and I assume he'll be helping to pay for it - so it is only fair that he have some say! LOL! But, I too think that that having the back staircase visible from the bottom of the main staircase might seem a bit odd. I'd hate to see you have to redesign the entire upstairs tho. So, I asked myself, "is there any possible way to hide the second staircase so that both sets of stairs aren't visible from the front hallway?" And that led me to the idea of flipping the two legs of the back staircase so that the bottom of the stairs is tucked out of sight directly BEHIND the main staircase. What you would see at the end of the hall would be the door to the stairs leading to the basement. (I ASSUME you do plan to have a door there!) This would also mean that the steps up to your office would go straight up - with a landing in the middle - instead of that jog left then right. Then, to further hide the back staircase, put a wall across the downstairs hallway just about even with the edge of the dining room. Put in a pretty set of double 24" wide doors that can be left open most of the time for ease of traffic flow but closed when you have company so that the back staircase is hidden completely. Or, if you don't want to mess with double doors, even an arched opening would create a visual break and help hide the back stairs. Like this: Even if you decide not to flip the staircase, a wall across the hallway with a set of double doors or an arched opening would help. Besides, with a long hallway, it is nice to have a visual break anyway. Helps avoid a "bowling alley" hallway effect. 3) I think having an 8 ft front door without a transom will be fine! The only other door visible from the front of your house is the one on the service entry and you want the front door to stand out and be different from that secondary door anyway.

Oh, Rachel, I'm so sorry. It sounds like things are going from bad to worse for kittygirl. The only other thing I can think to recommend is to get her to a university vet school clinic, if possible. That's where you'll find a lot of veterinary specialists and specialized diagnostic equipment under one roof. If a definitive diagnosis and effective treatment plan can be established, that's where it's most likely to happen. Please keep us updated. I wish you and kittygirl the best possible outcome. Laurie

Hi, I've been stalking Ellen kennon for the last two weeks. I've sent her pictures of my rooms and have been emailing back and forth ever since. She has been extremely helpful and sent me swatches of what she suggested I use. I'm really excited to use her paints. She actually sends the formula to glidden prof. paint and you pick it up there. So, it should be local for you. Glidden paints now owns ici. I did see that the ici paints uses (and incidently glidden) the same manufacturer that Fine paints of europe uses. And, I've always heard good things about the ici paints. Anyhow... In my room, I have these wonky grey green couches that I can't match anything to. And, lovely brown orangy trim to boot. She recommended mushroom, her tobacco road knockoff, sage, and several others. I really want to go with the powdered pebbles, but she didn't recommend it. I just love the color. She said mushroom would work best. It is a light beigy, greyish color that I do love (not as much as that darn powdered pebbles- the perfect taupe). And, she reformulated it so it didn't have those funky pink tones. For the gallon size, it was 52 dollars in flat. Maybe 53 in satin. I spend that for regular old BM (not aura) paint. Originally, I was planning on FPE paints, which was I think 125 per gallon. I contacted FPE for help. They have a color specialist. Though emmett was helpful, Ellen was much easier to speak with and get ideas. FPE literally has thousands of colors. Ellen only has maybe 100 to 200. Easier to deal! I'm super indecisive. So, I've been collecting paints/painting for months. I was going to hire a color consultant and pay the 200 dollar fee. Until, I saw some information on EK on here. She will help you and is really nice. I think you should seriously look into her paints or at least give her a call/send her a picture. I think it was funcolors that speaks with her/did some sort of interview with her. You might search for funcolors and see what she says.