Thanks everyone! The work has been temporarily suspended until this rash clears up! I have never had a rash from poison ivy before, but I scratched a couple of mosquito bites with my dirty gloved hand and now I'm miserable. Does anyone know if there is a bad side effect to using Caladryl and Ivy Dry for an extended period? I've been applying every time it starts itching (about every hour or 2). I did use the Tecnu soap as soon as I realized that I was not invincible to poison Ivy oils. Barb, I do have a large clump of Texas Gold Columbine that will be planted near the seating area, I think. My neighbor has all of the red Turk's Cap and Lady Ferns that I care to dig out of her yard and I got a Pink TC last fall that is just growing like a weed! My butterfly ginger will also be there somewhere near the seating area. I got a plant support for it since it always gets so tall and lanky. I'm anxious to get started, but when I get hot and sweaty, the rash itches more. Thanks again for all of the nice comments! Pam

Do you *honestly* believe he's not even flirting online anymore? And are you completely comfortable that he'll be faithful to you while he's deployed and his buddies all go off tail-hunting? Because if you don't seriously believe that, and if you don't trust him 100% to be faithful, then what you have isn't really a good marriage. You can admit it now, get a quickie divorce, and try again in a little while as a woman who's older and wiser. Or you can string this thing out until you catch him again and he admits it but promises never to do it again, or 'sorta' catch him but don't have 100% proof and he denies it, or maybe just 'smell a rat' but can't prove it beyond a doubt. This gut simply doesn't sound 'beyond a doubt' trustworthy. Honestly, I'm NOT one to give up on a marriage easily, and ended up staying in a bad marriage for a long, long time. But now that I'm older and wiser, I'd say take a good hard look at what you've got, and without cleaning it up and 'fixing' him (he won't change) -- decide if that's the marriage you want. Then decide. If it's not the marriage you want, End It! You've got no kids. You don't *have* to try to work it out. Unless you see concrete proof that he's really, really changed, I honestly wouldn't believe it. And new passwords is certainly NOT proof that he's changed. If anything, it's proof that he hasn't.

Sorry this is so long. but it is mainly for Farmingforu. Though I hope others enjoy my treatise too. I live in a 1920 one story farm house. I always envied those 4 square houses. I called them fat cat houses since I was young, they remind me of a fat cat sitting there with all legs folded under. My attic is hot, and my basement is damp. Old clay bricks under the original section. I had my brother insulate all the exhaust duct work that exits the roof, to prevent condensation and dripping into the ceiling. That is what would happen to the old ceiling kitchen exhaust that DMIL had. Always dripping in the spring with the thaw. The damaged ceiling was hidden from view with vinyl wall paper until I had the kitchen gutted in 2011. Boy were there water marks around the vent. I did the same with the bathroom exhaust vents. I've made a lot of changes to our house in the last 7 years. Inlaws put an addition on in the 70s so there is a lot of closet storage now. The layout is awkward in places. ALL the rooms are small. But there is abundant closet space now. The square footage before any of the additions was 20 x 30 = 600 as built in the 1920s. Late FIL's parents moved the house from town to this farm onto a basement foundation in the 30's. Then added a shed roofed addition onto the end of the house for an inclosed porch and access to the basement, along with a bathroom (that was the first bathroom I remodeled in 2012). Making the house 20 x 40 = 800. Then in the 70's another addition with 3 rooms went on the other end of the house making it an "L" shape (2 bedrooms and a flexable use room next to the living room). I think its about 1160 sf now. One of the original 3 tiny bedrooms is off the kitchen, and is 8x9'. I can't believe the inlaws slept in there until the 70's addition. It did have a small closet. Now no closet but still tiny (it got incorporated into a large closet in the neighboring bedroom). It functions as my husbands office. It is my current remodeling project. I just put in IKEA Sektion cabinets both uppers and lowers that are 15" deep. Compact and efficient use of the wall for DH's office. The other two original bedrooms got turned into a "sort of master bedroom with bathroom" in the 70's. The problem though, was that the depth of the bedroom was still 8', only now it was longer, with a tiny windowless bathroom of 8x5 at the far end. It was accessible from the "master" bedroom and a hall in the new addition to the other 2 new bedrooms. 2 doors in that tiny bathroom space was tight to function very well. So with the recent stuff I've been doing, I returned the 2 bedrooms to the original size of about 8x10', and made the westerly one into a larger (west ) bathroom with laundry. It is about 8x10 feet. Works great. I wanted to not have laundry in the basement, for aging in place. I kept the 2 entry doors at either end of the room. I debated doing this but I'm ok with it. There are 2 pocket doors, one at each end. The openings are a full 32" unobstructed. I think a wheelchair could easily fit if needed. These are the walnut panel doors you commented on. Because our children are grown, both doors usually remain open and the bathroom has sort of turned into a "bathroom hall" lol. I took the tub out and only have a 36x60 shower. I used a Kohler cast iron pan, and tiled the rest. I splurged on the shower fixtures and love it. I had all the (west) bathroom cabinets made by a local cabinet company SJM, in Urbandale and installed by the carpenter from heaven, who now works with Woodharbor in Urbandale as a project manager. I met these folks at Woodharbor when I did my kitchen in 2011. I have Woodharbor cabinets in my kitchen. Love them, and the Urbandale folks are lovely to work with. Woodharbor cabinets are made in Mason City BTW. 100 year guarantee on the line I had installed. But my bathroom vanity is from SJM, sold through the Woodharbor store in Urbandale. These are frameless. I am very happy with the quality and the way they matched my cabinet doors. The 5 panel entry doors are another Woodharbor product made in Mason City, that I bought through the Urbandale store. Oh, where are you putting the laundry? If you are using a front loader, be sure to have the set against a load bearing wall. In your plan above it looks like it will be. Otherwise the set may sit on the center of a joist span and bounce. I have my set against a load baring wall and all is well.

These are major proposed changes to the pool as opposed to a basic renovation. To make the pool rectangle, it involves major structural changes. You don't know the history of the original work and you're banking on the structure being a sound candidate. The cost of this renovation work is probably not that far off from a new pool. If I looked at this job, I would suggest complete removal and start all over. Now, you get a new warranty, updated plumbing, equipment, etc... You can build the exactly as you want.