OK, here's a possibility. Go to the local sign or photocopy shop and have them print, in big, bold, plain(for stupids) writing, "There is a hidden surveillance camera" or omit the surv part if you live in an area with real, real stupids, "which is recording every move(ment)"!!!!OMG, my stomach really hurts. "So, if you belong here, stay and do your duty"(!!!!ha, nah, don't say doody, unless you think it clearly applies to your locale. "Joggers, go at home or go ahead 1/4 mile, but not here"(I'm a mom of a marathoner, but a considerate marathoner) or, "If you can't hold it, go home! This ain't your home!" Plaster these signs INSIDE and outside the porta.. OOOOH, I have a great idea. Instead of 'violaters will be prosecuted... something like, violaters will be given a free, disposable, mop, plastic gloves, strong trash bags and YOU will be responsible for cleaning up your mess. Who defines what is a 'mess'? Your co-workers. If they don't think it's a mess, then they can help you clean it up. If the consensus agrees that it IS a mess, then the consensus (colleagues) can video your clean up activities!!!!This is so much fun! Pecanpie, I spit out my champagne(cheap 9.5% low carb) while reading your post! It was downhill from there......Breathing is difficult. This is a 'save for posterity'(don't go there) thread. Time capsule worthy. Love it Bev I will breathe normally soon. Ok, I can't resist. We have a beach cottage where, (I wish I had written this line...no, I'm not a snob, but) the handymen have more tattoos(sp) than teeth.

Your mess sounds a lot like what my husband and I got ourselves into. But we knew we would eventually gut the entire house when we started, and planned it out in stages. We also planned for about a year before starting. Here is the floor plan we had when we bought the home. This is close to what we have now - the dining room and den were switched, and the layout in the two bathrooms isn't quite as shown. This includes an addition - mostly to add a basement area with an access from inside the house. We started in the fall of 2004 with moving the front door, then rearranging the laundry room and sectioning off for an entry way. Then we put in the patio door and gutted what was the dining room. We also put in a wood burning stove In March of 2005 we started on the addition. Once we had the addition buttoned up and re-roofed most of the house, we got back to work on converting the dining room into the new kitchen. We had to do this as the new bathroom was going where the kitchen had been. The old bathroom had to be removed before we could open up the house to the new addition. Because we knew we would be under construction for quite a while, we just cut the old cabinets and made them fit in the new room. In the late summer of 2005 we started gutting out the old kitchen and building the new bathroom. We had to leave the sink in place until we got the floor opened up so we could run the plumbing for the new sink location - that was not fun. We converted a closet into the entry way into the bathroom. Discovered the whole north wall had rot problem so we rebuilt the part where the bathroom would go Then we finished the new bath and had it working by thanksgiving of 2004. The next step was tearing out the old bathroom and opening up the wall to the new addition. Because of high water table problems, our addition is 2' higher than the existing structure. To make it work we vaulted the ceiling in what had been the old kitchen. First we had to rebuild the rest of the north wall - this was in December of 2005 Spent the rest of the winter working on finishing up the addition and our new dining room. In spring of 2006 we decided it was time to finish the roofing project. This included tearing off two layers of shingles and one of cedar shakes. We build a "cold roof" over the old roof to help with venting and insulation. Once that was done we finished working on the den (what looks like the dining room in the picture. And another wall to fix. This was August of 2006 Since we could not leave things open for the winter, I temporarily resided the rest of the house. We had planned on taking a break, but our son decided to move out a year early (he is in college) and with him gone, we could start on the 2 story part of the house. So in June of 2007 I started gutting that part of the house (My husband does not do demo work well LOL!). The bad part is we had to move everything out of that area into other parts of the house. Our bed is currently in the den - open to the kitchen. By October I had it all gutted and ready to fix up. We both took a week off work and got as much done as we could. This section of the house also had some serious damage. We had to jack up the north wall 3" on one end about about 5" on the other - Once we started we could not quit - got it all back supported around 3am. We rebuilt the east and west wall, put in new floor joists and put in new windows. But this meant taking off the siding I put on the fall before. We didn't have it quite done before we had to go back to work - my husband was working 6.5 hours away at the time. He was not home very much. Once we got the lower level of the exterior walls done, we started on the upper level. We wanted to get this all done before the cold weather started LOL! We finally had the exterior done and I got everything resided (for real this time). Then we got to work on the interior walls. We moved the old, steep stairway and built one that is safe to use. We inset the end wall of the kitchen into the main bedroom to make more room for the fridge and more shelves. We've got it all sheetrocked and will be painting this weekend. I'm excited - I may have a bedroom again before March! We still have the front porch to add. The final thing we will do is finishing up in the kitchen. That will be a winter project when my husband is layed off for the winter. We plan on making our own cabinets, and have been exploring different ideas. We may got with concrete counter tops, but have not decided yet - I still have time! In all this, we hired an excavator to put in the new septic system and dig for the addition basement. We hired the electric company to reroute the incoming electrical power to underground. But everything else we have done ourselves. This was not our first project, but by far our most ambitious. The entire plumbing and electrical in the house has been replaced, and new insulation has been installed. My husband has told me I will need a new husband if I ever want to try something like this again. Cathy

I had Holiday cabinets installed 5 years ago because my contractor sells them. Despite the fact that I live alone and don't use the kitchen much, the cabinets started chipping within a couple of years and I have white cabinets, so imagine how much more noticeable it would be if I had colored cabinets Then I had a leak and needed to replace a cabinet. It's turning out to be a huge hassle since they don't sell direct to customers. Honestly, go with a different cabinet company if you're going to spend this much. I had Kraftmaid cabinets that I ordered from Home Depot that were half the cost in my last apartment and they held up for 10+ years and still looked amazing. I'd go with a lower end cabinet that stands up better before I'd go with Holiday again.

LOL Plllog :) I'd love to meet your knob and puller heh heh Do you only knock when the red light is on? :oP I actually am greeted by name at Vintage Hardware heh heh The owner came out to meet me (they want to reproduce my ceiling medallions) last time I was in. He purchased another home we were looking at last year. They're not green :) But they're local and it's important to me to support the communities we live in whenever we can. I'm going to have him over as soon as I finish unpacking so he can go through the house. He has never been here and is dying to get a peek at the brass and the medallions and he's a wealth of period information which I really need. Are you local? And who's your tile person? I'm not sure what we're doing about tile...we have several original fireplaces that need replacement pieces or have had some made but they're badly done. Someday we'll get around to fixing them as well (mind you the kitchen comes first because I'm tired of cooking on the back porch LOL). Carbon footprints...those are always buzz words Dh gets a giggle out of. We were up on the slope in ANWAR and this dude was bragging about his carbon footprint being so much smaller than ours because he does not own a car. DH did some calculations for the dork overnight and came back to show him his real carbon footprint in comparison to someone who commutes 30 miles a day. His was way larger...see he wasn't counting the carbon footprint his FLIGHT TO WORK weekly cost :) DOH again...sometimes it's all about perception and being cool, not being green at all. Avoiding exotic woods and not driving a Hummer to work are two easy and real green steps :) Ride sharing in your Hummer...not so much :P