OK, I think it's safe to say that the Bosch dryers are a wee bit overly sensitive to air flow. This is clearly estlablished. Here's a few tip's for EO1 sufferer's. I think the use of flex duct is out of the question to use with these dryers. The straight runs of the flex hose will collect as much lint as a 90 deg. bend smooth sided rigid duct, especially if the flex duct is not fully stretched out. Any flex duct that is not stretched out fully will trap lint like crazy. If you have excess duct, do not leave it bunched up. Stretch it out fully and cut off the excess if you must use it. Smooth sided rigid ducting will reduce lint build up but annual cleaning of any duct on a well used dryer is essential to proper dryer operation and maximum efficiency. Another option that will help people with EO1 syndrome (if feasable), is the use of oversized ducting. You can get adaptors that will allow the use of 5 or even 6 inch ducting that will help increase air flow in long runs of ducting. I don't know if the sensor is operated on temperature or air flow, but it appears that these dryers do not tolerate any air flow obstruction. Another thing to be looked at is proper installation of the duct work. Heat naturally rises and any duct work that flows downward will cause back pressure, just as if it were partially clogged. Any down flowing sections should be removed and rerouted to at least be level, but ultimately flowing upward. Any bends in the duct should be kept to a minimum. If you can get away with a 45 rather than a 90 deg. bend, do it. If possible, make the duct work flow upward all the way to the house vent and keep bends to a minimum. Make sure your outside vent has something on it to prevent critters from entering the duct work, especially if it's near ground level. Don't use a screen on the outside vent unless it has at least 3/4 inch square sized holes and clean it often too. Use foil tape to seal seams and it's a good idea to leave a seam untaped every 6 or 8 feet so that you can easily take the ducts apart for cleaning every year. Anyone who has had to remove that foil tape on a joint will know why I say to leave it off. It's not easy to remove! I found a vent duct brush with a 6 foot wire handle for $6 at a hardware store. A must have to clean the ducts. My wife has one of those ball shaped cob web broom things on an extendable handle. They work great for cleaning ducts too. If you're not into taking the ducts apart,you can buy these plastic things that are advertised as "heating vents" that go in line with your duct work so that you can open the vent and use the heat from your dryer to heat your basement or wherever. They fit in line with the duct work and they have a little lever on them to open and close the vent. If you don't mind 100% humidity in your basement they're fine, but they also allow you access to the vent for cleaning which is what I use them for . They're cheap and are easy to install. The only problem is that you can only clean in one direction when it's open so you'll have to put one every 8 or 10 feet if you have a long run. Just something to consider if you don't want to take the ducts apart for cleaning every year. Hope this helps. Happy duct cleaning!!

We started our remodel in January and it was supposed to be done by the end of May. Here we are halfway through July and have at least several weeks to go. We added a garden garage on the basement level and a family room above. We added a laundry room on the main level and expanded a big closet into another bedroom above the laundry room. We also annexed the old laundry room to add a desk and butler's pantry to the kitchen, swapped the kitchen sink and dishwasher locations, reused old cabinets, and added some new cabinets and new counter tops. My biggest problems have been the contractor's health issues, the framer's health issues, the trim carpenter's mother's health issues, rainy weather, and bad attitudes. Also, money. The general asked for a payment in advance of when it was due (red flag) because he had bills due on other jobs that were done before mine. All of the subs have told me they won't work for him again because he doesn't pay. I'm preparing lien releases this afternoon. Also, I purchased most of the items that were in allowances (like kitchen cabinets, counter tops, appliances, lights and plumbing fixtures, carpeting) myself because I got better prices on everything or at least could get what I wanted when the suppliers for the general didn't have what I wanted. When I said I was going to subtract the money that I was out-of-pocket for the allowances from the second draw, he flipped and said that would be a breach of contract. I did some quick calculations and figured if I went ahead and paid the entire draw, I wouldn't owe anything at the end, so I stupidly did pay it all. Now, with all the mistakes that have been made, I think he will end up owing me money at the end! Here's a short list of the problems. They poured the foundation wall for the laundry room wrong and now the laundry room (and the bedroom above it) are 6" less deep than they should have been. They poured the floor of the garden garage sloped the wrong way so it doesn't drain if we get water in there. Then they cut grooves in the floor so water would drain when we washed off the mower, but they are crooked and jagged and overlap at the doorway leaving a little "pillar" of concrete that will surely break off. They left the downspouts off the front of the house for months, so with all the heavy rain we've had, all the water washed under the foundation and soaked through the walls of the garden garage, ruining the drywall and paint with mildew. The gutter installer ran a downspout so it washed uphill on the new family room roof and caused a water leak the first time it rained after that. They had to repair the drywall and repaint half the room, as well as extend the downspout to the gutter below as it should have been done. The electricians installed a ceiling fixture 10" out of alignment with the one across the room it was supposed to line up with. Now they have to move the fixture, repair the drywall, and repaint the ceiling. They tore up the daylight drain that ran across the backyard and caused it to plug up. Wasn't a problem until it got hot and we turned on the air conditioner. Then the condensate had nowhere to go and flooded a room in the basement. They tore up the TV cable that ran across the yard even though I told them where it was before they started. They also tore up the dog fence wire in several areas. Now they say we are responsible for getting them repaired. They put vents to the outside in the crawlspace under the new laundry room, but they are blocked off with tyvek and now the whole basement smells "like a basement". The plumber was re-routing the pipes under the kitchen floor for the sink/DW swap and got called away to an emergency. He didn't come back to finish that day and when one of my kids took a shower upstairs that evening, water started pouring into the floor of the kitchen and the ceiling of our theater room in the basement. Luckily I got my hand over the open end of the pipe before it flooded the electronics, but the ceiling was ruined and the chairs and carpet got wet. In his favor, the plumber came back that night to cap the pipe that was accidentally left open. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. If I'm not standing watch every second that someone is working, something gets done wrong. Yet I overheard the drywall guy say to another sub, "I wish [the GC] would grow some b---s and not let the homeowner get involved in our business." This from the guy who slung drywall mud ten feet away so it got on kid's toys that should have been well out of harm's way. He also tracked it all through the house on our hardwood floors (that are not being refinished) and did a lousy job to boot. I'm so done with these morons. I've lost my sense of humor, I don't trust anyone, I just want my kitchen back. If I hadn't overpaid, I'd tell them all to get lost and hire someone else. A word of advice to anyone else contemplating a remodel, put deadlines and penalties for not meeting them, into the contract. Add that things you buy on your own get subtracted right away from the allowances.

Thanks for remembering holligator--we did struggle. In the end it was, like anything else a series of compromises... We really had to examine our priorities but also I just sat back and watched the family and where everyone gravitates, how we operate...and used that to decide how to use the space. The "Big L" that consists of the kitchen, old dining room, old sunroom is now all opened up. Our biggest questions had to do with where to put the various components within that space--kitchen/dining/breakfast and bar--and we were toying with moving the front living room just to make it more confusing! Add to that the commitment to keep the builtins (thereby HAVING to reserve two corners for that)and there were no perfect solutions. The architect was strongly urging me to let go of my attachment to the builtins, as their elimination did provide many more options for use of space--it's the only thing I think he was way off base on. He was technically correct but totally missing the intangible value of those things. It became a joke between us really--every idea he had I'd be saying"but what about the builtins?" I'm so glad we saved them. Anyhow, I'm rambling. We kept the core of the kitchen in its original spot but once the wall came down we were able to push everything out a little to make that area a bit bigger, add a peninsula...and we went with the table-height bar/breakfast area on the opposite side of the peninsula. If I recall correctly, that idea got mixed reviews here --due to the perceived wasted space behind those seated at the bar and that "dead corner." Due to other savings we were able to actually put a bank of cabinets back there for a drybar, though...so now I'm really happy with that whole space. Window placement-existing and new was also a challenge. We decided to spend on really nice windows for that front "sunroom/dining room" rather than spend money on trying to reconfigure window placement in the rest of the "L" (all the original windows, save one, are set very low--only 25" off the floor--so negate base cabinets there!) and decided to keep a tall hedge that is there shielding the view of the neighbor's wall. I thought the window in the hedge, or staring at her house would look bad in my original posts, but now that we've done it--the tall green of the hedge (about 7-8 feet from the outside of the window) is a very pretty element. I decided to put the big table and dining up front there because it is the most light filled area of the house and we gravitate there for just about everything. By preserving it for that, and not erecting the kitchen there, it shares more light with the existing living room and kitchen/breakfast area. The living room remains small in its original footprint, but we changed the traffic flow a bit and with the wall down it certainly seems bigger, and I'll have a few more, if not many, furniture placement options than I did before. All of this of course is hard to imagine without drawings/pictures. I need to dig out the drawings and post them back up here with some of the final pictures. It really is like a completely different house! Thanks for asking...

Everyone's quilts are absolutely GORGEOUS!!! I've never tried quilting... yet. :) I want to share another of my roadside wicker "saves" because it's so unusual. lol! I saw these legs at the road while on a walk one day last year and passed them by initially, but felt guilt pangs and had to try to save it. :O) The lower part of the base was shot, the toes were shot, and the top obviously had problems. lol! I was able to pull away the bad parts and (masterfully, if I must say ;^) weave in the base, new toes, and a whole new supportive "girdle" so that I could make a small tabletop for it. The original weaver did a fabulous job on the legs, so I had to save them! :)