Thanks moccasin. I am only able to get slow speed, so I will download this at the library as soon as I can.

Good morning, everyone! allison, The 1/2 bath might be considered a 'folly' down there! I do have a small area around it somewhat finished, but the rest of it will always be a spot to work on my many hobbies, like furniture refinishing, messy crafty stuff, you-name-it. I also have a doggie door in the opposite 'working' side of the cellar, that goes to a former garage under my office, which I made that into a wood working 'shop' years ago. Another doggie door in the shop takes them out to their fenced in area of the yard. The cellar and the shop are valuable real estate to me, just as they are. I do have 3 windows and a door with glass in that 'living' part of the cellar, as well as a wood stove, and an armoire with a TV it in. It's cozy in the winter with the stove, and cool in the summer and the couch down there is great for naps! These pics are of my former LR sofa down there and a 'reading' nook with big chair. Not much decorating has taken place yet! The door you see on the right in this pic is to the 1/2 bath. This is the reading nook which faces the wood stove. Being a dog lover, I got this original oil painting of a Springer from eBay for $21.49! His eyes are a perfect match to the Behr 'Cork' paint color. And this is Ikat fabric called Casbah, that I got at 1/2 price at Ballard Designs. I might make sill length panels for the 1/2 bath for fall and winter from it. The way it goes with that paisley wallpaper is the stuff that (my) dreams are made of. I'm happy to see so many paisley lovers here, as I have always been one, and I LOVE to mix patterns in a room, even a small one like this. I'm glad that others are inspired by my 're-cycled' bathroom! I'd never have done it if there hadn't been a rough one down there to start; but I just replaced that with one that even I'll use. No more storing tires and hoses in this one.

Nancy, I'm pleased that you have an interest in the topic. If your DH gets involved, it is sort of addictive. I've met so many nice people there in the last month. ALL over the WORLD too. I do not like to play online games, unless it is one person, me. I cannot imagine why someone playing would want to cheat in the first place! Is your DH enjoying his new music room? Is that sweet desk his playpen? And do you sit there on your loveseat or in the rocker, with a faint smile on your face, reading away and enjoying a cuppa tea? I think your new room will be the most pleasing one in the whole house, bar none. And that includes the kitchen....nice as it is, it is a utilitarian space. That music room is a space for the soul.

The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier (1969) I first read The House on the Strand the year it was published, 1969, not knowing or caring what genre or subgenre it was considered to be. I have since learned it is classified as science fiction/fantasy, neither of which I usually like a whole lot. It's a good thing that I was then ignorant of such classification because I might have passed over The House on the Strand, a story that has given me immense pleasure in reading and rereading over the years, as well as contemplating it at times between readings. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to write a full-blown review of THotS for this thread, so I looked through some of my earlier notes and writings about it and found a summary that I wrote in May 2005, something that I probably posted here at Reader's Paradise. I can't believe that was almost nine years ago! Reading through that piece again, I think it remains pretty much what I still think after yet another rereading. So below is what I wrote then: The House on the Strand has been classified as science fiction and fantasy, neither of which I ordinarily like a whole lot. Okay, I will concede that the story has elements of science fiction and fantasy -- after all, the main vehicle of the story is time travel. However, I will venture that the main theme is capturing the essence of a time and place in the past, in a way that we as moderns can never quite grasp even when we really and truly want to. Daphne du Maurier used her own house in Cornwall as the focal point for imagining not only its history but the history of the region and its inhabitants during the first half of the fourteenth century (just prior to the Black Plague) -- a brilliant stroke, in my opinion, and one that makes me trust her storytelling more. Not that I expect this story to be a "true" history, but I find that the details of the landscape, time, and characters have the right feel. So much so that I, as a reader, am right there with Dick Young, the twentieth-century protagonist, as we accompany Roger Kylmerth, our guide and the original 14th-century owner of du Maurier's "Kilmarth," on his rounds of the surrounding countryside. Roger, a steward to the widowed Lady Joanna Champernowne, the primary landowner of the region, has the advantage of being able to insinuate himself into all camps. Roger is not always a sympathetic character but he is all the more real for it. Likewise, our contemporary Dick is not always sympathetic: he's married to an American woman who has two pre-teen sons from her previous marriage. We get the feeling that although Dick might love his wife and he has a certain fondness for his stepsons, he would probably do just as well -- or be as happy -- if they just disappeared from his life. He's between jobs and is ambivalent about his wife's plans for him "on her side of the Atlantic." Thus, he accepts his old school chum's offer to take a breather at his family...