We live in a small college town, and I feel like 1/2 the town walked through our home before it was locked up! We didn't really care, except I'd rather be the one showing them around!! The builder carried the insurance, so we assumed they knew what they were doing, security wise. Our builder builds all custom homes, and I totally get that people are interested...I am a floor plan addict myself, so I understand. I did have a funny situation one day...during our build we rented a house within walking distance, so I often would walk up there on the weekend when it was quiet. It had one of those lock boxes with a key in it, so I went in and left the door unlocked. I was upstairs measuring something when I heard voices in the house. I was a little scared, as the next door neighbors weren't home and no one else was in screaming distance! :) I peered down into the foyer and saw a couple with a camera! I was like, "Hello, can I help you?" They were embarrassed, they said they had been peeking through the windows and loved my floor stain, and thought they'd try to take a pic through the window...but tried the door and it was open! Lesson learned, I always locked myself in after that!

pressurepros, Good tip on creating my own filler. I remember we did that in wood shop a long long time ago. I've abandoned the idea of plugging the old holes and drilling new ones.. I agree it would look pretty "spotty". I have very little crawl space under the deck and many of my peir blocks have settled (actually the ground has settled). The only way to remedy this is to lift the decking off and shim the 4x4 peirs. Since I've removed all the screws, this is a perfect time to do this. Once the boards are lifted, I'm going to attempt to clamp my drill chuck around the broken screws and remove them, similar to what you have suggested. This is a new drill (DeWalt) with Carbide Jaws, so I'm hoping that works. If not... I guess I'll try vice grips. Where the screws have broken off at the surface of the beam, I guess I'll just try to angle the new screws in using the old holes. mike13, My decking boards are just normal 2x6 cedar boards.

Yes that’s exactly the same color. I’ll definitely at least polish the hardware as you suggested Beth. Thank you for all of your suggestions. There is a company called The CEH that regularly does this- they started off just refinishing or painting vintage pieces (and do so beautifully) and did really well and now they just started selling their own furniture. For those of you who think refinishing this Drexel piece was criminal, please cover your eyes as you check out the Baker and Henredon pieces they’re selling. This is where I got the idea- they were selling this Edward Wormley for Drexel dresser for $900 including custom paint. www.theceh.com

OP - I really think you need to sit down and rethink your position. You have a lot of ideas swirling around, but they're not well defined or mutually consistent. First, you need to define much more concretely what kind of house you really want - you say simple, unpretentious, but then mention 10 foot ceilings in the basement, multiple living/family rooms and perhaps even a cupola. You don't need separate rooms for every function, which is what your wish list kind of comes across as: you might want to consider re-doing your "needs" and "wants" not in terms of rooms required but in terms of the functions you want your house as a whole to perform. Rooms that can do double duty would save you square footage and money. Second, as I mentioned previously, you need to get a handle on housing costs where you live. That may mean going to open houses, surfing Zillow, talking to local agents or having a sit down with a contractor or architect. Third, I think you should put aside the idea of paying for the house in cash. While I'm all in favor of getting rid of that mortgage asap for many of the reasons outlined by Mrs Pete (you cannot put a dollar value on the feeling of security you get if you grew up in a less than secure housing environment, but finally pay off your own home), nonetheless it makes a lot of sense to have a low-interest mortgage and put your cash into higher-return investments, especially if you're more or less "starting out." Fourth, you need to think about your personal financials, particularly once you have a better idea of what your housing costs are likely to be. When I bought my first house, I took out a mortgage that was about half of what the bank approved, because I knew I could pay that amount without having to chip into my contingency fund (at the time, 3 months salary) and while still contributing to my retirement fund and my regular investment fund. So, I bought a smaller, simpler place than my bank would have allowed, simply because it suited my long term financial goals better. I'm much older now, have built up a decent portfolio, as has my better half, so we did pay cash outright for our last house - but again, we built a house that was less than we could afford, but allowed us to leave savings and retirement funds intact (we did have to sell one investment property as well as our old home to make it happen, but that was no great sacrifice!) People talk a lot about dream houses, but sometimes a dream house isn't all marble floors and a backyard swimming pool or 5000 sq feet of space. Sometimes it's living comfortably and affordably in a good area, and enjoying a retirement that allows you to enjoy life, restaurants, travel, and friends. The dream life is more important to me than the dream house.