Believe it or not, i wash sleeping bags and comforters in my tiny Bosch Axxis. The front loaders can hold a lot more than you think. I did a demo when I bought the Bosch and they had 17 towels stitched together at the store. Me and my friend, who ended up buying the same machine, were shoving those towels in there and could not believe it. This was a while ago (5 years ago) and people didn't think the tiny 23" X 23"X 33" machine would hold more than a towel. It can wash comforters AND sleeping bags. Even a Northface polyfill one, which are notorious for not getting wet. Go to an appliance store and start shoving a sleeping bag or a comforter in the washers and see what fits. Seriously. It sounds crazy but I'm so happy I did. I was switching from a super capacity top loader, so I could wash anything in it. I wanted to make sure I wasn't getting stuck with a tiny little machine that could only wash hand towels. I think Snyder Diamond and other high end places even have things like the towel demo sometimes. It's good to know where you are going to dump some serious cash!!

Hi Marsha, sorry I'm late posting to this question! On the recommendation of my long arm quilter, I had the 80/20 cotton/poly batting used in my king size quilt. I love it! I was so reluctant to have any poly involved but it could not be more perfect. The loft is nice enough to show off the quilting; I like the look of it much better than Warm & Natural. It's also cooler and lighter weight. We've used it all summer with just a sheet and both of us were comfortable. I'm about to switch to a slightly heavier quilt for winter (or what counts as winter in Orlando) but I hate to take this one off the bed. DH Jim even suggested we just add a blanket under this one and keep using it! I think your ideas about 1/2 and 1/2 quilts are interesting, but not sure I would do that. I keep a large nap quilt beside the bed and if one of us gets chilly, we can use that on top of the regular quilt. Let us know what you decide to do! Kate

I have Diamond cabinets, the ones with soft close as standard, and they've held up perfectly in a heavily trafficked galley kitchen for the past year (a painted finish that has survived multiple games of soccer in the kitchen!) We got them through a kitchen shop, not Lowes, but when I've been to Lowes, they have the same style, just with a different name. I looked at a range of other lower-cost options: a sample cabinet from Barker in walnut as well as several sample doors seemed beautiful and solid. I also got sample doors from Cliq which were very splotchy in their stains; also the one painted finish I ordered as a sample scratched with almost no effort. There have been positive and very negative reviews about Cliq on GW; I think Barker has only received kudos. For someone like me - with no time, space or skills to actually assemble cabinets - Diamond was a great alternative.

@anglophilia, we have a lot of pillows too! I sleep on 2 and DH sleeps on 1-2 and hugs another. Right now my setup is awful, but I usually put 3 standards in back, topped with 2 kings, then 2 standard shams, then 1 accent. DH hates all the pillows, but we I use a king and standard and he uses all standards. It's such a mess to make the bed and look nice. I think with a setup like my mockup photo, I could hide our old smushy standard pillows behind the king shams if needed. Then add king pillows in white pillowcases, then a couple accent pillows. I want to break up the sham and duvet pattern since they are the same.