You need my SHOPPING GRID! I've even convinced a co-worker it's the best way. I made an Excel spreadsheet (I can send it to you if you have Excel) with one-inch squares on it, and it's always in my checkbook. Each square gets a person's name. As I think of ideas for that person, I write it down. As I buy the gifts on sale throughout the year (I can't handle the stress of last-minute shopping and I always shop the sales!) I put a check by that gift. When that person's gifts are purchased, I cross off their square. Ta-dum! If you stick to the grid, you'll never over-buy for one person and not the other. (And if one person ends up with 3 small/inexpensive gifts and the other one large/expensive gift, wrap up the small ones as if they were one...I do that with my kids and as long as they have the same number of packages to open, they're happy.) Having multiple ideas ready also helps make the shopping easier. For example, if your nephew's list says "dress shirt" and "sweatshirt", buy the one that's on sale the week you're at the mall.... Julie jbeadle@twmi.rr.com

Honestly, I think the Buttermilk is a little too yellow for your honey colored cabinets. It's also the same type of pattern as your floor tile. I would use the Caesarstone Chocolate Truffle as it will tie your cabinets together with the floor, having both the rich honey tones and the lighter beige tones of your floor tiles. I think it's a better fit and adds a bit more pattern and punch.

Renovation Sanity Recipe: 100 lbs of HUMOR, 50 lbs of SELF DEPRECATION (to ignite more humor) 20 cups of EXAGGERATION his helps the humor to be funny to others. a tablespoon of BAD TEMPER. I know it is easy to dumb all the bad temper in but use no more than a teaspoon with loved ones. I speak from doing this recipe BAD TEMPER almost ruined my reno. Too much can burn the entire recipe. 4 cups of MAKE IT EASY for yourself. Dinners out, easy meals, visit friends for dinner stop the hunger. Hungry people can be mean!!! 200 lbs of FANTASY, imagination or creative dreaming This helps to bond the other ingredients into a visual plan) Dream about what it will look like with your eyes closed while sitting in bed. Dream before bed and when you wake. 50 lbs of GW Kitchens. This is the place to find encouragement. Ecouragement is a huge ingredient often over looked. You can dump in 1000 lbs. It will only help. 100 lbs of BE GOOD TO YOU. This is hard to find. You might have to shop around or look high and love. You might need to visit Sephora for perfume, a new lipstick or maybe a kitchen store to buy a trinket. Bubble baths if you have running water, a nice walk, yoga, medidate, hug your dog, paint your toenails, take a nap, put your feet up... Keep looking you will find BE GOOD TO YOU. It comes in various shapes and sizes. 1 adult BEVERAGE to easy those vicious moments and put a smile on your face. Okay maybe three but more than 3 and you might find the reno gets worked on and things are not measured correctly. A handful of MUSIC. Whatever makes you smile Dave Matthews, B52s, Blk Eyed peas, Outkast, Rollingstones, Taylor Swift... Doesn't matter just so long as you play some. Music truly soothes my beast side. 100 SMILES a day Even if you have to force them. Especially to children who are sort of lost in the dust a smile helps them see you are not the mean reno lady. 1000 lbs of PATIENCE. I know this to is truly hard to come by. And for me this was the most expensive part of my reno recipe. I found myself running out of it all the time. I lost patience even after I got some. It would disappear when I saw the dent in the wall, the range sticking out too far, the floor restaind for the 3rd time, the unbalanced shelves, the cabinets, the refrig, the wires getting stuck, the .....AHHHH I had better stop or I'll run out of the patience I just got. Don't want to looooose it. Anyway, You are not alone. Maybe this recipe can help you. ~boxerpups

The only positive thing that the basement has going for it is that it's 7 feet tall (I'm 6'4). I'm moving back in with my father, and we've agreed that the basement would a good space for me to live until I finish college in a couple years (and hopefully for not too longer after that). This coincided with him purchasing a new (old) home closer to the city. After merging two homes and different styles of decor, we immediately began renovations on the basement. The inspector beforehand revealed water leaking into the basement, which isn't uncommon in the area. He however didn't tell us anything about mold issues - which I guess we were just blindly hopefully convincing ourselves didn't happen. The basement was waterproofed, and we were none the wiser. In came our contractor, and like a typical HGTV house reno, it snowballed out of control from something cosmetic, to my dad having to drop increasingly large amounts of money on the basement. We lost the beautiful, irreplaceable wall paneling, but saved most of the trimming. After yanking down the awful fluorescent lighting today, another expense hit us. Electrical work :/. We were wanting to put up some nice, custom wainscoting and some nice flooring down. But it looks like the drywall and the seemingly newer carpet that was down there (that miraculously seems to be the only thing that wasn't damaged!) will have stay for a while. There's so much character in the home throughout the formal rooms, bedrooms, etc. that we fell in love with. And now the basement will be lacking most of that. Gutted Partially fixed. The grave site of the fluorescent lighting that has brought us more doom. Totally venting right now. Hoping nothing else goes awry.