Nobody lost their homes, Melissa. This is a little bitty river so they probably got water damage about a foot deep. They replace the flooring, some sheetrock, and sell it to another victim. Because of the drought, the last set of victims showed up years ago. All of this occurs because we have no laws against it. I live half a mile from the river, and I've seen the water almost get here. Most of the trouble with this river is all the little bends and turns were straightened out and cleared for crop land. Then they made irrigation ditches to turn out the excess water. All those old cowboys are riding in the sky now, and everything is mostly subdivided. I guess there is federal grant money through the Clean Water Act to fix up and restore wetlands. Don't know how to get some, though. Say, I'm a lucky woman, though. Chance of thunderstorms through the weekend-50 percent. AND the band has to work.

Read Lilyfinch's post...thought she had been sneaking around looking at my house. read everyone else's posts and wonder how you all managed to snoop around here without my seeing you! ;) I did repaint the kitchen walls Saybrook Sage and love it, but the crummy cabinets I painted a creamy white when we moved in need to be repainted-might need to board the dogs, though, or hair will be all over the new paint...and new paint all over the dogs probably! Would love hardwoods and new countertops and a new induction cooktop, but that goes beyond what I can do now. Do need to recaulk around the backsplash, too! The garage needs cleaning, but DH is a hoarder and we can't possibly get rid of anything! At least I can get my car in. His is parked outside. The basement is a nightmare, too-son's old bedroom stuffed with stuff cleaned out of my parents' home three years ago (or has it been 4 years?) *sigh* I should be doing something today, but school has been so busy with long hours and working on Saturdays that I may just be lazy today. Of course, one more cup of tea and maybe I will be energized! Thanks for the inspiration to get busy!!!!

I got up and hooked up my 33 gal trash can to my roof runoff drain and it stopped raining. Weather.com said it would rain all day but as usual they were completely wrong so I go no rain water. I have noticed that my 10 warmest established plants (along the south side of my house) have the most inflo development and my coldest plants are still totally dormant. These 10 also have the warmest night locations with the house radiating heat from the day. Plants with more day sun but are exposed to more cool at night, are still behind. Shows how complex the factors are for coming out of dormancy and inflo development. Also, i think the flower is a fluke (is almost open today) as most of my plants are on par for mid May to mid July for flowers, but these 10 should be flowering in April (Bali Whirl, Vera Cruz Rose, Cindy Moragne, Kimi Moragne, Cerise, My Valentine, Moragne 23, an unknown white, and a so called Bill Moragne which is more like an Eva Lani). Time will tell. Bill

Forget about adding yet another system just to get heat in the kitchen, mini ducts or mini split. Although I am a booster of the latter and it just might be an last ditch option, but I can't imagine it in your situation.. If you are talking high velocity mini ducts, that is, I believe, a specialized furnace that you'd need to add for just one room. bcarlson is sending you down the right track if you just need to add heat to the area. He did not get into all the details. You should definitely consider adding radiant floor heat if that is possible. You need to get a good hydronic heating person to look at your boiler and the mix of heat emitters that you have and that you want. A good designer can help you fit it all together. I'd keep an eye on designing the system with a new efficient boiler down the line if you plan on staying for any length of time in the home. As bcarlson wrote, aluminum fin convectors need higher temps than cast iron radiators. Toe kick heaters also work better at higher water temperatures. (At lower temperatures, you need more or bigger and that means even more noise.) Radiant floor heat needs low temperatures. To do all this, you need the controls, pumps and valves to make them all work with the same boiler. A modern boiler works best with as low a water temp as practical. You really need someone that knows what they are doing.