It was fun reading all these titles, so many of which are favorites of mine. And one un-favorite: I hated Memoirs of a Geisha so much, I wanted to write to the publisher and demand my time back. I can forgive a lot of things, but not bad writing! It prompted me to send out an email to my friends and relatives asking them what book they hated to the point of outrage. (Clear winner: The Celestine Prophesy -- boy, do people hate that book!) I adore Bryson. I am just finishing A Brief History of Nearly Everything, and I love love love it. I won't repeat the ones others have mentioned. Here are a few you may not have heard of that are absolutely wonderful: A Lesson Before Dying New York Trilogy (read them as one book) The Metaphysical Club (don't let the name fool you) Defining the Wind (beautiful writing and hilarious) The first two are novels, the other two are sort of history of ideas. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Don't give up on War and Peace! It's just long, not hard, and it's terrific. He LOVES people -- if you like Ann Tyler, you'll like Tolstoy. The only tricky part is the names. One edition of W&P even comes with a bookmark that keeps them straight, or you can keep your own chart. But new translations of Tolstoy simplify the names as a matter of translation, which made Anna Karenina very easy to read. Reread Charlotte's Web now that you are an adult and can appreciate what an incredible piece of writing and philosophy it is. Some book!

niteshadepromises - Now that I see your roof plan, I remember your lot and its design issues from when you first posted about it months ago. A VERY difficult space to work with indeed. Having looked at your roof plan, I agree that your architect DID provide a drainage route for every point on the roof. The spot that I was originally worried about (marked with a red X below) is intended to drain toward the front of the house and fall off the roof right where that ladder is leaned up against the house in the very last picture you posted. So that's good but... I still see two problems, one with the roof as designed and one with the roof as it was actually built: First, EVERY portion of the roof that I've shaded in green on the drawing above is ALSO designed to drain at exactly the same spot! Without exact dimensions, I can't calculate the total roof area that will drain toward that approximately 2 ft wide edge of the roof. But, assuming that the secondary bathroom that is visible thru the roof plan is approximately 40 sq ft, I would guesstimate that the sections of roof that are shaded green cover about 1000 sq ft of floor space. Did your architect discuss with you or have you thought about what having that much roof drain to one location is going to mean when it rains? The national weather service describes any rain up to 0.3 inches/hour as merely a moderate rain. Anything over 0.3 inches per hour is considered heavy. And if you search the internet, you will find plenty of stories about thunderstorms dropping 4 and 5 inches of rain in an hour and you'll even find some stories about even heavier amounts of rain falling in an hour. Obviously then, it is probably not terribly unusual for a heavy rain to drop 0.5 to 1 inches of rain in an hour. 1/2 inch of rain falling on 1000 sq ft in one hour would be over 300 gallons of water that has to drain in one hour. 1 inch would be over 600 gallons and so on. Let's say you get a storm that drops 0.5 inch of rain over a one hour period. That means you are going to have 300 gallons of rainwater pouring off of your roof at that one narrow roof edge in a single hour. 300 gallons per hour is 5 gallons per minute. That's twice the flow rate of a shower head. And it's going to be coming down as a sheet of water against that very short section of rain guttering. And, what if you get a cloudburst that drops that same 1/2 inch of rain in a 15 minute period? It happens....a lot! (I live in central Texas and we don't get that much rain...barely 30 inches a year...but just a couple of days ago we got 3/4 of an inch of rain in a 20 minute period followed by another half inch in less than an hour a little later the same day. And I've seen worse storms.) If you get 1/2 inch of rain in a 15 minute period, for that 15 minute period, water is going to be pouring off your roof at that one spot at a rate of 20 gallons per minute!!!! Will that short section of gutter be able to channel that much water that fast? Remember too that water weighs 8 lbs per gallon so 20 gallons weighs 160 lbs. I would be surprised if that much water did not simply tear the gutters lose completely. And, if the rain either overflows your gutters (or tears them loose completely) all of that water is going to be pouring down from a height of about 10 feet and hitting the ground just a few feet from your front door. Imagine the size of the splash it is likely to make... and the hole that the falling rain is going to dig. With your door so close, it is going get covered with mud. And there is no way you would be able to open the door during a heavy rainstorm without water splashing into the house. And that is the problem I see with the roof "as it was originally designed." Problem number 2 is that the original roof design has obviously been altered by the addition of that cupola/turret that is not shown on the original roof plan. (I'm actually curious as to exactly how the cupola is supported but that is a different issue entirely.) And, did your architect also sign off on the addition of the cupola to the roof? Anyway, here's the issue: While it is hard to tell from the pictures just how big the cupola is, I'm guessing that it is located directly over the circular staircase and therefore has the same diameter as the staircase. I'm guessing that because, as a design feature, having the cupola smaller than the staircase simply would not look terribly good. If I'm right about the size and location of the cupola, then from the roof diagram, it looks like the staircase (and thus the cupola) sits where I've shown the yellow circle in the diagram below. Notice how the yellow circle cuts off the red drainage line I had before. In fact, all rain draining from the entire area I've reshaded to purple is going to be at least partially blocked by the cupola. It will have to be diverted into that narrow space between the edge of the cupola and the edge of the roof that is directly to the left of the cupola on the diagram. The purple section looks to cover about 200 sq feet. A half inch of rain in an hour falling on a 200 sq ft area would add up to t0 about 60 gallons of water. That 60 gallons is going to have between the edge of the cupola and that roof immediately to the left. 60 gallons is the equivalent of a bathtub full of water. Worse, if anything at all (a few twigs and leaves or an old bird's nest) should happen to fall on the roof and get washed by a light rain down towards that narrow V, it is likely to become lodged in the V and basically create a dam to hold water back. Then you're going to have rain water collecting up against the back side of the cupola until it gets deep enough to find an alternate route down. And, when the rain ends, some water is going to remain pooled in that V. I really hate to say it but I foresee significant roof problems ahead. I hope I'm wrong but...

Gee when it's 52 degrees here and you still see nuts in shorts. Oops I mean people in shorts. The snow is coming by noon today but usually we start 2 hours earlier than they say or don't get any at all. Hubby was hunting his long underwear this morning and I told him they were in the wash. Well they are...and he found a pair of old white ones. Sent for the Cooking Light magazine - they sent me an offer I could not refuse - $10 for a year. Here is a recipe I found in my recipe box yesterday. Will need to try some of the recipes I keep. This one sounds good. Hearty beef barley soup 2 t oil 20 baby carrots - chopped (or 2 medium - chopped) 1 large onion - chopped 2 celery stalks - chopped 2 t minced garlic (note I buy this in a jar) 1 14 ounce can ff chicken broth 1 " " " " beef broth 3 cups water 3/4 cup quick (10 minute cook time) barley if you use regular barley cook it seperately to package directions except for the last 10 minutes 1 package (1 pound) already cooked beef tips in gravy Heat oil in Dutch Oven (If you don't have one saute vegs in skillet and then add to larger pot) Add veggies and onion until they start to soften (about 2 minutes) Add garlic, both cans of broth and water stir Add barley and beef and gravy, simmer until barley is tender. 201 calories 6 servings

@Alex P In theory, cabinets could be leveled to precisely the same height so that a countertop material would sit right down flat on top with no shimming. In reality, this almost never happens. Even with the very best technology in cabinetry leveling like using EZ-Level bracing which remains intact over time, you are still looking at having to shim a countertop of any type at least in a few places even in the best of circumstances. Regular cabinetry shims can shift over time depending on how they are applied, affecting your long-term stability prospects. For a countertop material that is already prone to cracking such as porcelain is, this becomes a great risk to try to shim that material with no underlayment for support, even at a 20 mm thickness. I would be more comfortable relying on the MSI guidelines for something like a small bathroom vanity countertop rather than a full kitchen where you will almost be guaranteed to need to shim the porcelain to bring it level across the largest run of your countertop area, thus leaving gaps between shims rather than the full support a subtop would provide. That is why you rarely see porcelain countertops without an underlayment unless it is for a small area like a bathroom. If you want the edge to be thin and polished without an underlayment, what this means is that you will need to specify your cabinetry to be constructed with full subtops and then somehow get them all perfectly level and ensure that there will be no shifting of the cabinetry or foundation in years to come, and then lay the porcelain down without shimming it if at all possible. Your idea of metal trim to cover an underlayment is creative, but remember that Schluter is designed to be anchored into grout, so you would need to be confident that you could secure it in an alternate manner before going that direction since you won't have any grout or tile adhesive in that area. I mentioned honed Absolute Black granite because it is much lighter than the polished type. Some varieties present in a gray color like concrete which is why your description reminded me of it. Soapstone also comes in a matte gray variety. I put soapstone in my own kitchen and love it, and it is considered to be a modern material for current kitchen design. Prepare for heartbreak if you do go with porcelain under any circumstances. Cracking and chipping with porcelain can happen, and it can happen to you, sometimes beyond any hope of warranty coverage. I liked the look of porcelain and its wear properties, but after much research including seeing cracks and chips in finished applications and talking to experienced fabricators, I decided to spare myself the risk. I have been thoroughly happy with the soapstone instead and recommend it if you cannot find anything else suitable. Even a honed marble like Danby would present fewer headaches for you than porcelain or concrete, I think.