seasidecottage .. i love your name! Its my dream house... lol Anyway, i recently added an arbor to my yard. I bought it for 150 at lowes, and am really pleased with it. But i wish i had waited to build my own,,,so i wonder, are you handy? If you need it to be cheap you could find a woodworking plan to build your own. I found the perfect swing arbor plan for myself on amazon . Im not sure what you want planted on it, or how sturdy you need it, but ive seen an arbor made out of 3 old wooden rung ladders. So charming! Perfect for annuals. When i was searching for an arbor i looked online but decided local would be best..because shipping can get crazy and its nice to see in person the quality. Good luck!! i realize this post may be of no help..lol

Yay! (You will love it.) Not to mention the clutter-control is beyond great! ;) You know, I always take a lot of books too, and even had one to take with me this time while we're on the road. I decided to read it while I was still at home, and only take my Kindle. (I need those audio books however!) It's hard to downsize sometimes, but I'm down to a briefcase size rollerbag and a tote bag for three weeks. (I keep trying to pare things down, but you need a certain amount.) The Kindle should help things immensely! After you get some reading in, let us know how you like the page, visually. Initially, I wasn't sure I'd really like it myself, but find it's fine. I thought having the page backlit might help, but not having that as a feature really saves on the battery. Remember to turn your Wireless OFF when you're not using it. It saves tremendously on the battery and you'll be able to read for a very long time!

Our bank, which is a smaller, but stable bank has changed their rules 3 times in last 4-5 months. I have been waiting on quotes for over 6 weeks now that keep pushing us back. Even though we wouldn't fall into the subprime, buy it now above our means group, (we have scores over 750, decent income, have more than the 20% down,) they are now looking for proof of reserve for overage ~%10, as they are adamant there will be no money available to us, for refinance after completion. Keep in mind this is for a one close construction loan. My banker understood my being upset about having to have use my 401k as proof, we have been and are a long time client of the bank, and I feel as even though we did everything right by buying the land first and paying it off, we are getting the hard time becuase of others lack of responsibility and integrity. Two years ago when we bought the land, it was about as easy as can be, at least 25% down, did all the paperwrok and closed in 3 weeks. Times they are a changing. The banker agreed that in theory they are not looking for 20% in that case but really 30%, and if that was the case why wouldn't we just put the 30% down if we had it available. Also it is calculated by the lower amount of either what we are asking for or what it is appraised at, so even though I will be doing some of the work, and a family member and I framing, I still need to submit quotes to show all of that in order to get 75-80% financing. In the end if I defaulted the day I got my CO the bank would own the house at 65-70% of today's true appraised value right off the bat. Thus they are going back to extremely low risk lending. Most other banks in the area have cut their construction loan programs, and I know of 2 people more than 50% through a renovation through home equity, where their home equity got cut, and there is not money to finish. These are not deliquent payers, in fact one had been in their house for 8 years no credit issues, and were doing an addition. It may sound ludicrous, and we were told we were fine everytime even as they changed the rules, but I see that it will affect everyone. I also have seen contractor give higher prices in order to make up for possible slowdowns, while I have seen others give fair prices to keep themselves going.

just keep in mind that android tablets let you install the kindle app and the nook app so you can have all of those on one device. It really depends on your needs and wants as to what you get. the tablet with the best sound that I have owned was the vizio it had 3 speakers so no matter which direction you held it in you had stereo and the sound was fantastic. Wish more manufacturers would be more interested in the sound quality and take a lesson and put at least 3 or 4 speakers on them. I often struggle hearing with the one small speaker especially on my phone. I love love love my new Asus transformer tf300 10" tablet with dock but it too could use some improvement in the sound and speaker department. My husband still absolutely loves his lookbook in fact he now has his and mine and I am trying to make him transition over to my Vizio tablet so he has more options and can do other things on it. He is fighting me he wants to stick with his lookbook he is not a fan of the touch screen he keeps touching things by accident then I hear swearing lol. He is not a good student is all I have to say LOL That lookbook is extremely light weight you will not likely find any tablet that is that light.