victoriandream, My DH is an attorney & banker. He is NOT a handyman although he tries...Bless his heart. We are both gardeners &, if I do say so myself, accomplished gardeners. So, we've done the garden restoration & hired 95% of the home renovations. It took us about 15 minutes with a heat gun to realize that we were never going to be able to strip all that paint off the millwork ourselves. And, if we did we would ruin the woodwork! :) There are times in economic & societal cycles when historic homes ARE a good investment. We are not now nor have we been in that type of cycle for, maybe, the past 8 years thereabouts. Will it again turn in favor of historic homes? Sure, but who knows when? Just like...if one had such a desire...avacado-green carpet is again available. (Ugh!) Everything is cyclical. You should, IMO, never purchase an historic home with the intention of making a bundle. That's not realistic. Facts are that it costs considerably more to restore these homes than it would to bulldoze & build new on the site. Those pesky appraisers & lenders don't share our emotional attachments so they often block our dreams of grandeur. In many cases, they save us from ourselves! Yes, we had kids. The ranged in age from 8 to 13 when we purchased that 1848 colonial. Our son is a pro at stripping wallpaper! During their teen years they had great ghost stories to entertain their friends! They may have suffered from things we did as parents (?); but I don't believe living in a period home did them any lasting damage. LOL You will know your stewardship is over when you hesitate before starting the next project. Or, you'll know when the checkbook is running on fumes because you can't even stay in a period home, much less restore it, without being bankrolled. They suck money like a vacuum from your wallet. Your daughter is precious! And, what a grand lady your home is! Wonderful that you've got old pictures for a guide. Did you have to strip ALL that millwork? OMG! I think you've done a lovely job of maintaining the 'feel' for the kitchen while still bringing to a 21st century functionality. I love the windows. The windows in our 1848 home were narrow & tall. Window treatments were like trying to dress spaghetti! Yes, our East Lake, Brilliant Period Cut Glass, & tapestries would have worked wonderfully in your home. The auction was sorta fun...we've actually done that thing twice (auctioning off our entire household...that's how we've managed to upgrade our collections...buy, sell & then re-purchase fewer but higher quality pieces). I've got a cupboard that would be lovely in your kitchen...it's c. 1865 so very appropriate to your home. Here's its official description: A circa 1860-1870 step-back cupboard having pie shelf beneath shaped apron beneath a top case consisting of pair of paneled doors with tombstone and molded design with applied cornice molding. Top case rests on bottom case; double drawers above conforming paneled doors having recessed tombstone and molded design matching doors in top case; side panels of lower case also with inset tombstone shaped panels; side of bottom case terminates with successful "cupids bow" base cutout; front apron and feet conform to shaping above pie shelf. This cupboard retains desirable original chrome yellow surface with red highlights; faux birds eye decoration. (84-inches tall X 45-inches wide X 19 1/8-inches deep.) That's funny about you wanting to become boaters! We started with a small 21' sport lobster boat & quickly got a bad case of "Two-footitis". That's a common disease amongst boaters & it's contagious. We ended up with this...she's a Nordic Tug outfitted for long-distance cruising...the Bahamas to Maine. Stay away from boat shows. They are dangerous places! rofl I can really understand why you fell in love with your home & I'm sure she's grateful for your efforts. I know this may sound like blasphemy; but, have you considered a B&B? If not your heart, at least your tax returns would thank you. :) Your family will make many wonderful memories living in that house. If it were me, I'd sigh & start on that siding before the season gets away! :) /tricia

Wisconsin was on the list, but I'm sorry dear...I need the entire 6000 sq ft :oP I want a big sewing room and DH insists on adequate wine storage...we have a 3 year old so that's a LOT of wine. Speaking of wine...do you drink? I think taking up drinking always helps with old house restoration issues :oP You know, we've taken this question of yours and applied it to all of the homes we've looked at throughout the country, mostly in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Washington. These big old beauties in particular are rather daunting when it comes to the sheer magnatude of work required to do the basic stuff that has to be done regularly, let alone the every so often stuff like new roofs. The one we had agreed to go ahead on had a serious need for an immediate paint job outside. $30,000!!! Ouch and you get to do that how many times in a lifetime? But if you can afford to love the joint, without being rediculous (we have looked at a couple of houses that were just too far gone to make it a wise investment) it is a rewarding task, especially with a beauty like yours. One of the houses we seriously considered was Starrett House (in port townsend wa, google it...it's gorgeous) ok it's gorgeous on the outside, and superficially on the inside, but when you start poking around you realize the serious needs. That gorgeous home, for sale for about a million, needs about a million put into it to bring it back to the show house it as when I was a little girl. It's an amazing home, and I absolutely would love to do it, but at that amount it's a rediculous purchase. I guess that would be the definative "unhealthy investment" although you'd be buying one of the nicest and most distinct homes in the pacific NW so I can see how someone could be talked into believing it was worthwhile...we even caught ourselves trying to justify the purchase LOL I hope your beauty has many many years ahead of her. She's amazing and if you stay or sell, I'm sure she's the type of home that will find the right people...homes like that normally do!

Chlorine, when energized, escapes the water and enters the atmosphere. This is off gassing. UV light from the sun will energize it. Cyanuric acid, aka CYA or stabilizer keeps the chlorine sort of busy so even if it does get some energy from the UV, it isn't enough to keep it from "playing" with the CYA in the water.This also can keep it from doing work though so having too much CYA prevents Free Chlorine. aka FC, from doing it's jobs of oxidation and killing biological pathogens. Generally speaking, you need about 5 to 7% of the ppm count of CYA for FC with salt cell equipped pools and 8 to 10% for all other forms of feeding chlorine to a pool. Too much CYA, and the elevated levels of FC are very difficult to make happen on a regular basis. If the CYA were 150 ppm, can you see trying to maintain a residual of 12 to 15 ppm? Drop the CYA to 30 ppm and 2 ppm of FC is much easier and costs less. Please note that salt cell equipped pools often have somewhat higher levels of CYA and FC to reduce the cell's ON time so it lasts longer. Generally, pools, when on, they either have a tablet feeder or tabs in the skimmer (generally not a good idea, BTW) or a salt cell which won't work without water moving. Pools get the most use during the day. Activity will cause some gas off too, in addition to the demands that sweat, tanning lotions, killing bio-badies, etc... place on the residual FC in the pool. These can deplete a pool pretty quickly if the FC isn't replenished as it's being used. You need to keep that residual FC in there. Running at night when nobody is there doesn't help the swimmers if it isn't there when they are. Without the UV of the sun, aka night, the FC stays put. The water is safe. I do recommend keeping the pump running whenever there are swimmers using the pool, day or night. Scott

Am 63, have a very similar kitchen design but without the islands. Just moved into the part-finished kitchen addition this month. We made the decision to include a second one-basin full-sized sink on the U opposite the wash-up sink--but our basement below is unfinished so the plumbing change is easier than yours. The prep sink has been installed but not plumbed and I sure wish it was--even though I am home alone this month! Generally DH and I are empty nesters but the kitchen will be used also during times of intense use when we have a party or when our chicks return as houseguests. I look at that sink longingly and dream of September when the water will flow. Meanwhile, since this is a working kitchen, it's more important than ever to keep dishes washed and stuff put away as I process garden veg and wash formerly stored kitchen gear. That second sink would be soooo helpful right now. If you are buying high-end faucets and sinks, that really pushes the costs up. Buy a reasonably priced pair of sinks and faucets and spend the rest on the plumber and a new ceiling in the basement room. Don't let the fashion fever of GW and the magazines skew your priorities. You are more likely to regret the absence of the second sink than the loss of some of the other glam stuff.