Melissa, I was wondering the same thing about the Oriental poppies. Just wanted to post an update. I planted out all of the annual poppies two weeks ago, and they have made it through several nights of freezing temps, LOTS of strong winds, etc. and survived just fine. They are even starting to show some growth. I'm pretty certain now that the problem last year was that it was too warm by the time I planted them out. That high altitude sun can really fry young sprouts! I'll try to get some pictures of my baby poppies to post. Bonnie

Duh. I stand corrected. Me foolish, not them. I meant to say black on white. I'd be surprised if the 9/64 is the security type because it is not even laminated. Too small maybe for that? I have see the security kind, also very new, in a different section with a different code format. Can't find out much about it. Not really sure what it does when it gets "tampered with". Be cool if it beeped or smoked or threw red dye, but I doubt it does much other than "show" it has been messed with.

I don't dress up for Halloween, but we do get over 70 kids come to the door. I always make treat bags as I dislike kids who try to grab handfuls of candy or complain about what I have. I hand them a bag and comment on their costume. I usually decorate the day of Halloween. Both my daughters still like to go to parties and dress up. They are 26 and 28. Honestly though, since my kids are grown and I really don't know the new young families, I can't say I enjoy distributing the candy. I enjoyed knowing the kids who came to the door. My friends and I would call each other with the "sighting" reports of seeing each others kids.

I agree that your realtor's and the market's opinions make the most sense and should drive your decision. However, you did ask for our personal opinions, so here goes. For example you consider to purchase my place and you like it. Say, you like it a lot. It has many redeeming qualities. And then you see the kitchen needs some love. You can tell exactly it's 25 years old kitchen. Functional, comfortable, but outdated, and visibly worn out in some spots. As a buyer-how much would you expect me to go down in listing price? In numbers. As a buyer, I'd expect the cost of your home to be the cost of a similar, yet fully-updated home, less the cost of remodeling, and then maybe also less another $20,000-$30,000 or so to make it worth my while to undertake the bother of remodeling. For our one-bedroom condo, we paid $350,000 for a complete fixer upper. Hadn't been touched or changed since 1974 when it was built to the height of 1974 fashion. Comparable condos that had similar specs/locations and were already updated were selling in the realm of $450,000 at that time. Our remodel cost us about $70,000 with the various fun surprises we had during the remodel. Or would you think-"I have to redo it anyway, it doesn't matter"? To me, your kitchen would be a gut job. It's rare to replace worn cabinets without replacing everything else (and the brown phase of the '90s is my least favorite trend of the last 50 years). Therefore, your efforts to pretty it up slightly would be totally wasted on me and I would definitely think, as you say, "I have to redo it anyway, so it doesn't matter." I'm not going to pay more for cabinets I'm ripping out just because they have paint added to them before I rip them out. What would make a difference to me (short of complete remodel) is the difference between an unusable gut job and a gut job that is still functional. The latter means I can live in and use the house immediately and update over time. The former means remodeling before the house is at all useful or functional to me. Therefore, if you were trying to appeal to me, you have already said it's functional, but I'd polish it up as much as possible in that respect. Fix anything that's cumbersome or not working. Make sure the doors/drawers move smoothly and close properly. Tighten up hardware. Replace any appliances that aren't working or are a total pain to use with something newer and functional from craigslist. Take down things that are blocking natural light if it's free/easy to do so. If the faucet and/or sink are annoying to use and cheaply (sub-$300) replaced, then replace those. Basically anything that fights you or makes you want to rip your hair out and the house apart on a daily basis. Try to reduce all problems to things that are solely aesthetic or things you definitely cannot change with an expensive remodel. If you have a good layout, that'd also appeal to me, so be sure to point that out in your listing. Remodeling without needing to move anything is WAY cheaper than rejigging the whole kitchen/whole house. It does seem as if your target buyer is someone who is planning a remodel, so I'd advertise it in a way that caters to the remodelers and never mind what people looking for turn-key beauty would find slightly more appealing.