State politics is a BIG issue as far as retirement goes. Weather or not you may have Medicare, medicaid, or ANY kind of breaks or help etc. largely depends on whether or not your state government is progressive democrat or reich wing nutters out to destroy anything that could remotely help retirees and those on lower income. I did live in California most of my life, however had to come to NC to help my mother for the past 18 years. She recently passed away age 95 so we are leaving this reich wing hell hole asap. I lived in Oregon for 6 months and loved it. Most areas in California that I would like to live is FAR to expensive for us. Our old house in Newport Beach that my family bought in 1975 for $25,000 last sold for $1.7 MILLION. We could not possibly find anything there even remotely in our price range, even for rent. We just went on a 27 day cross country trip, camping along the way. Went back to my old stomping grounds and saw our old house. Would move back to Southern California in a heartbeat if we won the lottery. However we have to exist on our retirement which is only about $4,200 a month, plus fortunately cost of living raises per year. So we spent 5 days in Bend Oregon on this trip to get a feel of it, for my wife to see it and to look at homes we can afford. She absolutely fell in love with Bend and why wouldn't she bend is like Shangri-La compared to Raleigh NC. We found several homes just south of Bend ON the Deschutes River with a dock, about a 1/2 acre of land usually, 2+ car garage, plus large workshop plus HUGE RV parking garage the size of a blimp hanger and all for under $200,000. I just now was actually looking on Zillow at a couple places in Florence Oregon right on the coast for the same price range and right on the water. Oregon is literally like being on a different planet compared to NC. Nice weather,(if you are east of the Cascades) very few bugs, low humidity, gorgeous country side, blue as blue can be politically so you know the state legislature isn't sitting there doing nothing but trying to come up with ways to screw you 24/7 like virtually every single red state is. Unless you are very well off with LOTS of money in the bank and a big retirement of at least $100K+ per year then you are a damn fool to live in a red state and or vote for Tpublicans. Sadly politics rules virtually everything we do, especially if you are lower income making less than $150K a year. That is just a fact we must live with and a fact you had better acknowledge and accept when looking for a place to retire. There are no Republicans left only Tpublicans and 100% of them are stark raving insane and have no more care for the bottom 98% than they do an ant on the sidewalk. I only hope my wife and I can sell our house asap before this positively insane batch of nuts that are now in 100% totalitarian control of the NC legislature drag down the state even further.

We recently installed 1400 s.f. of slate flooring for a client (historical home). We sourced the slate and requested samples from two suppliers in Vermont: http://www.vtslate.com/flooring.htm http://www.vermontstructuralslate.com/ Note that Vermont Specialty Slate (first one above) has 2 more options not on website: Heathermoor and Greyson. Ordered from Vermont Specialty once selection was made. We fabricated much of the slate to the specific sizes we needed for the complex pattern. You would need to fabricate as well to replicate your pattern. Your installer can determine what sizes and quantity of each size to minimize fabricating labor and waste. A very good tile contractor should be up to this task (research well). Our cost was $11.25/s.f. plus freight, but prices vary depending upon the selection. Note that fabrication labor adds to your cost. As stated above, sealer can be applied to create the polished finish. And yes, a stone restoration contractor can clean and restore the current slate. A company like this: http://www.nsmarble.com/  but obviously one local to you. Great floor. Keep it. Best of luck.

HI there, one of the key "exercises" we do with clients is look at the home's style, region and your lifestyle. First, you typically want to have a kitchen that "matches" the style of your home (Traditional? Modern?). Then, you want to have what the wine growers call a sense of "terroir", that is, the area in which you live (desert? mountain?). You want to have a space that fits into the vernacular, as we designers say. If you have a unique architectural or historic home, you want to have respect for that and express its style, if at least for resale value. For example, if you have a 60s Eichler home (very valued now) you might want to consider recreating that style of kitchen to ensure good saleability. Last but not least, look at your lifestyle: are you casual or formal people? Do you entertain often? Are there kids? These criteria, and more, will help you at least narrow down your choices. Elimination of what you DON'T want is a great step forward! All best!

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