Wow, thanks so much for all the input. I asked the city inspector about the perc test and he said it wasnt needed since we arent needing a septic system. I called around to differant engineers but they all seem to be in the same price range .10 to .30 a sqaure foot. I chose the engineer we are going with because he is familiar with the city of selma and has done some work for other people in my neighborhood. We arent dealing with rock (luckily). My future neighboor is a general contractor who built his home and the neighbor's to our other side and he said that around here it is general practice to just figure out what kind of soil we are building on...nothing to technical. Hmm...??? I dont know it seems like we do things differant here in texas or maybe just in this small city. Doesnt seem like its a good thing though... On the upside, pricing is great around here. I have gotten some pretty in depth quotes from differant builders ranging from $118,000 to $148,000 for about a 2300 sq ft home. Our lot costs $21,000 (1/2 acre). Its not anything to impressing but its our first home and our dream home. The only upgrades are travertine tile through out the house and granite counter tops, those were some of my most important wants (not needs by any means).

to actually answer your question you can buy several brand computers with xp installed on them instead of Vista if that is what you really want. I was just looking at buy.com and tigerdirect.com and found several listed there that come standard with xp. Also if you choose to go to a site that does custom builds you can pick what ever operating system you want, not all charge you to downgrade, some can come with xp rather than vista you choose your operating system. XP is going to be supported till 2010 is what MS is saying currently, that can change it can be extended no one knows what MS might do. However if you would want to go to Windows 7 when it comes out in about a year just know that you can not do an upgrade from XP to Windows 7 you would have to do a wipe clean and full install of Windows 7. You could check your local area for shops that do custom built computers and get exactly what you want on your pc. This site is a custom build site that has high ratings if you click on any one of the ones they show there is a customize button there which opens up the customize feature where you pick an choose what you want you can pick your operating system too. What ever you feel strongly about then go with that you will be the one using that pc. Welcome to Cyberpowerpc.com this is one example from buy.com Lenovo ThinkCentre A57 Desktop - 9702-A5U when you look there for desktop computers on the left you can narrow your search and choose your Operating system they do have xp options. If you go with one that has Vista installed I would just stick with the Vista and do the changes that make Vista look more like xp did, you can get it downgraded to XP but it cost too much.

I didn't have any special problems turning up my Gateway Laptop with W8 a few months back. The biggest problems I had was learning (trial and error) to make one of the W8 tiles a start for Firefox (browser). When this is done the desktop converts to a W7 look. Yea, there's a lto of other "goodies" and I slowly started using them. In spite of the fact that it sometimes facilitates my crashing a dialog via my browser I love the "smart" touch pad. I find it hard using W7 laptop not being able to scroll using two fingers on the touch pad - I guess that's the feature I use the most. The last and only time I was ready to throw out a new notebook, an Acer, was when I couldn't get Vista to set up an network interface (best I can recall, these years later). But as I had purchased it from Walmart I just took it back and said I didn't want it - they refunded my purchase price. I found a demo laptop with XP and purchased it - that was my first Gateway.

I use bar cloths (bought in bulk) to wipe counters -- they're large, thick, and cotton. With an under-mount sink, I just fold it in half lengthwise,and hang it so that it's halfway on the countertop and half way hanging down the side of the sink, friction holds it in place. I always rinse and wring it out when I finish with it and before I put it there, so no puddles have ever formed. With under-mount sinks there's no caulking bead around the rim on the countertop to get nasty and moldy from having a damp cloth hanging over it, so no reason not to hang it there. I don't suppose you could do it if you had a wood countertop, but I'm assuming you're talking wood? I change towels out every morning, but use the same one throughout the day. It dries fairly well hanging there, I'm not sure if it drips into the sink from the hanging end, or if the water just evaporates, either way it has been working fine for a couple years now. Love the idea of a towel pig, but not only have I never found a suitable one, but I don't really need it, and am greedy with my countertop space -- especially near the sink, so no pig for me.