Are they crochet or sewing pattern? I have a CD of crochet patterns (some knit and sewing) that I have collected from the internet or other people have sent me. I could trade. If there is something particular you are looking for in trade, let me know. YOu can email me through my page here. Please put a note in the subject line that you are from the GardenWeb, otherwise I will think you are SPAM. LOL Thanks, Janie

Thanks for all the responses. Our remodel is expected to take anywhere from 5-10 weeks, depending on who we ask (LOL) and we are hiring people to do the work. We live in Central PA, and have narrowed it down to either a late May start (kids in school for first 3 weeks, then out for the rest of the reno) or an August start (kids home first 2 weeks and then in school for the rest). Either way I believe we will be able to take advantage of the grill and eating outdoors....We would never consider doing it in the winter--I think our realistic window is April-October. One thing I am concerned about with the first option is that the remodel will run long and we will not be able to take advantage of my husband's week off to go to the annual family reunion. I think I am leaning more and more towards the late summer start--could make for a crazy beginning to the school year, but we will know we can make plans for the summer without worrying we will have to cancel at the last minute.

More from my son: One of my podcasters just did a fantastic 5 part podcast about Survivor called First One Out. He talked with the woman who was FOO in season 1, and with others as well, then he interviewed everyone on this season of survivor. Some quick bits: Turns out that Ali and Patrick know each other from college. Friendly but not friends. Katrina was seen as aggressive and pushy, and at the ponderosa before the show she made some odd fashion choices that made her stand out in a bad way. The ponderosa is a 1 hour boat ride from the tribe beaches Ryan picked Roark from the healers tribe to get the immunity idol, had healers lost This is from his interview with Katrina after her boot from the tribe: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/survivor-season-35-first-one-reveals-what-went-wrong-1043745

Wow! What amazing words of wisdom - thank you for all your comments. Just to add a little color on some of the questions that were asked: We had our 3 kids very early, so while they are all off to college now my wife and I are still relatively young (48 & 46, respectively). We are still very healthy and active so we probably won't think seriously about retiring until we are around 55 or so. We have been working with an amazing architect over the past several months. He has been incredibly thoughtful in the design and flow of our house. It is absolutely beautiful. We are in the Midwest so part of the square footage includes basement space. The current design has about 3,600 sq ft on the main floor, 1,600 sq on the 2nd floor and about 2,200 finished sq ft in the basement for a total of roughly 7,400 sq feet of finished space. This does not include the 6-car garage, pool area or outdoor space. The first floor is pretty normal - foyer, kitchen, dining room, great room, master suite w/attached laundry, pantry, mud room, office, music room, lanai and a couple of half-baths. The 2nd floor has 3 bedroom suites and a laundry room The basement is where all the "nice to have's reside" For example, we have a large bar area, wine cellar, TV room, fitness room, dry sauna, play room (for future grandchildren), pool bathroom and a bunch of storage. The basement also walks out to a covered outdoor kitchen area which then flows into the pool area. We entertain a ton so we designed the basement to be very open and spacious. We also have a lake house that is a couple hours away. Honestly, we are thinking of selling it because we are not sure we will ever want to leave this house... although I think our kids will protest quite heavily because they love to go to the lake! The house will sit on roughly .75 acres. We fully intend on outsourcing all the landscaping, yard work and pool maintenance. We both have pretty demanding jobs and don't really want to spend all our free time pushing a mower around or cleaning a pool. No offense to anyone - we have done this work for years, but the older we get the less appealing it is. We are installing a geothermal system that will not only heat and cool the house and provide hot water, but it will also heat the pool very efficiently. We are also going heavy with insulation, windows and doors. We had an energy study performed and all indications are that our utility bills should not be significantly higher than our current house. Long story short - we are going to go for it! Maybe in 10 or 15 years it will be too much for us to handle, but until then we are going to squeeze every ounce of enjoyment out of this house and create some wonderful memories with our family. Thank you again to everyone who contributed to this thread. We are sincerely thankful for your input.