Did your daughter develop hips before starting? We've already talked about her period so she knows it may come in the next year or so.. Just curious about the hips? I didn't get those until I was much older. She has a big belly too.. I don't know what she weighs I am just going by her clothes. Maybe I should look up her BMI to better Gage. I don't think I'm over thinking it because I don't want to wake up one day and find that there was something more I could do. But I think I have made the changes that we needed with exercise and food. Thanks for your advice. Glad to know she is probably normal.

Thanks for taking so much trouble, palimpsest. Yes, a slimmer fridge would be a good idea, but the options hereabouts aren't great--Summit doesn't have any local dealers, for example. To be honest, I think the main reason she's considering a less than 30" oven is that she fell in love with this one (well, actually with its new replacement but I couldn't find that one on the ikea website). If you read the description, it's got an awful lot of features: Wow, I didn't like the overall space much in my kitchen when I lived back there, but I would have really hated a 6'7"" ceiling. Where I live now the bath ceilings are 7 ft and those bother me enough. :) Thanks again for your help. Someone over at ikeafans suggested using one of the other Blum drawers for those top drawers so that the hardware wouldn't be in the way, and that's something else I need to investigate. Here is a link that might be useful: mumsig oven

jewel, I'm glad that you had a successful recovery. The NIH page I linked summarizes the findings of formal studies, what is and isn't known. In this particular case, it suggests that evidence of effectiveness is inadequate or lacking. With your experience and that of others, there's no way to know what might have happened to you without ingesting this substance. Would your healing have been the same? Would it have been quicker? Was there some effect from the tea you normally drink? You see what I mean, all the extraneous factors are properly managed in studies so that results are focused and understandable. The experience of one or even several people isn't useful. I'm happy for you, but I find an NIH assessment of "no demonstrated benefit" more persuasive. And unsurprising, the real stories for so many supplements people recommend are similar.

Overall, I can't work up much love for this house. Random thoughts: - You say you're a family with four kids + live-in grandparents ... yet you've allotted space for two cars. What about when the kids start driving? - Note that you're parking in the front of the house ... yet your kitchen is at the back. This means every day /week you have to tote groceries the whole length of the house. - A door between the scullery kitchen /pantry /laundry and the main living area would improve circulation. It would mean people could enter this hard-working room without cutting through the kitchen. (Note: This is not a butler's pantry.) - Does the dining table go in the empty space by the back doors? Lots of space for it, and it should be a pleasant spot. - This living room doesn't look all that big for a family of eight. Where do you anticipate placing a TV? Other living room storage? - Lots of odd wasted space in the entry. - You say that you value common gathering areas over bedrooms ... yet you've placed the bedrooms in the prime square footage (on the outside of the house so that they receive the best natural light /breezes), while the main gathering room is completely in the dark /will require lights to be turned on even at mid-day. This is the single biggest problem in this house. - You say that the large desk area is for kids' homework /Legos ... but it's going to be a dark hallway. Who's going to want to sit there? Again, this area is in the dark while the bedrooms (where people sleep) are going to be filled with lovely natural light. - I would want a door on this kids' area so a teenager could sit and do homework without hearing the common area just a few steps away. Similarly, I'd want a door on that secondary seating area on the left side. - Why does one kid get a desk /much larger room, while two kids are sharing a smaller room? - I like the four kids' bathroom concept. Two toilets /one full bath. It's a reasonable number to share /build /keep clean. - Not a tub in the whole house. No one likes to take a bath? No one ever washes a dog? The kids are all shower-age? - On the other hand, you have three full baths on the adults /guest side. The two master bedrooms definitely need a private bath ... but I'd skip the full bath for occasional guests. Maybe rearrange so that the occasional guest could share with one of the masters ... or place this space nearer the kids' area so those bathrooms could be shared. - Pocket doors are great for places that stay open most of the time (for example, your scullery kitchen) ... they're awful for doors that're opened /closed frequently ... for example, your master bath. If this is your parents' room, pocket doors aren't good at all for older hands that may have arthritis. - Consider bringing large furniture through the turn into the back-of-the-house master. I'd add a door to the back patio. - One master has only a small closet -- looks like 5' or so? -- while the other master has two space-wasting "Ls" that're both larger than the other closet. What's the rationale here? - One master will be occupied now by a set of grandparents ... possibly in the future by boomarang kids, right? I'd consider setting this "apart" from the main house ... perhaps accessed through a breezeway. This would allow greater privacy for the grandparents ... and it would allow you (later) to cut off heating /cooling to this area if it's sitting unused for a time. My parents' house has a one-bedroom apartment attached, and I can't tell you how many different functions that apartment has served ... but the flexibility to "detach it" from the main house is quite valuable. - The back patio is nicely sized, but what are the two closets on the far ends? And why do they face outward instead of into the patio? - A pass-through between the kitchen and the patio eating area would be wonderful. How to cut back /how to save: Ditch this plan and start again. You can have these same spaces /functions in less square footage. That'll save you money. Here's a stab at a different layout. Consider: - This places the parents', grandparents' and kids' private spaces far apart. - The dining, kitchen and living spaces are all positioned so they'll benefit from natural light. - The grandparents' area /den is more of a separate apartment /can be "closed off" if it's not being used -- or if you ever rent it out. You could also have a second entrance into the den.