newdawn1895 - Not only in the downtown areas, but the art district and the Riverview districts are all undergoing fabulous transformations. Chattanooga is such a neat town. I wish I had taken a photograph of my sons street. The avenue was absolutely beautiful! Most of the houses and yards were well kept, and the flowering trees were gorgeous hanging over the street. :) golddust - First of all, I wanted to tell you how much I love your dog. What a cutie! Secondly...what a tub! I love large old tubs like the claw-foot that my son has. I asked the guys if either had taken a bath and they answered "no" because they were using the tub as a storage place for their bathroom supplies. Now that we have provided a space saver tower over the toilet, the tub is now free for bathing. LOL You are so lucky to have many of the original features, like the built-ins. Your kitchen appliances are tops! I would love to know the date that my son's place was built, and also the history. Guess I'll have to ask the owners.

erosenst, you are not going to get a lot of response to decorating a house you don't even own yet and may not even get it. If/when you get the house, post pics of the space and ask for advice. Go room by room. Asking for whole house, blank slate decorating advice is too vauge. The fabric on eBay is probably not even going to be around by the time it would be needed. If you need furnishings fast and cheap, in the trasitional style, try Target. Although home_decorator_guy may be trying to drive folks to his site at least he did offer some good advice in his post (IKEA) and the link has to do with decorating and not Nike shoes or something. I don't see anything sold there. He came back to follow the thead and it was not 'hit and run' spamming. I just ignore this sort of spam since some people may find his link useful and as long as he doesn't link to it in every post of his I am not going to fret about it. Here is a link that might be useful: Target Furniture

love all chicago pro sports plus IU & UCF college sports. i grew up going to chicago cubs and bears games w/ my dad and he went w/ his dad :-) from my teens till i was 30 (moved to orlando then) i also added in Bulls and Blackhawks games too plus my alma mater Indiana Univ (bobby knight days). now my DH goes to UCF and they are an emerging big college, right now ranked #3 in size. my DH is not a sports fan (he's a sports widow actually lol) and does not understand what the importance of sports is to UCF. aside from the players and all that, the sports programs attract more students from all over the country, draw more support from alumni, brings in national contracts for equipment and national exposure on TV, which feeds the whole thing. all of it equates to more $$ for the university and inturn helps support education for all. i'm sure there are plenty of educational programs that would be cut if sports didn't bring in $$$. my DH's college of Engineering gets ALOT of $$$$ from Lockheed, Boeing, Siemens etc...i'm sure departments like art, literature, education etc...get nothing from private donors. two yrs ago UCF opened a huge new stadium which employs several hundred people yr round. last yr they opened a new arena for basketball which also hosts tons of concerts and shows year round. they paid off the arena's building costs in the very first yr! the arena also employs several hundred more employees. the orlando magic are just about to open a new arena, one of the largest & most expensive ever built. my DH has 2 nieces who work for the magic, make very good $$ and i was shocked to find out they employ 3000 people. several thousand construction people have been working on the arena for 2 yrs now. when that is done the workers switch over to building an art and concert center for Orlando adjacent to the arena, that opens in 2013. the construction of these buildings is very far reaching into the community. i have friends in horticulture who have provided all the plants, flowers and palms to the arena site. part of the magic deal to get permission for this building involved them building 2 or 3 new community rec and education centers thru out the city, so that adds to the jobs, money and enrichment of the city. ~ liz

TJ- Oh yes!! Going to Frisco if they make it!! If so, it'll be our 4th consecutive year of attending the Championship game. Wild stuff! Many Bison faithful have already bought tickets, booked flights, etc. I wouldn't dare pull the trigger THIS early! * The winner of San-Diego & Cal-Poly this Sat comes to the Fargodome on Sat Dec 3rd. * The winner of Villanova & St. Francis (PA) this Sat, goes to our rival SDSU (in Brookings, SD...an outdoor stadium!) Sat Dec 3rd. * Our loooooonnnggtime in-state rival (100+ yrs), UND (dome stadium), made it to the FCS-Playoffs this year! There's a TINY chance that we could meet them in Frisco!!! An all-ND FCS Championship?! THAT would be wild!!! Frisco, TX couldn't HANDLE all the craziness!!! * Regardless...on Dec 3rd, since UND will host its game, AND SDSU hosting...AND my Bison hosting.....THREE FCS playoff games will be rocking on Northern I-29!! NCAA/FCS bracket here if you'd like: 2016 FCS Bracket Faron