Thank you Annz for explaning, I hadn't considered either of those scenarios! I just had an epiphany a little while ago in that before I got Jovi for my Daughter, Coco was the be all-end all. My DAU and SIL used to leave a few minutes early for work in the morning to play with her even. I just watched the interaction, or actually lack thereof with my SIL and Coco just now. Dau took Jovi out to do his business before they went out (I puppy sit) and SIL was in the house with Coco. She wanted to play, but his interaction with her was uninterested. She dropped a toy at his feet and he kind of soccer kicked it and then he went outside and left her at the back door to wait for the three of them to come back. I let her out at that point as I felt bad for her. Am I possibly onto something, or grasping at straws? Thanks, Marg

I have a pretty good idea of the price of windows. 8k cheap - 20k mid/expensive. And the roof would be about 7k shingles and (not entirely sure yet) but I think around 10-11k metal. Gutters will be what we put into them. But we need and will use windows and a new roof and a painted house. I mean, it will take a while to pay back in heating costs, but in the winter sitting by the front window, there is a gusty cold zone. And I'm in a mid-atlantic area, I'm not going to start covering my windows in plastic like my VT relatives! But the porch would just be cosmetic unless we actually put enough into it that we would actually use it. Heating, cooling, more windows, bug protection, lighting, finishes. And I'd rather have that someday in the far future if we ever choose to invest in it in the back of the house which is very private. Believe me, I know, before we even closed I had mocked up this but we tabled the idea after much discussion: And the typical simple extended porch you'd see with with a colonial doesn't excite me either. Sure it might not be that expensive, but why should I invest in turning 'bleh' (to me) into 'that's ok.' I'd rather invest in something I really like. I'm not investing in curb appeal for future buyers, but in my own home satisfaction.

Thanks for all the responses. You have given me a lot to mull over but alas, not a consensus! You all seem about as evenly split as my thinking has been! If it's any help, here's a pic of the new chairs with the pillows and throw from the other chairs. My pillow and throw selection is a bit lacking, but it might give you an idea. Not sure the throw and pillows help. I do think that the new chairs are a bit more sophisticated than my decorating style -- the New York City apartment is a great comparison (as I studied the pictures I posted, I was thinking they looked like something Emily Henderson would put in her Hollywood-rich-people makeovers.) My house is a farmhouse with wide-width pine floors and pretty much all the furniture is vintage/antique and kind of country/shabby/farmhouse in style. I'm just not sure the new chairs fit with the style. (But then again, maybe my style could use some shaking-up!) Also Ingrid - the coffee table is a chest brought back from China by a relative. It has odd Chinese paintings on it featuring little bald people with fishing poles. I hated it at first and had planned to paint the whole thing black but over time the paintings have grown on me. And though you can't tell in the picture, that exact shade of turquoise is in the rug. Really the rug has pretty much every shade in the room which I guess is handy for giving lots of choices for accessorizing -- and my accessorizing skills can clearly use all the help they can get!

Nobody's mentioned this, so I'll put in a plug for my favorite frypan for cooking eggs. It's a cast steel (not cast iron!) pan from Lodge. I warm it on a medium flame, add about a teaspoon or so of oil in the center of the pan, crack the egg into the oil and cook. Sometimes I flip the egg or scramble it a little. The egg slides onto my spatula. Then I add a quarter inch of hot water, scrub around a little with a stainless steel scrubbie, dump the water, dry with a paper towel, and put back onto the turned off burner while I eat my lunch.