Thank you, Sherry, my long lost sister. (grin) I've learned much from you too, like perseverence in the face of adversity, and being willing to always open your door to any friend, and that we both love molasses cookies and that it's way better to travel with a friend. I've also learned a lot. I've learned that Peppi's Dad is even more amazing than Karen's chili, and that's pretty darned amazing. I've learned lots of Sven and Olie jokes from Linda (doucanoe), and Elery's favorite food is now sushi thanks to Diana, Jessica, Lars, Scott, Gina, Ann, Ellen and the California contingent. Jessica and her number 1 son gave me a better understanding of kosher and David taught me....well...we'll just keep that a secret, LOL. Nancy gave me my all time favorite jam recipe which is just awesome on sweet potato biscuits, something she also taught me. KatieC helped me with the Ph papers and canning, and Cathy taught me that some people peel asparagus, who knew? LOLOLOLOL SharonCB posted that awesome salmon quiche recipe which Elery loves and I'm going to have it for breakfast tomorrow, I think, so thanks for the reminder. Chase makes me want to do the Route 66 tour myself, so thanks a lot. Ahem. Carol (dishesdone) has adopted me for every Jewish holiday and showed me that gefilte fish really wasn't bad and the other Carol (Readinglady) has never given me bad canning advice or a bad bread recipe. Brenda taught me the difference between Michigan chili powder and Texas chili powder (grin) and there is a difference. So, thank you Sherry for starting this thread and thanks to everyone else for all yourhelp, your thoughts, your friendships. It's a great place, this forum! (The Old, Original) Annie Happy Everything to Everyone!

You are all so kind. A couple of answers... 2 days to pack, actually we had 2 50 foot storage truck containers on our property for the last 3 years. Thats where most of our stuff had been. (They are the units that were broken into by one of the subs guys and my heirloom silver was all stolen. Amazingly, I got everything back. Long story.) No case against anyone. Times are hard for builders & most of them have no money or resources. We did file a complaint against our builder, but we are one of many in line. His license is suspended as of right now. My husband & I had to decide that we would move in without bitterness about what had been our life for the last 3 years. We have paid a great deal for this home to be right & in all truthfulness it should have been handed to us complete & finished. But it isn't, so what are we going to do about it? Well, for us the bottom line...,we have a life to live, children to raise, and a marriage to sustain. None of these things will be served well if we hold on to anger & resentment. We lost a ton of money, we had great stress, we had huge amounts of worry. However today we sit, walk, live, rejoice, fellowship in a home I dare say is stunning. Who am I to complain about anything? I have so much that I am thankful for every minute of my life that there is no room for anything else. My arms are full, my heart is at peace. We have nothing we want to battle for. We walk in faith for a bright future. God Bless all of you. Kimberly

Houseful-thanks for all the detailed pictures! So cool how you have transformed that space! This house is in Arcadia, we are currently in the East Valley. So...one thing we are playing with is the idea of keeping the original flooring. That requires moving as few walls as possible to keep repairs/replacements to a minimum. So that is informing the following ideas: I am currently toying with the idea of having a doorway from the library to the kitchen that lines up with the doorway to the dining room. With both the kitchen/library and kitchen/dining walls being half walls opened up above the lower cabs, if that makes sense. So I could see out the dining room windows at a sink and the library window at a cooktop possibly. Lining up the doorways would direct traffic through the kitchen but maybe that would be okay since my work area would be all on one side of the doorways? If we did this you would be able to see the backyard from the library and view out the front from the dining room... Rosie-the garden room was not built according to the plans and is just a room with a huge skylight...I was thinking of keeping it, but with half walls so when you enter the house you can see through it to the back windows...I was thinking of making it a small play room with a couch under the skylight. (Skylight is quite long and narrow along the wall opposite the door). A friend of mine has a reading couch under a skylight and it is magical to stretch out and read there during rainstorms... I like the idea of the kitchen in the middle, I think...Now, it is desirable to do less for the flooring reason, but I want to think big and I would love ideas that grab space from anywhere, really. We are mere days into months of planning so my initial thoughts may change dramatically. I would love to tear out as little as possible but I am open to considering it nonetheless!

Bleh, I hate my teensy house (750 sq ft). The only thing that saves me is a basement and detached 2 car garage. I know people with apartments that are bigger than my house! My problem is that I work AND live in this space. It's sort of like living at an office, lol. I just happen to have a small room where I can keep a bed to sleep on. The kitchen only has 14 inches of counter space on each side of the sink, so I try to avoid cooking now. It's like one of those one-piece kitchenette units in some effeciency motel rooms. I used to love cooking when I was married. Now it's a logistical nightmare. I don't have a tub, just a shower. Lordy, how I miss soaking in a warrm bath once in a while. The bathroom is about 6x6 ft, if that. One bedroom, about 9x10, which I use for storage. My bed is in a small room reclaimed from the original front porch, just big enough to hold a twin bed and a small dresser (6x10 ft, maybe). The main room is 11x22...and that's HALF the entire house's original footprint. Thru the years, part of the front porch was closed in, and a mud room of sorts added to the back. The mud room is on a slab and mostly taken up by stairs...one set goes up into the house, the other set goes down to basement. There's a little space for some shelves along the walls. Because I'm a multi-media artist, I need a lot of storage for supplies. Also my sewing requires several machines and a large stash of fabric, notions, etc. I'm at my wits end, and some days I get very frustrated looking for things because things are stored in plastic bins stacked up on each other. However.......the redeeming quality is that it is 100% paid for. No mortgage. All I have to do is cough up the property taxes each year. I specifically wanted a place I could pay cash for, and that's what I got. Utilities could be better, because it's an old house with little or no insulation.....but it's still better than a big mortgage. Storage is adequate, between the basement and garage. It's not easy access to go digging thru boxes of stuff, but it beats a mortgage pmt. Besides, I still get my car in the garage, and that's worth a lot also. Better than leaving it on the street, out in the weather. It's 10 years old and is in near-mint condition because it's been garaged all its life. (I'm the original owner) Best of all, the place came with an intact, but very neglected perennial border. I first saw the place in late winter, and saw nothing but dormant grass from one lot line to the other. Lo and behold, the spring after I moved in, dozens of perennials started poking thru the grass mat along one fence line. Here I was expecting the time, money & work of starting a perennial bed from scratch....but it was already there. It's taken me four years to really reclaim that border, but now I have peonies, iris, daylilies, roses, etc just gorgeous. So small houses? I hate 'em, but dang it the price is right. I absolutely LOVE not having a mortgage. Anytime I get frustrated, I remind myself that I'm not a slave to any bank. My property is mine, and mine alone. So the vast majority of people with uber-sized homes don't have a lick of nuthin' if they are mortgaged. The BANK owns it, not them. I own mine, outright.