Your window boxes look great! You do have a eye for placing things.

Does anyone have a problem with smaller loads becoming unbalanced. I've owned the washer 2 weeks and have done approximately 15 loads and so far 2 have given me the uE error and extended the wash to rebalance the load. One load didn't recognize it was unbalanced but the tub was almost violently swaying side to side, the sheets were balled up on one side, and there wasn't enough water in there to move the clothes at all. This was only one set of queen sheets. I stopped the cycle, redistributed everything and the pressed the extra water button. It seemed a little better after this, but it's frustrating that I find myself needing to watch every load to make sure it's working properly. To me it seems the washer works better with larger loads, but does not work so well with smaller loads. Has anyone else come to this conclusion? Also, my washer has never had any jet spray action, where it's spinning very fast and the water is shooting from the top onto the clothes. Is this normal? Should I see this on every wash? Another issue I'm having is I was using powder detergent (only half of what is recommended by Tide on the box)...and after each wash cycle I stopped it and looked in the dispenser and over half of the detergent was still inside. This happened on every wash, cold, warm, hot, it didn't matter. I emailed LG and attached a picture and their response was to switch to liquid detergent. And my last question is, has anyone noticed the tub "creeking?" This started about 5 washes ago and it creeks like an old rocking chair. I can hear it from the next room with the door closed. I'm wondering if I need to have a service person come out.

I love that room!! It sort of has this exotic appeal to it that speaks to me----and I like looking at those parrot pictures (you have my Eclectus in one of your prints btw) and then looking at the kudu---it causes me to pause and take it in more. The kudu painting proportionally balances out the other pics. I was in S. Africa this last Feb/March---it was one of the most breathtaking, amazing, beautiful places I have ever been and I wish that I could live there. And yes, I tried kudu at a traditional Braai (bbq). When I think of British colonial, I think of plain canvas fold-up seats and tents. So I think your lampshades work well. I would try simple, smart, canvas drapes. I think of clean, unpretentious lines. I think a silver canteen with silver cups might be a cool display sitting on a basket weave tray. We saw a lot of simple, clean-lined lanterns too. A zebra rug would definitely work. Also there are lots of decor items made with porcupine quills---we saw lots of that in SA. Lampshades, mirror frames, or even a bundle of quills in a vase. Pier One and Z Gallery have these items and kudu horns, etc. But remember, a small amount of this goes a long way. I like your side tables---that to me is the exact touch that you needed. That has a bit of the East Indian influence. I wouldn't be adding saris or brightly-hued silks or anything like that. I'll see if I can't dig up any pics.

Gooster, Our appliance budget is high... it kind of snowballed. We were originally going to keep some of the appliances since they work perfectly (15 years old, most are Whirlpool Gold). When we started looking into things the Viking Cooktop and double oven wasn't that much more, the Sub Zero beverage center wasn't that much more, etc so we decided to get new appliances.The real budget buster was the Sub Zero French Door refrigerator which is about $10K. We have a 1 year old counter depth French door Samsung fridge and we weren't planning to replace it. However I did not realize these larger refrigerators (36" x 84") require different cabinetry so we started designing it to fit the Sub Zero (for the future) and then just decided to replace the Samsung and bite the bullet. (We have a 2nd kitchen in our basement that we will use the fridge in). My husband is still boggled by the $10K fridge, lol. He keeps asking what else it does besides keep food cold, lol.