I would take the rocking chair out if possible. I like the idea of putting the love seat and big leather chair together- only angle them towards each other and not right up against the wall. I would then try the couch both where it is now or up against the window (we had that once). Put the 3 items closer together - they're too far apart from each other the way they currently are. Then there would be more of a walk-way for the piano. Or.. put the leather chair and loveseat at an angle on the wall... and then put the couch in more of a V shape - widest part towards the window. Not a complete right-angle V but more subtle.

LOL!! Here it is.. it's fairly vanilla treehouse(fort??). Oh and I don't know why I didn't catch this typo but it was my YOUNGEST son who helped. My oldest is married and lives in another state! They've considered putting in another lower tier and I'd like to paint it wild, bright colors someday. It's funny (or annoying) how it got built. If you can stand to listen to me moan. When we first started looking for a new house my vision was to build a cool play area, such as a pirate ship or castle.... on the ground... for the grands. Well, somehow that turned into a treefort, which is a tad too high up and not nearly as inviting for the grands at this point. Sigh. It was a nice project for dh and son to work together on.

yup. My dh and oldest son put it in. 🙂

Ugh.. it's just gotten worse tonight. I knocked me off mid-post on another thread.

yup, that has become the norm in my area. My daughter has outright refused to be in a wedding because of this. Not only do the bridemaids have to pay for this weekend away at an expensive venue (usually out of state), you also have to chip in to pay for the Bride's trip. Some of them plan multiple "bonding" trips. As my daughter said, "Why would I want to pay hundreds of dollars to spend a weekend away with a bunch of strangers getting drunk?" I blame it on the social media/cable TV generation. I imagine that someone like the Kardashians made this a "thing" and now there's a lot of pressure to do this. Fortunately, my DIL did not do this. I think they spend an evening bowling or at an Craft-beer place. I thought I was being super special when I took my daughters and DIL-to-be out for lunch after we went to see her wedding dress. 😉

my daughter got married 10yrs ago. I wish I could remember the budget we set for her. I think it was 20K but it might have been less...and told them any extra they could use for their honeymoon. I don't think they had much left over. Most of it went to the reception. We have a large family and he was an only child with dad being a priest. So everyone they knew got invited, including several priest friends and people from a former parish. At one time SIL told me he wanted to invite everyone he ever knew. Um...no. I put the cabosh on that one. Also, we found it very hard to find a place in our area that could handle over 200 people. Then, added to that, the new business model is you can't bring your own catering. So no DIY food for us. You have to use in-house. The reception was the most costly. Areas we went cheap. Dress was bought on sale at David's Bridal for $300. Photos were done by a new guy and they agreed to only receive the SIM card. We went through all the photos and picked them out ourselves. They had a friend do simple flowers. They spent a little more on music because they wanted a live band and not a DJ. The only thing I wish we'd spent a little more on is the cake. It tasted nasty. My son just got married in Aug. My understanding is that it was less than 10K in Baltimore. They called in a lot of favors from friends and made a lot themselves. Son found a fabulous venue that had never done wedding receptions (it is a museum and had space for conferences). So, they were able to have church friends do all the food. It had a small kitchen, fortunately. It was a fun venue too. We had to agree to walk around the museum as part of the deal - no problem. Their parish is one that has a rule that everyone in the choir needs to be invited. I thought it was a little excessive but since son and DIL are both in the choir it worked out okay. I don't think it's the whole church though. It was a pretty large wedding. I can't remember the size, but we filled their tiny church to capacity. For my wedding: I used by mom's dress and only paid for dressmaker to size it to me. We had the reception at my parents house, which I look back on and can't believe we did. That would be SO stressful. We invited about 100-130 people. I can't imagine that many people coming to my house. But, it saved us a bundle. We had simple appetizer type foods. My husband was in a band at the time and we have several musician friends. Our music was a jam session with our friends. It was quite fun (and free). Both my other daughter's have said they want a small simple wedding. However, now Middle daughter is dating a only child and they've been talking marriage. He appears to come from money. Sigh. I suspect there will be pressure to "do it right" coming from MIL-to-be if they get engaged. However, both kids are on their own. They may be willing to chip in more money towards their wedding, if it's that important to them.

I must have jinxed it. Today I haven't been able to stay logged on at all if I move away from the site. I'm on a laptop

I loved Chinaberry too! I'm so sad to hear about this. count me as another one who found books from them that I'd never heard of before.

Roger Federer..... The mountains!! And I would be jealous! Other than that I'm not sure. I've never been but would move to someplace like Switzerland in a heartbeat (if I could get most of my grown kids to go with me 😞 )

technically we can use it now. We have electric baseboard heat. And we bring in a second heater. Both together make a difference. But, it takes a while to warm it up, so for just me on normal days it isn't worth it. I can't wait to have a gas stove in there.

I love that Hawthorn yellow! I may try it elsewhere in my house. We're about to start work on the kitchen. The Sunroom is mostly done 🙄 I ended up not going with Palladian blue because I couldn't get a proper sample. I found something similar with Behr called Moon Glass. It's a tad too beachy for me, but I've tried decorating in a way that is more farmhouse looking. I also added a tan accent wall on the brick. Then we ran into some other delays... ugh. After I finished the walls I discovered that the ceiling paint really couldn't wait. It looked awful together. I had so much trouble finding someone to do the 17ft ceiling that wouldn't break the budget. Some wouldn't even consider it. So after a few weeks of talking with contractors, I ended up renting scaffolding and doing it myself. Let me tell you, it was very scary getting up there the first few times, but by the end of the week I was a pro. It gave me a real sense of accomplishment. Then, after we put in the floors we were putting the baseboards back the hammer went through the wall!! We discovered a large area damaged by water rot and termites.!! We were thankful that window didn't fall out. So that was another couple of weeks hiring a professional to come fix that. I still haven't done the touch-up where the drywall was replaced. It was the end of the semester for me, then Christmas - so nothing's been done. We're still working to get a gas fireplace put in there to. Everything takes SO long. I cannot believe how long it takes for contractors to get back to me. It's been very frustrating. here's some pictures. Hopefully, they're not too large. It's kind of a cloudy day and the room is messy . But I think you get an idea of the change.

No, you are not alone. I hated that too... esp. after the time I was cleaning out the dark corners of my countertop and wiped up a sponge-full of mouse poop!!! 🤢 I had no other evidence that I had mice ON TOP of my counters. So grossed out.

This is me too. I'm thinking seriously of Laminate because I don't want to spend all that money and in 5yrs want a change-up. I hated the granite look in our old kitchen. It was so brown and blah.

you and I must be sisters. Many friends are shocked to a fixer-upper from the 60s. But, I am SO much more comfortable in my skin now that I am in this place. I keep telling my dh "I don't want perfect." I was wondering if you could send me (either PM or posting it here) your kitchen counter look. I was planning on doing formica in my updated kitchen but I also wanted a farmhouse/apron sink. I cannot have Formica with that type sink because of water issues. Since the sink is going to be on an island I was thinking of mixing and matching, but there's not a lot of photos of that online. The island cabinets are already going to be different color from the existing cabinets I'm keeping for the majority of the kitchen. I'm not completely married to Formica. As I use this kitchen with Corian (and my previous Granite-top kitchen) I really do like the heat resistance. I just don't like the look or price of either one. ugh.

praying for you mom.. and you. hugs

I've had Corian and granite. I prefer Corian. Mine is white and was installed by the previous owner. I found any stains came up easily with spray on kitchen cleaner with bleach. It also is heat-resistant. We're in the process of updating our kitchen so I'm listening in for other suggestions.

(((((hugs))))))

truth. It happens just about every day at my house...why not in other places too.

I agree with PattyJoanna and ------ said. What they say they believe in and what is actually taught from the pulpit or believed by others can be very different. Also, statements of faith do not take into account the culture of a particular church. I would give it some more time and I would also encourage you to speak with the pastor too. Good luck.

me too... it is so tiresome. thankfully I don't have to log in every stinking time, but it's still pretty often.

That is not the culture of my specific parish and I'm sure it's not of this couple either. I'm not sure many people outside of their circle of friends even know when the wedding is. In the 12 or so years I've gone to this parish I know of only one wedding where everyone in the parish was actually invited... and then we all got a proper invitation in the mail. I would have been completely stressed in your situation too!! I don't blame you for putting the breaks on that. As I stated in another post on this thread, I am not in favor of inviting everyone in the church to a wedding. That seems very excessive, given the cost and expectations of weddings these days. I'm sorry it has caused such a rift with your dh that he no longer even attends church.

yes, this is an Orthodox wedding. In sacramental churches anyone can attend a sacrament because it isn't a private event. So weddings, baptisms, funerals are for all the faithful. But, the reception is on a parish by parish basis. Some are very small and they tend to have a "everyone is invited to the reception" attitude. My parish is large and generally follows the Western tradition that you need an actual invitation to attend the reception. i.e "invited to the wedding". But, additionally, the bride decided to get married in a different city (I'm not sure exactly why since our priest is performing the wedding - this is one clue that this is not well thought out). In my experience with 2 kids married at two different parishes, that every parish has their own culture about this. My parish is probably what most people here would see as the norm in that you need an invitation in order to attend the reception. FWIW, I'm not a fan of the "everyone in the parish is invited" rule. I think that puts a lot of stress on families. I'm in our parish choir so I've attended a lot of wedding ceremonies without being invited to the wedding. I'm fine with that. Some brides think this through and they provide a small luncheon or appetizers down in the fellowship hall for choir members to enjoy as a thank you for singing in the wedding. My friends still loosely attend our parish. Less and less in the last 12 months. I would see mom outside of church services and talk via text with her fairly regularly.

if it counts, yesterday I went through the shelves in the bedroom. Made space for all our photo albums and basically put, gave, or threw away several bags of stuff. I feel like I'm going to be in a constant state of organizing this year. We'll be starting demo on our kitchen soon and we still have stuff to bring out of our storage unit. Dh wants to get rid of that payment asap. I don't blame him, it's been over a year... but it's a daunting task with a smaller house and renovations.

the ones I linked fit that bill. I like the briefs and (when I get the right size😏) they stay where they're supposed to

I've liked Jockey 100% cotton brand that I found at Kohl's for many years. These are the ones I get. https://www.kohls.com/product/prd-1729625/jockey-elance-3-pk-briefs-1484-womens.jsp?color=White Asst&prdPV=8 But they also have French Cut and Bikini's. Regular and plus sized as well.