We decided to go with Kitchen Aid because it’s really the only brand that had what I wanted in a fridge (counter depth) that got decent reviews, and I wanted everything to match. It didn’t hurt that their oven got great reviews too. I have had a Maytag Gemini freestanding, double oven for years and there was no way I wasn’t getting a double. I use the top oven almost daily and love it because it doesn’t heat the kitchen like the bigger oven. Anyway, excuse my reflections in the pictures. ;-p

I did put 2 coats of their sealer since my kitchen cabinets will get a lot of use. We did the “shiplap” wall (in quotes because it’s not real shiplap - just 1x6s) in just a primer watered down and then put a coat of the Miss Mustard Seed sealer on there also. I love the finish it adds to it, and it deepens the color of the paint as well. Also, I think what I love the most is that they do not smell! The sealer really doesn’t either - no fumes! My husband insisted we do oil base on all the trim, doors and molding and I can barely stand to be in the house for a couple days after they use that.

He is not officially, but there's really not much he can't do when it comes to this type of stuff. He's a licensed electrician, but they own a computer control system business (he and his brother). This is something he's just always liked to do. Honestly, we wouldn't have been able to do half of what we've done if we'd have had to pay people to do the labor. We have a 2-story, 2000 sq ft, 5 bdrm house with 2 baths. We will ultimately have changed all the flooring, painted everything, changed every door, door facing, rerouted and rebuilt the staircase, changed every piece of trim as well as trimming out all the windows and putting crown molding and new baseboards in the entire house, changed all fans and fixtures, gotten new cabinets, granite countertops and appliances (probably the most expensive purchase we've had overall because I wanted Kitchen Aid), bought the island (which was a good bit cheaper than if we would've built one), and gutted and redone the bathrooms and we will have spent about 33K. And it will probably take him right at 4 months total, just working weekends and evenings. He HAS had a little help from two of our neighbors. One is a painter and he has done the final coat on all our trim painting, plus any sheetrock work. The other has helped lay the flooring. He has either done or will be doing work for them in return. We also got our granite free, and only had to pay for it to be cut and installed, thanks to electrical work he had done for the granite shop owner. I guess I'm gonna need to tell him today how amazing he really is.

Not sure what you mean by the pony wall, but we likely took it out. It's all a big, open space now, and I LOVE it!

We did! The stairs have been a bone of contention for me ever since we bought the house. We moved them to where they go straight down behind the wall. They are a little steeper than normal, but we don't have little kids that need to go up there regularly, so we will just have a cute gate at the bottom for blocking grandbabies from climbing.

I’m thinking of going with a deep orange, just because I want a pop of color, but it’s something I can easily change later if I get tired of it. I also love the way orange looks with that particular blue and with the browns. I found a really great rug for my den area that has the blue/gray from the cabinets, along with some flecks of orange, deep red, and other colors, all in a natural background. I can’t put it out yet because we are not finished with the downstairs, but I think it will really tie it all together when I do. Oh, and I’m not sure what tile you’re talking about because we don’t have tile anywhere at this point. My husband has done almost everything. It really pays (or saves) to have a husband who is handy! We did have someone build our cabinets just because he didn’t really want to take the time, and a young guy I planned a Disney trip for builds cabinets on the side. We also had granite people put that in. For the most part, he’s done everything else. He’s a licenses electrician by trade, but he and his brother co-own a control systems business now. He LOVES doing this kind of stuff, which is really great for me!

We are in the process of a huge remodel, as in pretty much our entire house. I think this and the hall bath will be the biggest transformations and I wanted to share. I’m not really good at things like decorating, picking out stuff, coordinating things, etc., but I am really pleased with how this came out. I can’t “see” things ahead of time like some can, so I was happy my vision turned out how I was hoping. P.S. I painted the cabinets myself with Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in shutter gray. I LOVE how they came out, but I will say tackling cabinets (even though I don’t have a bunch of them) probably wasn’t a great plan for a first painting project. ;-p Oh, and I am still planning to paint the base of the island. I want it to be a fun color! I just came across it at an antique store and loved the overall size and look of it.

I remember the old boards, and how when a new board would come up, people would be trying so hard to be first to post on it! I think the closest I ever got was 5th or 6th.

How terribly tragic! Praying for your family, and especially those children who have lost their mother. :(

Well I've purchased a lot of my new lighting from there for my remodel, and I just ordered a set of 4 dining chairs from there as well. I have just been tormenting myself over this sofa because I know the fabric is likely gonna be the biggest issue (I know it'll be thin). The thing is, the price is pretty much perfect for what I need right now and the little sectional is adorable. I think I'd love the way it would look in the room even if it isn't that great otherwise. WHY AM I SO DARN INDECISIVE?!?! I swear I took nearly 2 months to pick a bathtub!

We are finishing up our remodel in the next few weeks, and due to going over budget on some things I decided I didn't want to compromise on, I'm left with less money than I had planned to purchase furniture for the living room. Since we've changed things so drastically, the current couch will not work (and frankly, it has been in the house throughout the remodeling process, so it's not in the best condition, even having been covered throughout a lot of the process). To get to the point, I'm looking for something inexpensive, because I will likely replace it in a couple years when I don't have SO many things I need to purchase. I'd like a small sectional or inexpensive couch/loveseat combo (or even 2 small couches). They have so many that look really cute on Wayfair, and they have good reviews, but the bad reviews scare me. Anyone have luck with purchases from there?

My husband is definitely not. I love him, and he’s a great husband, but we don’t have a lot in common and kinda just each do our own thing. It works great for us; we have common life goals and our values are similar, but he is just not a social butterfly, and he’s not really into chatting about things. ;-p I have some very close adult girlfriends, 4 sisters, some nieces really close to my age, and 3 adult daughters. I never have a shortage of people to talk to/confide in, but my poor hubby is usually not the first to know a lot of things. *I realize this might make my husband sound worse than he is - he’s a doer; not a talker. Right now he is doing a 40K remodel on our home, mostly alone. That’s just who he is. He would do ANYTHING for our children (as long as it didn’t require going to Disneyworld or something). He reminds me that most women would love that kind of husband (and I DO love and appreciate that about him for sure). ;-p

We do this with a Chase Disney Visa. I WISH I could put my mortgage too, but haven’t been able to figure out how to do that. We put just about everything else. I usually earn around $600/year toward Disney from just doing our basic, monthly stuff. We do each keep our monthly spending money in cash because it’s just too difficult to track how much we (well, mostly dh) are just blowing otherwise. We are also doing our remodel all on a Chase Freedom card (which we never use otherwise, but we had it sitting empty, so I decided to use it during the remodel). We’ll be putting upwards of $30K on it over the course of the remodel (and paying it off in between of course), and it’s gonna give me an extra $400-500 or so to buy some new kitchen items when we are done!

I wish the same. However, I think the sad thing is, women in the U.S. are so used to having everything yesterday, many want those unnecessary inductions, which, in turn, leads to so many more interventions (and poorer outcomes). It’s not just the attitudes of the medical professionals that needs to change, but the attitudes of 90% of the women giving birth.

This is something I'm considering, although dd really doesn't really want to do the flight alone. I think she's just feeling like there will be strength in numbers, and we will make it through. I know she feels more comfortable with the idea that I'll be with her, so somehow it'll work out. If I could get TWO people to fly up and drive back so I could fly with her, that might work. I'm trying to work on some backup plans, and have already decided that if day 1 is horrible, I'll put her on a plane from wherever we stop that first night. I am not really that inclined to drive back alone, so I hate to plan on that, even though I know I probably COULD. I honestly think that, even though the flight would be done and over with WAY more quickly, consoling a baby on a plane COULD be more difficult. You don't really have room, sometimes you're confined to a seat no matter what, you are definitely cramped if you're between other passengers, etc. Being a new nursing mom will also be awkward with strangers on either side, since you can't always be discreet in the beginning. In addition, the stress of a crying baby that is disturbing everyone isn't pleasant either. I remember the looks we got when traveling from Hawaii with my oldest dgs. He never made a peep the whole trip, but when we walked into first class (airline bumped us to first class so we could sit together), the people looked at us with disdain.

Thanks for the suggestions! Sandra Boynton is a favorite, and I have already purchased her a few of those. She is having people bring books to her shower also, which is why I thought it would be kinda neat to have the guest sign-in be a book.

I AM between the two locations. The trip we will be making is actually from WA to my house in Louisiana where she’ll be for a month or so while her boyfriend wraps things up there in WA and makes the move. I think she will be a lot less likely to experience PPD from that because she is moving from WA, which is 40 hours away from everyone she knows and all her family, to GA, which is about a 9 hour drive from home (and a really short, inexpensive flight). In addition, they are buying a house in GA, and she is super excited about that. She will definitely have to work to make some friends. She has a few in WA, but hasn’t really been there long enough to make a ton of them. I’m thinking LLL meetings will be a good starting point for her, and I’ll help her make some connections with that while I’m there helping her get settled. We are tossing up some other options, but this is just what she thinks will be the best and most cost-effective way to get all of us and the dogs back south. I’m gonna keep trying to come up with some alternatives and/or at least backup plans. One of the worst parts, to me, about the drive is how many hours of actual nothing there is between there and here. I just want us to be able to stop at decent places when we need to.

Storybook for sure.

Wow I feel terribly I haven’t been back on to respond! Yall have definitely given me some food for thought. I think we will have to really think this through. #1 - selling the car isn’t an option, and, honestly, neither is paying someone to drive it down while still having to pay the expenses associated with flying. #2 - not sure if her moving to be here for the birth is an option since it would pretty much eliminate her boyfriend being here for the birth #3 - I HAVE thought about birth complications/c-section, etc., and that certainly is a concern. Honestly, as big as she is now with 12 weeks left to go, I’m thinking she might wind up being on the early side (which would be great as long as it isn’t TOO early). #4 - I hadn’t thought about the dogs not being able to fly because we were looking at them being on the plane. They aren’t small enough, but apparently, even slightly larger dogs can be somewhere on the plane because we read they only allow 2 per flight for whatever the particular thing is. I’m not super worried about the holding/nursing, etc. of the baby because we would not go more than 2 hours without stopping. We will NOT let the baby cry. That’s not gonna happen. I figure absolute worst case scenario would be we do a day and if it’s horrible, we just get her on a flight and I do the rest alone (although that would suck terribly, but I am a big girl and I’m sure I could do it). Her boyfriend will get his dates soon for his relocation, so maybe, depending on what they are, we could alter things up a bit. Money is a factor though, so IDK if my flying home then going back to get her a month later is reasonable. I just have no clue what we are gonna wind up doing, but I do appreciate all the different considerations.

I want to get a really neat hardback book for guests to sign at my dd’s baby shower. Any suggestions for something directed at a baby/child in general?

So my BUN level has gradually risen over the last couple years. My doctor’s office shows a normal range of (don’t remember low end) to 17. A couple years ago mine was 18. Last year, 20. We did a non-fasting repeat (in case it was from dehydration) and it was still 20. This year it’s 23. We will do a non-fasting repeat in a couple months. I realize this isn’t crazy high (some show the normal range as up to 22), but I’d rather get on top of it if something is going on. WWYD?

Car is a year old and in great working order, so no real concerns there. Dogs have never really been around a tiny baby (this is her first), but are used to kids and have been fine. They’ll be crated in the car, and taken out on harnesses/leashes when we stop. Definitely planning for nursing/changing stops every couple hours at most. I doubt she’ll have perfected the “hang over the car seat†acrobatics required to nurse a baby in the car, and the baby will still be pretty tiny for that himself I’m sure.

A couple more things; They have two vehicles and he is already taking one across country, likely with a U-Haul. Selling the car really isn't an option as it isn't very old, and likely can't be sold for what is owed on it (plus dd really likes the car anyway). From a cost perspective, we have to consider the tickets for 2 adults AND 2 dogs (IF we can get them on the flight with us), in addition to the cost of multiple checked bags (she's gonna be staying with us a month before finally getting settled in her new place, so she's gonna really need more stuff than we can even bring if we fly). With driving we can take more stuff, stop when needed, bring dogs in car instead of having to worry about getting them on a flight with us, and hotels/gas will probably cost about as much as the tickets. We would likely plan to do 5, 8-hr days, so we could stop a lot, and do no driving at night. We took the trip with the dogs in August, and we never had to stop for them more than every 4-5 hours, so I think we'll be stopping a lot more for the baby than the dog. The main thing I'm worried about is his little body getting tired of the seat; that's why I'd want a lot of stops where we could get him out of there to stretch.

I have been having this issue lately. On the one hand I think a vegetarian/vegan diet could be best (i'd never be vegan because I just think you wind up with too many meat/dairy substitutes that aren't without their own issues), but OTOH, you read so much about grains and all the recent research about how bad they are. I'm kinda thinking that the best diet is the one with no garbage in it, and a healthy balance of foods in as close to their natural state as possible. I buy meats that are grass-fed or at least pasture-raised (and local). I buy grass-fed cream for my coffee (I rarely drink milk, but I buy grass-fed anyway). I buy grass-fed butter and ghee and I'm pretty generous with butter when I use it on things. I eat a variety of veggies. I eat plenty of olives, do use olive oil occasionally (though I buy from a local store and it's 100% EVOO from Italy that is never over 6 months old), and eat lots of avocado and nuts. My cholesterol is a little over 200, but my LDL and triglycerides are low and my HDL is high. I'd love to lower my meat intake for sure because there's that side of me that just can't believe lots of meat is really that great, just from a digestion POV, but I really don't want to up grains a bunch and wind up with inflammation from excess grain. I think it's just a fine balance, but if you're eliminating the trash (which is what ALL the diets have in common), you're gonna be better off than most.

My dd and her bf are getting relocated (Navy). We will leave WA state mid-June with a, likely, less than 4 week old baby and 2 boston terriers. Her boyfriend won't leave until early-mid July, but their lease is up and they'll be in an awkward position to try and rent or anything since it'll only be a few weeks. The plan was for her and me to fly back with the baby and dogs, but the navy now won't move the vehicle, so we might have no choice, but to make that road trip. What's the youngest infant you've taken on a long road trip? What are your suggestions for making it comfortable for the baby, as I know they can get really sore from being in the car seat for long periods. I mean obviously we will be stopping a LOT more and will probably make a 5 day trip of it, so we have no more than 8 hours/day in the car, but this is new territory for me. And yes, I have considered driving it myself with the dogs and letting her fly with the baby, and that is possible, but she (and I'm sure my husband) won't really want me to make that drive alone. Also, one upside is not having to have the baby on an airplane closed in with all those germs when he's so tiny, but I'm not sure if that compensates for all the downsides. :( I'd appreciate any input.