We both hated the idea, and agreed in advance not to do it. We also took care to cut tiny little pieces of wedding cake so that they wouldn't smear. I didn't have fancy make up, but some do. I have heard of brides hiring a make up artist to do the whole female side of the wedding party. I can only imagine how hard it would be to get that ruined by a stupid thing like smeared cake from someone who just promised to love and cherish you for life.

I have a moon roof on my 98 Camry and on my 2001 Mercedes Coup, and I love them. They were not priorities of mine to say the least. The only reason I have them is that they were on the used cars I bought. I hate the sun beating down on my head. But, I do have a ceiling cover for each one. And I don't believe that they have contributed to the car heating up. What I like about them is: 1. At night when I'm driving in the country/woods/forest, which I do quite often, I love pulling back the ceiling cover so that the moon can shine in. If gives me a feeling like I'm in a bubble of forest, it's so beautiful. But I don't open the moonroof itself. 2. They help me find my car! There are so many old Camrys around, and this helps to distinguish mine from the rest in big parking lots. 3. I can put my keys on them without worrying about damaging the paint. So, these are unconventional reasons to want one, but I'm really enjoying mine.

They are uncommon but are popping up here and there. Alert readers may well ask why I, a Californian, did not include this in my fantasy auxiliary cabin. It is because having considered this carefully, I have concluded that: 1. I am much more likely to injure myself than benefit myself by assuming most yoga positions that I have seen. 2. Yoga out here is becoming increasingly a spiritual practice, which is inconsistent with my faith. Although it started as 'just the moves', which were beneficial for many and which I see no spiritual harm in. 3. Hot tubs are more suitable for me than hot yoga rooms. So if I did the fantasy auxiliary cabin, I would add a hot tub to the deck or back area of our existing cabin, because I figure we would not need the entertaining space in the back as badly if we had the aux. There used to be a trippy CA cuisine restaurant in South Lake Tahoe that had private hot tubs available for guest to use after dinner. Each one had it's own tall redwood booth with no ceiling. They were absolutely awesome--sitting in a hot tub while being snowed on after a fantastic meal is just heavenly.

No one has asked for a hot yoga room. Yall must not be from California.

It’s a conflict of interest, their primary interest is you, so hold them to that. It’s fair and valid to ask for a discount in these circumstances.

When we were looking at cabins, there was one that had a wine closet. It was very long and narrow, and had wine racks from floor to ceiling. It was on the ground floor and had no outside walls, so the climate control system was never really stressed.

I actually have an auxiliary building plan myself. A vacant lot just two lots away from our cabin came onto the market. I figured we could buy it for cheap (hah) and just put up a big garage there--the kind with doors on both ends that you can tow in and out of, for a truck (that we don't yet own) and a boat (ditto) (A girl can dream.). The realtor is a friend of ours and clued me that the county does not issue permits for just garages anymore, because folks were building them and then living in them, in unsafe and/or unsanitary conditions. So we would have to build a house as well. OK, I thought, what would we love to have at the cabin that would lend itself to this project? And I figured it all out. It starts with the two level garage--since the lot is an upsloping one. So the ground level would be the pull through garage as previously described, but with two parallel paths through it. And then above that, and large in footprint because it would start at the same spot but be further up the slope would be a big wood and metal machining shop for DH, with room and power for big tools and also a well lit bench area for tying flies for flyfishing. That would look and function like a basement for the next owners. A level above that would be bedrooms and a bathroom. The bedrooms would have storm windows set up to capture the prevailing winds, and since they would be sandwiched between the basement and the upper floor they would be cooler on hot summer days than the ones at the cabin. There would also be a master bath and another bath. The master bedroom would be set up as a bedroom for us to use on very hot nights, as would one of the others, for guests, and the third one would be available to be a bedroom for the next owners but would be used for yarn storage. Yes, the whole thing. Then the top floor would have a kitchen, half bath, large, tall great room, and library. While we used it, the kitchen would be for dyeing fiber and messy craft projects involving paint. There would be a long plastic table in there for warp painting. The great room would have windows looking down through the pines into the valley/sunset, and would have my weaving looms, a flat screen TV to play movies, disguised with a tapestry, and comfortable couch/loveseat area for watching or planning. It would also have a big table or desk for drawing or planning or staging things, and for cardmaking and bookbinding projects, and a built in bookshelf for equipment. A small closet would hold my big collection of tablecloths, nicely hung up for wrinkle free storage, and my reeds. The library room would have floor to ceiling bookshelves and a library ladder, and a big natural granite boulder fireplace with a visible granite boulder chimney. There would be an office area there, with a large computer desk and some drawers for supplies. There might also be a cabinet with free weights and a stashable exercise mat, a big one. I like having that kind of thing available but don't like it to be visible. I would not need a treadmill or other aerobic machine because just walking around up there is aerobic enough. Up the hill out back there would be a large barbeque grill built of indigenous granite rocks, and a little gazebo with screens all around it with a daybed and a bistro dining set. Hence we would have all the functions we lack in our current cabin, in a structure that could easily be changed back to a 'normal' house if we needed to sell it. Figuring this out was super fun. Now to win the lottery so we could afford it!

This is a brilliant idea, actually. Mine was much more mundane. I was actually thinking of one of those craft fair booth tents, the kind where you have a roofing thing that lets light through but not actual sunshine, and has detachable or roll up sides. That platform tent is much more hefty, and I imagine that it would last longer. A little dark, maybe. But it’s so inviting. Probably too nice for exercise equipment in the back yard though. No, this would be for back yard glamping when the house is hot in the summer. (We don’t have appreciable quantities of mosquitoes here, so open air like that would work just fine.)

Actually I want a yurt PROPERTY, which is a very different thing. But for exercise, the point of the structure was to be able to see out at all times. Yurts are opaque. And here is the yurt PROPERTY. It has a large yurt gathering room. It also has a yurt treehouse bedroom. And it has a floating yurt on its own pond. In addition, of course, to the large, comfortable house with inlaw quarters also on the premises. Check it out; it's remarkable. http://twobearsdancing.info/property-brochure-2/

Why I don't want an exercise room: I like to exercise outside. And it really doesn't get cold enough here for that to be completely impossible for more than a few weeks per year if you can adjust the time of the day for it. What I want instead: I'd like a large white awning, maybe 12 by 12 or so, with rolldown, clear plastic sides, set up on a wooden platform. This would mean I could exercise outside but out of the sun whenever I wanted to, protected from the rain. I could have the breezes blowing through, or not. It would have natural light. What I would keep there would be my old Healthrider (similar to a rowing machine), a cabinet of barbells and leg weights, an exercise 'table' that is thickly but firmly cushioned for floor work, (because I know that although I can currently get down onto the floor and get back up again, the time is coming, alas, when that second part might not be possible), and a place to put a pitcher of water and a big glass to drink it from. Ideally there would also be a nearby hot tub. Hmmm. Maybe skip the exercise tent and just get a hot tub. Hmmm.

Right now my loom is in a room off of the great room that has a wide doorway with no door, so it's sort of in but not of the great room. That's ideal from my perspective--not tempting enough to be messed with, but not isolated. There are also windows on three walls in that room, looking out into pine trees and a big, gorgeous dogwood, which plays into my elaborate childhood fantasies of living in a tree. I also have a table loom warped up and right in the great room at present. Even more accessible. Mostly what I lack is great yarn storage. And reed storage. Reeds are my decor nightmare. I've actually thought of looking for an old gun cabinet to store them in, but those are very expensive because of the security features.

I was thinking about my friend’s movie room/man cave area, and mused that if I had an extra room or extra little complex of rooms, that’s not what I would use it for. Either I would have a large entertaining area—like in older Victorian houses. A huge dining room (dining hall?) leading through a big wide doorway area into a huge living room, with fireplaces and several conversation areas, that could be pushed back for dancing. Or I would have a large British-looking library, with a fireplace, window seats, floor to ceiling bookshelves, cozy loveseats by the fire, and velvet drapes, appended to a large private office with a carved ceiling, computer and standing desks, and a Sheraton writing desk; as well as lawyer bookshelves. People who know me would be surprised that I wouldn’t pick a weaving room, but actually I like to weave near other people, and so while it would be nice to have some sort of dust free display closet for all. My. Yarn., I wouldn’t dedicate a separate room to it. What about you? What would you have?

I never use self-checkouts. They are notoriously unreliable, and they put people out of work.

We have friends who have one. It has kind of a man cave feel—a darkish room at the lowest level of the house, which is on a hill so it’s not really a basement, with about 8-10 cushy theater seats and a huge screen. In the next room is a pool table with quite a bit of room around it, and a large bar in the other leg of the ‘L’. IIRC the bar has about 12 barstools, and it’s a real bar counter surrounding a serving area with a wall of booze, a beer fridge, and a wine fridge, and a little bar sink. So that comprises the whole bottom floor, maybe there is also a half bath, not sure. Anyway, it’s great for when the husband has folks over to watch a game and have a few drinks and shoot some pool, or for a few couples to have drinks while pool is played. As a whole, it works. As a stand alone room, I don’t think I would want it.

My friend who is really into cars thinks that Suburus start needing big repairs around 100000 miles now. Since we generally buy used cars, she steer me away from them toward Hondas or Toyotas. She thinks that the Toyota AWD offering is as good as Suburu’s despite being late to the party.