Roo – As far as drying things in a microwave, at my salon, they have a bunch of small wet towels rolled up & sitting in a small microwave, to use for your feet & hands, when you get a pedicure or manicure. It feels wonderful!! I think people here like that you can choose to live in a smaller municipality that doesn’t have a high school, so the tax levy is a lot less. The students have a choice of attending one of the neighboring towns, and the town pays a per-student fee for them .. which winds up much less than having the overhead of an entire school. So in areas that were developed for retiree/senior housing, the school taxes are minimal .. and that’s the whole point of it. The larger the area used to calculate school costs & taxes, the more likely that you’re paying for a large student population elsewhere. As someone who never had children, I got tired of paying such high school taxes for the 23 years I lived in north Jersey, while the parents kept thinking of new programs to add .. for which we’d all have to share the cost! We also have that short-term capital gains tax for turning around a house, and a “millionaire’s tax”, that's an extra levy on homes sold for > $1 million. So it often made sense for people to sell just under $1 million – if they were close in price – just to avoid the tax. Mary Poulos – Great list .. I created something like that in Excel for myself .. a “cheat sheet”! MPoulsom is also from South Carolina.

If that is how they are now. Check your floors out first though to make sure. Do you have timber outside your bedroom? I note you have tile in the kitchen and lounge rooms but of course have no idea of the full layout of your home. If you have already replaced timber with tiles in other rooms, or outside your bedroom, then this will alter the whole thing. You have to look at the whole house.

@urj123, Cricky!!! I knew you were going to ask that, after I looked at the sample I had that was full strength ha-ha.....AND I re-read you post and you wrote quite clearly 1/4 strength!!! I will return to the store, AGAIN, ha-ha and ask for 1/4 strength. All jokes aside, I think 1/4 will probably be real nice, as I didn't dislike the full strength but too creamy for the ceiling. My daughter actually painted all her ceilings the same colour as her walls with Hog Bristle but all the experts seem to say that a ceiling should be white or at least traditionally its always been white and I like the look of that too. I won't be back in town until next week but I'll keep in touch when I have the sample in my hand. Hubby and I are hay contractors and are at our most busy time being in tractors for many long hours but we are nearing the end and then I can take a breath and turn my focus back onto the home. Actually have 80mtrs of edging or capping tiles around the veranda to do and then the same amount of concreting to do on the 1.8m wide veranda and then we can get the colourbond roof on the house and during the cooler months, we can start to lay the limestone bricks, so there's plenty to do on the home!!! I have photo's attached in an earlier post. Best get to bed, more hay baling to do tomorrow. Cheers, Barbara

just viewed your imagined dilemma - the jade colour of doors - are they a laminate - if they aren't - yes if you desperately need a change - have white laminate (like the whole neighbourhood). but if the jade cupboards are definitely laminated I would not replace - for the jade is stunning. Furthermore, you would make a good move to extend the black high-gloss laminate to those floor-level cupboard doors which currently have a wood strip (which the previous owner did (I presume)I would suggest you have a single black strip definitely 2inches high inserted as a line in that area. (this job must be done by an experienced laminator - to perfection (this will eliminate the eye-sore strips of wood.( but it must be applied as a continuous band (from a to b) - not bits - Furthermore, the high-gloss black floor-boards will look good so close - meeting each other. I NOTE YOU WOULD DO WELL WITH A LARGISH SLEEK KITCHEN SINK ( YOU SEE BY DOING THESE SMALL CHANGES YOU ARE GETTING A WHOW KITCHEN. Am I imagining the green which seems to extend to the ceiling line is not cupboards up there if that is so do not take the green up to the cornice - the cupboards are the feature not the walls - the cornice in that room should be taken out - having the plastered wall reaching the ceiling without cornice. Your kitchen cupboards are the feature.(it would be good to paint upper walls and ceiling. Just "off white" I am reluctant to tell you the kitchen window should be wider as the kitchen has a message but the window is like a poor relative. If you carry-out these changes - the kitchen should be free of everything else - no utensils on the stove, nothing on benches or on top of other areas - the colour and impact - that is all that is needed (plus it has become modernised) - despite your belief that white is in - maybe in hospitals. Good Luck