<p>arabrab,thank you for sharing that beautiful story.</p>
<p>oregon101, I hope you are able to figure out what’s going on with your H’s health soon.</p>
<p>Oregon, I hope they find the answer. Good for you for pointing them in the direction to look and good for them for listening. Moda, how was the stager meeting? NM, no experience with reclaimed floors.</p>
<p>I was interested in following the thread on work at home thoughts after Yahoo decided to end the practice. At one point in our careers, both H and I worked from home at the same time. My office was upstairs, because I needed the isolation as we had middle school aged kids at the time. His office was downstairs and he was the one who talked to the kids if they needed something. We rarely saw each other during the day, even for lunch since I ate at my desk. Since I was supporting offices all over the country, it didn’t matter where I physically sat and I was traveling several days a week anyway. I thought it worked far better than trudging into the office, where I would close my office door and hope not to be bothered by anyone. When I sat out on the trading floor, it was mentally exhausting to block all the noise all day. Yahoo would definitely lose me as an employee with a move like that.</p>
<p>TheAnalyst, I suspect that your integrity and work ethic made you an ideal telecommuter. I think it is likely difficult for any employers to actually quantify (at least legally) which employees are suited for telecommuting and which benefit from presence in either supervisory, collaborative or other organizational matters. And if you let one…then you have a potential problem on you hands with another.</p>
<p>Then again, even if the employee does well inside his or her own structure, there are the dispositions of their spouses and children to consider. I have given this a lot of thought after discussing the matter in light of our own employee and I will never agree to telecommuting. And it has nothing to do with his intrinsic capability to perform work. But we all benefit from cross review of each other’s components of work and the instant collaboration required at specific points. </p>
<p>Oregon, sending your h the light!</p>
<p>NM, I had refinished all the old oak floors in the old house. I had a pro do the sanding, but I did the varathane. I love the look, so it was worth it. In a lakehouse environment, I’d likely also love the look. And I suspect it will increase the ultimate resale value of he property. Just don’t go with a high gloss if you want to not worry about scratches ;)</p>
<p>kmc, I suspect it’s an introvert, extrovert issue for me. An extrovert gains energy from being around people while an introvert is drained by other people. When working in an office, I found myself burning out and getting sick essentially from exhaustion. I have a fair amount of people interaction required in my job, with lots of conference calls, but now that I have quality alone time between those needed energy bursts, I am able to do the think part of the job better, which is what I enjoy, and am no longer miserable. Now that I work for myself, I also set up a schedule where I only theoretically work four hours a day, which also helps me avoid burnout. I find I can’t do high quality thinking for eight full hours so now I don’t even try and only bill out for a half-day.</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing the link, oregon. That brought tears to my eyes.</p>
<p>Am also following the work from home thread. I have no option to do that at present as certain aspects of my job require me to be at the office in person. Our workplace has several people who WFH one or two days a week (including one in my department) and it seems to work out fine. I would love to do it in the future, if it’s possible.</p>
<p>Have an appointment to meet with the kitchen designer at 1. Trying to keep the cabin rustic yet contemporary. My family voted against a farm sink that I love. It was the classic form vs function argument as the farm sink is one big tub and the other two separate tubs. They like a side to rinse off dishes. I will give on that but want the overall look to be my vision!</p>
<p>D2 is enjoying this last semester. She is currently taking a required computer science class and has discovered she loves it! Is now wishing you would have taken more classes in this area. So her!</p>
<p>NM, D2 is a math minor. She had to take one course in CS. She commented that if she’d taken the CS course earlier, she might have been a CS rather than math minor. So it goes.</p>
<p>NM I love farm sinks too, wonder if there is a divider thing you can use when washing dishes. There were a few things I regret not pushing for when we built this house, so now I dont. hehe.
I am sure it will be gorgeous.</p>
<p>My sister has a farm house sink that I love. Perhaps it’s a modified version as it has a division but not the whole depth of the sink making it so you can actually scrub a lasagna pan without it’s being on an angle. And for what it’s worth, I hate the sink in our family house out east… one large side and then this little non side that has the disposal in it. You end up with all the stuff that should be in the disposal in the strainer or clogging the sink itself. Bad design in my opinion. Might I suggest a soapstone counter or even concrete? I love granite as much as the next person, but I have to say that it doesn’t fit every esthetic. I have been annoyed as I look at some houses on the market where they’ve taken a charming bungalow and remuddled it in a way that uses multi-colored slate and granite thinking they are modernizing the place when in reality they’ve just stomped all over the architectural integrity of the house. </p>
<p>Stager did a good job! Mostly I needed a critical eye that had no sentimental attachment to anything. Now just about every room has a pile in it that needs packing. I was very disappointed in the color chosen by the first designer for the dining room as it seems very tonally unlike the rest of the house and very… vanilla bean. She did an admirable job of giving the place some color and depth, but I still dislike the wall color but will not be repainting. My go to statement has become, it is what it is.</p>
<p>Neighbor up the street’s house sold in less than a week on the market at 98% asking price, while the one directly behind me can now be considered languishing on the market. I think they should have taken it off the market November and December so it looks like a new list for the spring, but instead they reduced the price again I noted yesterday. Since going on the market last fall, they’ve reduced the house nearly 50K and it now sits at almost 100K less than I am wanting to ask for my own! I honestly have no idea what the problem with it is except – well, too small a yard for the demographic, four bedrooms (and in finishing their lower level, did not add a fifth which is fairly common, it has a great room concept with a first floor office except the great room is smaller than my family room (and I have a formal living room and a first floor office). And they did not update their master bath at all - so it’s still all brass and I think a lot of people overestimate how much it is to update. I updated mine and although I would have done a remodel if I were staying here, it definitely looks a lot better. I also have an extra bath. But she’s killing me with this price reduction. It’s a divorce that is getting nastier by the minute I think and they just want to unload it at this point.</p>
<p>I love soapstone!!! We put a greenish soapstone in our lower level bar area when we remodeled before the wedding. Soapstone is soft so I am hesitant to use it at the cabin. Instead I am currently obsessed with honed Jet Mist granite that looks very much like soapstone. There will be a very large island that I am thinking of using wood as the countertop. I saw a photo that has reclaimed wood and it is beautiful! Here is a link:
[Stillwater</a> Story: Granite vs Butcher Block - Round 1,301](<a href=“http://stillwaterstory.blogspot.com/2011/02/granite-vs-butcher-block-round-1301.html]Stillwater”>Stillwater Story: Granite vs Butcher Block - Round 1,301) Click on the first picture. I like the idea of having two different materials by combining wood and honed granite.</p>
<p>A girl can dream! ;)</p>
<p>My counter is granite and my island is butcher block, butcher block requires alot of care, I need to replace it, and love the ideas on your post. (wood).</p>
<p>Crazy busy day. Just popping in to say hi while I’m scarfing down lunch at my desk.</p>
<p>I am taking younger D for her first college visit over spring break. I was looking at the majors offered and saw that there were a couple that would be right up Son’s alley. So he’s coming, too. I want him to start to really think about whether he wants to try to join the adult workforce when he gets his associates degree, or whether he wants a 4 year degree…and if so, whether he really willing to go backwards and finish all those pesky gen ed requirements that he has avoided thus far.</p>
<p>This weekend is the huge national cheer championship. We never think it’s such a big deal because it’s in Dallas, but teams come from literally all over the country (and a few international destinations) to participate. I never get how kids miss two days of school (Friday to travel here and Monday to travel home) for a competition that is not school related, but thousands do.</p>
<p>Anyway, it is D’s last cheer competition ever. The first “last”, I guess. She’s a beautiful tumbler and I was asking if she at least wanted to still take tumbling next year. No way. She says that tumbling hurts, a lot. Hard to argue with that. Don’t want her to be plagued with joint problems the rest of her life.</p>
<p>I do love that first pic NMN - and I really like those barrel pendants in the first picture too! I love the mix of countertop, and especially liked the honed black granite with the marble island. Marble is pretty expensive though, well… I don’t know really, I just know the kind I like is $$$, which is usually my problem.</p>
<p>I on the other hand spent my day at Home Goods store. Since I am not an artist and cannot afford Shawbridge’s wife work, we work with what we got. In any event, I found what I consider a perfect fix for the bathroom AND also mulling over something I found to go above the mantle. If it were a size smaller, I think it would work better but all the colors are right, it’s not too modern, not too dated. Of course, i’d say it brightens the room, but it’s actually someone walking in the rain. Anyway… I might have to seek multiple opinions. I just wish it were smaller. Then again, maybe I am just used to smaller and so it seems massive. And maybe it’s all wrong for the scale of the room.</p>
<p>H came into the room and had nothing good to say about anything. I am becoming hugely annoyed. He has been zero help in going through any of this stuff and yet has opinion on EVERYTHING! grrr. Stager suggested we get new plants for this one planter we have because H put the low light plants in full sun when i was gone last summer. For the record these were plants i had “hidden” strategically under a pine tree to keep it from getting too much sun AND to make sure they would get rain. S thought they needed sun and so moved them to full sun. Instead of admitting he “ruined” their aesthetic value by frying them, he’s been nursing the things back to “health” but they have a long way to go. So ow he’s complaining about three house plants? He has no concept of any of this stuff and yet acts as a big know it all. I run around all day doing errand after errand… I walk in the door and it’s complaint after complaint. It’s stressful enough so please give. me. a. break!</p>
<p>I love that first pic too. Are there 2 islands in there? I can’t figure out the second one…</p>
<p>Moda, hex upon the cranky spouse. I find saying this aloud is therapeutic. If he hears you, just tell him you’re talking to your spirit guides and smile :)</p>
<p>Mch was joking with me yesterday that wasn’t it odd both he and Mcson would be in airplanes when traffic controllers went on furlough! Well, he managed to land shortly after midnight and I’m going to assume no news is good news from mcson! He and mcgirlfriend are in San Francisco to meet her family. He told me yesterday he was a bit nervous but trying not to think about it. I hope they hit it off! He will be heartbroken if they’re not fans! I know this because he has also made clear his eventual intent to propose after she graduates.</p>
<p>Hope the air traffic controllers get H home today! We are hosting euchre tonight.</p>
<p>I find the home decor talk fascinating although I have no help to offer. I know when I see something that I like but am totally unable to “visualize”. Currently need to paint the kitchen/family room but I can’t decide on a color. </p>
<p>Missypie - Good luck to your D and her team!</p>
<p>kmc, how exciting about the proposal plans. Although I realize this doesn’t come as a surprise, it’s nice that you like her and feel like she is a great fit for your S. </p>
<p>S2 is swamped at school. He has seven classes this semester. Although a couple are only 1 CR, it’s a lot of multi-tasking and a lot of projects and research papers. He was supposed to buy his cap and gown this week, but I haven’t heard if that actually happened. I kind of doubt it. </p>
<p>He also has a lot of paperwork for his job offer, which I would love to hear more about, but he has been too busy to provide me with any details. He asked me on Friday whether they would leave a fed ex package in the rain, so he is still getting new stuff. I know he had an online test to take, needed to get fingerprinted, and was going to try to schedule his physical for this coming week. It sounds like it may be another month before everything gets confirmed. It is definitely an involved process.</p>
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<p>Okay, Moda, we not only have the same daughter, we have the same husband.</p>
<p>We’re still homeless. Staying in downtown Boston this weekend. I fear we are going to have to rent a house for a while if this keeps going.</p>
<p>Lots of action recently. The day before, worked with Dutch client who came to visit and British client by email and phone, yesterday the Brits, the US part of different UK company, a US company, and then a Brazilian client, topped off by a meeting with a South American gazillionaire and tastefully stunning trophy wife, and then dinner with artists after their openings. Now, doing a bit of work before I have to do the obligatory museum afternoon.</p>
<p>Moda, it is annoying when service people don’t understand how to provide service. I hate working with folks who expect me to do their jobs for them or alternatively define their jobs very differently than I do. Tax accountants and some lawyers are often like this – they think their job is to tell me what I can’t do rather than listening to my objectives and figuring how to help me to what I want. If they think the path is risky, give me an explanation of the risks and let me decide. Does the stager get a fixed fee or some benefit if the sale is quick or at a higher price?</p>
<p>Moda - sounds like your hubby needs to take his own little bus trip. Where shall we send him? I was going to say “where the sun don’t shine”, but that’s a bit much. ;)</p>