I think it was one of the copycat fb accounts that pretend to be HCR. I can’t find such a post when I go to her page.

Fort Worth for Dolly 💜

Do you really want the pantry and prep in the same room with backpacks, shoes, and detritus?

@inthai It is difficult to get a clear picture of what you are planning and what you need help with. The details are important, including the exact dimensions you are starting with and what exact dimensions you are considering changing. Along with, how you are using some sort of bench seating under the window, what appliances you want to fit in, how you want to use the pantry, exact locations of doors, etc. Also to consider, if you have kids then the opening to the basement may not be ideal depending on the plans for it's use. Noise easily travels up open stairways.

Without clarity, the responses you get here will not necessarily be very helpful. Hunting through an ongoing thread for the details is also not ideal. If you want others to spend time for you then please consider spending the time to gather the information and present it in a way so that others can actually help.

That traffic path from the mud/pantry right through your work zone is not good. You’d be better off with an L kitchen with pantry cabinets in the L layout and just a mud room off the kitchen - with traffic diverted away from your work zone.

The stairs arriving upstairs are missing.

The upstairs occupants have to carry laundry through the dining and kitchen and living room to the laundry, it is not very elegant.

Are you planning a piano and exercise equipment in the same room?

I get the appeal of a U plan, especially if the lot is not very deep. It allows for a bit of back yard, a terrace. Speaking of, I see the idea of a terrace out front: don’t be too optimistic, because it will not get used.

What was the problem with previous efforts at designing your home?

C or U shapes can be great when the capture the light well. Is yours oriented to the light? Or just to the lot?

What's the master bedroom? I'd make it clearly bigger than the other bedrooms. Your bedrooms are far apart. When you sell, it will be easier if there's a master bedroom near kids' bedrooms. Otherwise, you'll have a much harder time finding a market for a 4 to 5 BR house that doesn't work well for families, except if they have older teens.

" we still work with a license architect, but one who is flexible enough to let me play with the layout and just provide her feedback to our perhaps unconventional wants and needs. "

Take your list of wants and needs to an architect. Your drainw the home is going to chase away architects as they know you will be vested in your design and anything they suggest will be overlooked.

Connections
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Connections
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Wordle 1,895 4/6

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Nicole

Is that a hair dryer in the living room? and such a tiny basketball hoop in the kitchen. Not sure about the bar cart and filing cabinet under the stairs behind the amazing disappearing bamboo.

I’ll stay in the garden with my mimosa, thank you.

Interesting place, some very quirky stuff. Very industrial, do not mind yjis in the main areas, but the bedrooms are too cold for me. Agree that it is always nice to have a garden.

The bedrooms look like penitentiary chic. I don't mind the paper towel holder suspended like that...out of the way and easy to reach. The odd thing by the refer is replaced in some pics by a floor lamp. Are the stair treads pick up truck bed metal? Ouch!

Emily, it’s funny how your image changed the floor and rugs, table and chairs, flowers. Was the AI asked to do that or did it do it on its own?

I didn’t prompt it to change the flooring or rugs.

" But they arent going to be completely accurate at this point "

But they would help more than the decsciption alone. Make some notes on the cfloor pland of what chnaged. Sketch them in.

Chispa, I have a few cats‘ worth, maybe I can mix into one gem!

And my mom is in my office upstairs, not sure I want to wear her, though. (has anyone read ”Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant”?)

Yes, eld, the lab grown are chemically identical to the mined version and they will change color with the light. That may not be true of "man made" but is of "Lab grown".

No one has mentioned the current "trend" of Old Euro diamonds. If you have not seen in person, the pieces I have seen are stunning. 1890-1930. hand cut and polished. Such a different cut and sparkle than newer diamonds.

It is no secret, to anyone that knows me, blue is my color of choice. I had a ring made last year with a cornflower Ceylon sapphire, though I usually prefer a royal blue. My sister had a pink sapphire ring made at the same time. A recent purchase was an Edwardian Merlot tourmaline ring, my first true antique purchase. The stone is large and flat, worn on the middle finger. Took me 2.5yrs on and off to convince the owner into selling. Well worth the wait. She purchased at a stateside antique jewelry show from a dealer from Ireland. I'd love to know more about its first owner.

Did you consider more drawers versus lower cabinets? Drawers are very convenient!

When you live in the kitchen, it will look more, well, lived in.

I mean or don’t reply to each comment. People mostly said the same thing. Post back with updates and further questions. Don’t start a new thread.

You are designing a new house so really think about the hard finishes - real wood floors or high quality engineered vs plastic floors? Real stone counters vs plastic counters? Cabinetry style and detailing, getting colors well coordinated? All of this after a rock solid floor plan that functions. Your AI image is ‘fine’ and would improve with contrasting counter stools but that is cart before the horse stuff. Think big picture then work down to the details. Posting your floor plan and showing real samples of hard finishes you are considering will get you the best advice.

If you keep the peninsula, you will have especially the corner cabinet open to the dining side, right? Even better, make it all drawers for placemats, napkins, candles, etc.

Its so funny in my last two houses ive had two side by side sliders. but anyway yeah id love one of those fancy giant whatever those are called doors especially if i had a cool outdoor space. these currently work well as they just go to a long deck and for me ill take all the light i can get. i appreciate the questions though so i can make sure im thinking about everything. storage and space is not really my issue, and the limiting factor is the dining space so besides not wanting to buy a new window it just wouldnt do much to change it. generally the thing i care most about is getting a pantry for food storage, an appliance garage to keep my counters clear, a real vent hood because our microwave thing does absolutely nothing, a solid counter for rolling dough, and cabinets i can acess. these are comically wasteful of space.

Do not put the wall oven on the peninsula. That run is your only uncut prep and the walk path from the slider. Keep a 30" range on the wall. Use the inches for the tall pantry next to the fridge. Tape 42" and walk the slider with a laundry basket before you buy the cooktop or stools.

I was out with someone several times and got quite annoyed that her ohone was going off every few minutes due to critters walking by her security cameras all around her house. She was really checking for her neighbor kids going into her yard to retrieve balls and frisbees and trampling her flowers.

I started an article in the current New Yorker at the library, about surveillance devices in Atlanta. Supposedly there are more such devices in Atlanta than any city outside of China, but I didn’t see their rsearch on that. Anyway, I’ll be going back to the livrqrylibrary to finish the article.

Porkandham, there was more than Flock, there are a lot of other devices, Ring etc, and something about a robotic dog surveillance. I really have to go back and read the rest.

DLM and Pal, thank you. I hope I didn't contribute to the end of this thread as the Flock camera debate is ongoing in so many areas and so important for people not to just assume data will not be misused.

The data shows a significant number of Amish in the U.S. are not assimilating and hold socially conservative views very different from U.S. norms.

The data shows a significant number of Mormons in the U.S. are not assimilating and hold socially conservative views very different from U.S. norms.

The data shows a significant number of Christian home-schoolers in the U.S. are not assimilating hold socially conservative views very different from U.S. norms.

See how dumb this game is?

DH picked them up from the Jewel the other day. Jewel is not your eastern, German, etc store, it’s solidly midwestern as far as I know. And yet, there they were. Sweeping the nation they are!

I'm stll trying to figure out the distinction. I grew up in NYC , now live in Pa, and it sems whatever hotdog buns I've purchased are what I expected.

Can anyone tell me what kind I likely gravitate to? The growing up in NYC ( Brooklynto be more precise) may be the clue needed.

This is all new to me.

I tried them, but did not like the top slit. Will go back to side cut. Not enough room for everything that I like with the hot dog.

I like Elmer’s method, too. We have 8-over-8 double-hungs with self-storing storms. That robot would be as hard to manage as washing them myself.

I just call my window washer people. Plus, I don't have to store the robot in between uses.

That AI summary didn't mention apartment buildings, where I think there's a potential market for these things........most buildings never wash windows as often as they should. And they're far cheaper than window washing people (except yourself) - though they're obviously not right for every home and window configuration.

I was a technical writer and editor. At one job, a new person was hired, but no one from the documentation department had interviewed her. It was quickly apparent that she could not construct a written sentence. Rather embarrassingly for all, one of the managers decided to check out her diagramming skills, which were nil, even at the most basic level. Frankly, most of the product developers, and managers, could not do it (it was left up on the whiteboard), even those who could actually write fairly well. Most of the technical writers could, but we were a little shocked that it was not taught in all schools. (btw, that person did not survive a month at the job, and the hiring process was altered.)

I learned the most about English grammar when I studies French, and more when ai studied German! My kids both had Latin in elementary or middle school, and I know it helped them understand grammar and vocabulary.

KW, thank you. It was sad to think a dog so sweet could be treated so badly. I'm still with the same vet that took care of him. He was always so upset being in the little examining room, so Lisa (my vet) took him out into the waiting room and sat on the floor with him and did her exam. It was so kind of her. I saw his chart and saw it had 3 stars on it. I mentioned that I was impressed that he got a 3 star rating. She laughed and said that was not a good thing. He gave the staff a hard time when they would take him in the back for any procedure. Once she started treating him in the lobby, he was fine with anything they wanted to do. Poor baby.

I apologize. I'm still sick. And frustrated from being so sick. I would kill to be relatively normal, health-wise. I know I will never be a "normal" person. I shouldn't have said what I said. Truly. I thought of y'all today, when I was reading a statement that is going to be put out by the American Heart Association, and I was looking for things as proper and formal as possibly could be. Could be seen for decades, and maybe even generations? It was about cardiac biobanks, the world I live in. For my full-time job, that's not nearly as fun as my fun job.

That said, I love!!!!!!! ❤️ 😍

Consider something like these!

Take a pill If you had shared more info at the beginning then we could answer better from the beginning. I still think one plug and one switch are not enough even in the tiniest kitchen whereever youare .

So the Zillow house, once the objets and lampshades and drapery and furniture and wallpaper and portraits of the big-hair daughters in the 1980s are removed, and the holes patched, could you work with the trim around the doors, the floors, the high windows? How about the mirrors between the lower and upper windows? The layout isn’t bad. I wonder if one can pretty up the elevator hallway? Maybe you aren’t the only unit on the floor, but unless the neighbor is a brutal minimalist, perhaps they wouldn’t mind?

Also,

would you go to the estate sale?

So now I’m shopping the possible estate sale. I don’t have a place for them, but I do like some of the dining-style chairs in the sitting rooms, the stool in the kitchen, some of the rugs, I wonder if they are handmade. In the bathroom, the silver items around the sink are charming (put your day’s pills in the saucer! or maybe the flosser? so you don’t forget) and I almost like the jewelry caddy except she reminds me of a modern- day Marie Antoinette: headless. And if she holds the day’s earrings and necklace, what is the torso at the other end supposed to hold?

There's a ghost in photo 64..... And why are there mirrored lower cabinets in the kitchen, but not that bathroom? lol.

Off to google how to take a screenshot on a newer ipad....

@Springroz to screenshot…power button and volume up simultaneously.

I’m not sure that the examples reflect the question. If you have to choose between soccer and baseball, perhaps it is a time commitment? A neighbor’s daughter wanted to train with the cross-country team, as part of her soccer fitness. The XC coach said no, if you want to train you have to be on the team. (i’m thinking it had to do with school liability issues) For various reasons she couldn’t be on both, so she chose XC, and ended up state champion and earned a scholarship. So was not being able to do both a punishment? Or a choice?

A person on an ankle monitor isn’t prohibited from socializing with their ne‘er-do-wells, just from participating in nefarious shenanigans.

Another question is, does punishment or threat of punishment change a behavior internally, or just externally? Away from the threat of punishment, does the behavior occur, or does the person actually change the, I guess, desire, to perform the behavior?

" positive reinforcement - a very good training method for animals, especially dogs. It should also work for toddlers. "

It works very well for children too, long past the toddler stage. We used to joke that the dog training experiences we had before we had kids, made raising kids much easier.

I always thought that an element of Pavlov's demonstrations included his success in using positive reinforcement to communicate, not just to train. The thing about animals is that you can't tell them in words what you want them to do, or do only in certain circumstances, as you can with humans. Most learn eventually that a firm No means they did something wrong but that's different.

Rewarding a animal for a desired behavior, even if at first it's physically induced, gets the message across that that's what you want them to do.

^ except that in my area, the jail time may be so minimal that criminals are back out on the street commiting more crimes., so the consequence/punishment is no longer effective...

Spilled liquid doesn’t just flow off the outer edge, it can also linger just under the lip, and drip. But if the drawers and doors come up very close to the underside of the countertop, it should be less of an issue. I know that even with overhang, I am sometimes cleaning the inside panel of a drawer.

In almost seven years in this kitchen I have spilled something that leaked off a counter just once. I can live with that clean up chore 😁

TLA=Three Letter Acronym

DH’s first thought is an airport code. IPA is Ipota’s airfield in Vanuata. One runway. No facilities.

" MB is more standard. "

It's amusing that this bothered you so much that you were motivated to do a search. To what end, I won't try to guess. So where I am is less standard. I'm okay with that, hope you are too.

The rest of what your search found seemed like nonsense to me but if you liked it, great!

“It's amusing that this bothered you so much that you were motivated to do a search. To what end, I won't try to guess.”

No need to guess, Elmer, I stated my motivation. I didn’t even use acronyms so it would have been quite clear if you had read my words rather than search for something that wasn’t between the lines. I’m sure had I come back saying, ”Wow Elmer, you’re right, MBZ is the more common abbreviation,” you would have taken no issue with me searching.

DH’s chair is a low Danish chair, so the coffee table (we think of it as a cocktail table) is just the right height for his dessert, wine, and the remotes. We also keep a bowl with the cat’s brush in it there. Used to keep coffee table books on it, but they are now on a bookshelf.

No coffee table here either. I had one, a mahogany butlers table, that I gave away 30 years ago. (Never kept anything on it.) 7 years later my daughter bought her own house and was happy to get the rest of my formal LR furniture - I haven't wanted one since.

We have a globe, a smallish handgun and my bong. Purely utilitarian.

Choosing a place that serves your needs can be tricky, and even harder for couples who may have very different needs. My dad had mobility issues, but was cognitively sound, even after his stroke. Mom was mobilie for a long time, but increasing dementia. After home with caregivers, a twisty route into memory care from rehab was a good move. But Dad’s physical needs could only be met in a facility where most of his fellow ”inmates” as he said, were not communicating well, if at all. There was one place we were all familiar with, that would happily have accommodated him, but he just didn’t want to go, and it was a long convoluted drive for me. I think he’d have been much happier there, except that people he was friends or associates with would have access to his personal history, including medical, and he was a private person in that respect.

Then there’s how much freedom do you have? My aunt in Independent Living gave up her car, but the shopping bus drops you off at one store, and picks you up in an hour, and you have to have maneuvered your way through the store, selected your items, maybe tried things on, complete your purchase, maybe use the restroom, and be back at the pick-up point, while using a cane or walker, in AN HOUR. And if you need to go to another store, you have to wait until the next shopping bus day. I take her out, we include lunch somewhere cute or Panera, and have a good time, and it takes the better part of the day. Getting old is a pain. Her son is finally stepping in to help out, thank goodness, but it is not his forte.

Before my parents’ medical emergencies, we were looking at options. But because of their different needs, no place could accommodate them in the same apartment, or even wing. That sucked.

Actually, speaking of lifelong learning, I want to retire to a college campus, where I can audit classes, hear speakers, attend cultural performances, and can I get that cheap student health insurance, too? A well-endowed school that provides at least basic housekeeping and laundry, please? And one with a nursing program, I can be their work-study, internship, etc. (actually, our nearby college fulfils all that, I’ll check into it!)

Sushi, I personally know a family who built an assisted living facility because they did not want an elderly relative living in one of the few available in our area. It was so profitable that they have since built a nursing care facility with a memory care wing and a rehab / step down wing. And a hospice. They all make money. 🤷‍♀️

I have no idea why the people who own assembled parcels of land near our gated community havent started building these!

They may need a CON (Certificate of Need) or the equivalent. CONs are not always easy to come by.