Yeah as customers we have gotten used to being a pain in the rear, but now we have so many different ways to keep each other informed about bad companies/products.

I love kitchens! I have always wanted a really nice one to cook in. More than just "here is a counter and here is the stove". I want a Disney kitchen :D but that stuff is way too expensive!

That is a gorgeous kitchen, much better than my kitchen currently (it's not bad, just two walls of counters, but no island and a very small closet pantry). I want to have a kitchen that has plenty of storage and plenty of space for cooking and baking.....and also room for more than 2 people to be in the kitchen. I did a google search and found this. It was the only thing to come up relating to a paint color, everything else was how to paint black-eyed susans. I always read through reviews before I buy anything new anymore, especially if I'm buying it off Amazon. I read through reviews before I bought my smart watch, to figure out with phone to upgrade to, and which washer and dryer to buy. I always check the 1 and 2 star reviews first, so I get an idea of what problems the product/service has. I think the bigger issue is that a majority of products sold in the US nowadays is produced in China with cheaper materials, and most of that is thanks to Wal-Mart because they required suppliers to meet a certain price point or they won't buy the product. Other companies are guilty of being stingy too. There is a construction company in my state that will cut corners to save money (like not putting rebar in the cement foundation of a dorm complex). I sometimes wish we could go back to the days where neighbors got together to build a house, because I bet those were sturdy.

I'm a little jealous you have a bathtub. I don't have one in this house and I miss having one (as do my muscles and back).

The kitchen I have now is just a tiny square :( so boring. I have always wanted an island. I know you buy the ones on wheels, but if I put one in my kitchen I would have to sit on top of it to do any cooking lol. Oooh that color is so close, but I remember it being a little darker. I check out reviews too, Especially when I see one of those "miracle" products on tv. I am always so curious to see how bad they really are.

I don't have an island but a bit like a peninsula... a whole wall with a counter (stove in between), on the side a bit with the sink and then another part that sticks out so I can have benches and talk to people. On the other side, I have my fridge that's stainless & freezer on the bottom. I have lots of cupboards as well.

Can't be on long, big day that ended with a workshop from 7-9pm. There's a potential of getting an apartment (once it's built) that would be more accommodating for me (including financially) and I could live there as long as I want. It's an exciting potential. For now, there are only 10 places; but, more could ensue. They're supposed to finish building end of 2019, I'll have to find out more and eventually see if it's possible.

Gismo devoured his food (arrived around 10pm we both hadn't eaten supper) & now he's snoring on me. Eyes are tired so I better rest ❤

I'm glad things are improving for you. As for being over here, in recent time the neighborhood is constantly under construction. They put up new tall condos near the water, blocking the view of the water and Drive at the bridges. I'm not sure but I think they have plans to erect a new building in the grass plot between my building and the next door building (opposite corner of the block). I have a few inconsiderate neighbors who are perpetually noisy and their conversations (more like spats) are consistently disrespectful to the diverse population, especially towards women.

Recently a mentally ill neighbor has been acting up more than usual. What he does is throw something heavy and loud across the hall during his trips up/ down the stairs. It was always banging noises from their apt previous years. Before 2017 ended and within 48 hours ago he started chucking whatever that was at our door. I don't know if he does this to other people's doors. It's random but I found his frequent pattern is 3-6am. It's disheartening. I like to think it's unintentional and he doesn't know where he is via mental state but my patience is waning.

I love LOVE oversized square tubs, when they make those with corners that have a nice ergonomic mold to relax in. The early european tub basins were pig troughs 🐽 after enameling and I just don't like the standard lozenge shape with short walls. I'm a grown woman, I'd like for the tub to submerge my whole volume. My dingy older less maintained apt in Inwood, New York (Upper Manhattan across from The Bronx) had a claw foot tub. It was bad on the original blackish-green and white hexagonal mosaic tiles and the room was always wet from tub water going everywhere. There was no drain in the room. The tap water was brown more than once a week.

If I had the house, room and money, the bathroom will be the first place to remodel. First object to get is a bidet :D.

For sake of argument people say bidets waste water yet they don't know it wastes 37 gallons of water to produce a roll of TP.

who else could Kupo and Katherine be :D? Your campsites are cute. I redecorated this morning ^^

How are you doing with the ladybug event?

salted pretzels are a good excuse to load up on honey mustard xD

For planning your house layout, have you thought about what happens when you & Chris will be older? If you have the land space, might be wiser to have a 1 story house. Stairs can be tiring, become dangerous & challenging. Also, if you have kids it's easier to keep track of them than having to run up and down, safer for them to not fall down, etc. My father hurt his knee years ago with a misstep on a stair. One of my uncles hurt his knee a few months ago. My grandpa fell down the stairs outside (he built his own home) when he was alive... became scared after that to even go out for his daily walks. etc. I'm not even 40 and with my health issues, it can be challenging... I live on a 2nd story. Just bringing groceries up can become exhausting. If you have the luxury... definitely go for a 1 story.

Paint colour... there are a variety of ways to choose. Wood can be interesting because dirt shows less. Bright colours can be fun but will it seem retro or get on your nerves after a while? Red can help hide more dirt than turquoise or yellow. White tends to not stay white (yellows with time, sun exposure & grime). Then there are moods of what colours can emit. Cool colours (purple, green, blue) are known to be more calming whereas warm colours (red, yellow, orange) tend to be more invigorating.

If you want a semi-vintage while making it a bit modern, I'd go with wood, beautiful countertop, and for the cupboards above the countertop, wood with glass inserts. Use window film for the majority to hide the mess inside while creating a more airy space. Leave a few without to showcase special items (the equivalent of a display case). Gives off a high quality feel that is also easier to resell. Don't do tacky images of small wallpaper strips at the chair railing height or near the ceiling... just stay clear. Do an island, have pots hanging from the ceiling over it, sink or stovetop there. Follow the triangle rule for the sink, stove & fridge. Think about fridge, dishwasher & oven placement so that there is enough space to navigate when the doors are open... cuz you do need to open them.

Turquoise & white would be great for bathrooms. Blues & whites can give a clean & seaside feeling whereas beiges can give more of a calm spa.

When I was finally able to paint my bedroom in my parent's house (14 years of whining I didn't want the mint green... was there when we moved in) I did it in a type of sunset orange. In the morning it would energize me whereas in the evening it would calm me. Intense colour so you need a good sized room to not feel claustrophobic. I also painted the trims/frames a reddish brown to compliment the orange. We had also installed laminate flooring that looked like walnut... but that's me & my taste ;)

Ok long ramble, woke up way too early & have class later but can't get back to sleep.

You're welcome ❤

- pretzels and mustard are good together. Especially soft (hot) pretzels. Yum.

- true, stairs can become a problem when people are older - but they are nice to have while you're younger and/or can still climb them. And even when things start to get harder - the longer you climb stairs daily, the more likely you are to be able to continue to climb them. As for kids, when they are very young you need to keep an eye on them pretty much all the time, but when they get a bit older, it's nice to be able to have them elsewhere some of the time (like upstairs while you're downstairs) and when they are preteen/teenagers it can really nice to be able to have them on a different floor than you if they are noisy and you are trying to work and/or sleep. :-) Especially if yours is the house where the entire group likes to congregate. So I think it can be a matter of personal preferences. Also, depending on lot/land size, it can be nice to have a multistory house and use that extra space for outdoor living spaces - patio/pool/...

There are other ways to stay fit, like take long walks, horseback riding, taking care of cows, etc. Many house designs aim for "open space", areas to see better. There are advantages & disadvantages (e.g. tougher to watch tv in a living room when others are talking in the kitchen. However, you can have a movie/game den in the basement. Having washer/dryer on the same floor as bedrooms is very practical & who truly enjoys going up & down stairs with loads of laundry? If it's a short-time house fine enjoy the stairs but the longer you plan to stay there, the more you'll regret it in the long-run. Pool... many kid drownings occur in pools. You can't have your eye on a kid 24/7 & it doesn't take long. There's also the issue of animals in a pool, they can get in by accident or on purpose, some can drown (e.g. dad had to save a neighbour's dog that went in the neighbour's pool & was drowning, he had heard the commotion, saw & went to rescue... neighbour eventually gave the dog up cuz they couldn't properly keep an eye on it. If snakes/gaiters are in the area have fun with that. We had a pool (when I was a teen) for many years and dad came to despise the pool. He had to set it up (clean, restart, etc) and usually in colder water, so it's working when it's hotter. They eventually got rid of it and bought a small inflatable pool that's less maintenance. Anyways, pools can be useful but also can be very dangerous. If it comes down to a matter of space, having rooms that will be used all year round and be safer should be prioritized over the possibility of a pool that isn't used all year round and can be a safety hazard.

Good morning, it's been raining a lot lately. Like a whole last week since Monday -lot. The weather says it's snowing but I'm hearing rain. As I am typing the raindrops became thick white flecks 😬 The birds started chirping in the early hours a few days ago, during clear weather of course (not today), so warm groggy spring is close. Being the weird person I am, with lots of time on my hands I googled "What season is it" Family left the door with different opinions :)

Shared ladybugs in your gardens

The very reason idkh people deal with tiny houses/ the small space theory -- particularly where the stairs are ladders and multi-levels (usually bedlofts) you can't stand full height in are treated as "floors" ... Those are impractical and bad for people's backs as they age considering how much crawling and/or crouching has to be done to get through the space.

Carpeting the stairs could help with traction for challenged users. Double-sided railing too. Agree, stairs are great exercise. But it's hell if you keep forgetting the tiniest stuff from a different floor. Or if your bathroom is not on the same floor as your bedroom.

When I attended Brooklyn Tech, a flight of stairs was 2x the height of my apt building's stairs. There are five elevators. Despite what is written on the school site, students are NOT allowed to use the elevators (with exceptions like someone forgetting to lock one during afterschool or from teachers, even then the others police you and you could earn detention. A couple of students sold elevator key copies for five bucks when I attended).

The school forces about (~2k students in each year) x (4 years of students) to use divided by 6 stairwells (directions NE, E, SE, NW, W, SW) between each period.

Between floors is two parallel flights of stairs for each floor. To my knowledge, students have access to 10 Floors, B to 9. One flight was already twice the height of my apt building's flights.

We either have periods 1-8 or 2-9. This does not include days we attend prefect or music semester. If I recall correctly, senior year you get one period less. Meaning we use the stairs 9x a day minimum. Sometimes you're unlucky and get a bad schedule where you have to go from first floor robotics to 7th floor lunch or 2nd floor physics to 8th floor gym. Period breaks are 4 minutes long. You and the thousands of other students on the same staircase need to get to class on time. Everybody has a huge-ass backpack because not everyone uses a locker. Everyone is just breathing really hard over the sound of footsteps. You'd think you were dying with all the pain you're feeling in your lower limbs but no, the breathing was such a close and LOUD reminder. It was more stressful when you're on your period. (Which reminds me, some girl had her period for over 14 days (already really bad), it stopped for 2 days and it continued again (because stress does that)... her male swim gym teacher didn't believe her and still had her enter the pool.)

The gym teachers, especially Brutus had us jog up and down the stairs for cardio. This was different from a regular semester of track which used the 1st to 2nd floor mezzanine track or gyms on the 1st and 8th floor. Luckily, I only had him as a sub on two occasions, once for stairs the other time weight training. He had us do two full laps on stairs. Yes, the whole stairwell. I hate stairs because of highschool. It's impossible not to develop calves attending there.

It took hours but I got an adrenaline rush from writing this.

I had a tiny kitchen once in an apartment that had a 2 foot by 3 foot island/table. Pretty much had enough room for a crockpot and nothing else. Chris has thought about building an island on wheels for this kitchen, so that we can roll it out of the way if needed. I'd love to have an island here, but then it would create an obstacle near the door to the garage. On Amazon, I got for the 1 and 2 star reviews first, then I look at some of the 5 star reviews. I steer clear of products that have 5 star reviews saying the exact same thing. On Ebay, I look through the most recent ratings for the seller to see what issues other buyers have had. I don't watch much TV, so I never see the 'as seen on tv' products in action, just on a shelf in the store. I've seen the hurricane mop (and duster and broom) and I just think those are a bad idea.

I'm still working on the layout of my campsite. I should probably put away the Christmas decorations so I have room for other things. I haven't started the ladybug event yet. I got on the game a few days ago and then got sidetracked by something else. I'll try and play a little bit before I got to bed tonight. Thanks for the ladybugs (I also need to work on the garden) In college, I tried to avoid using the elevators, but if I was running late or wasn't feeling, I'd take the elevator over walking up 5 flights of stairs.

We've put some thought into it, but not much. I don't want to do a one story house because I don't want to take up the whole yard with the house (that would include taking down to beautiful trees). We'll also be building the house where my grandmother's house currently is, so there's a lot of memories tied to the land. This is something Chris and I will have to talk over again, but we'll probably stick with a two-story and have things that we can implement as we get older.

I had all white cabinets in a kitchen before, I think I spent more time cleaning them than I did cleaning the counters. Wood cabinets are just too bland for me, as I've been around them in 4 different kitchens, but maybe if they had a darker stain it would be different. Now I'm wondering how dark stained cabinets with turquoise accents would look.

I plan to have a few cabinets with glass inserts. Chris kind of likes the look of concrete countertops (thanks to Fixer Upper), I just want something sturdy and durable that won't warp like my parents countertop. We will probably never sell the house, since it will be on land that has been in my family for generations (I know at somepoint, someone outside of the family will probably own the land, but that can be after I'm long gone). I've never understood the whole small wall paper strips running midway around the wall. I guess it adds something interesting, but its in the right spot to get banged up. We plan on having a pretty big island so I have space to bake. We won't have a dishwasher (never had any luck with them at rentals). I need to look at my rough sketch, I think I placed the fridge and oven too far away from the sink.

I haven't even started thinking about color schemes for the bathrooms. I did find a sink/counter combo that I want in the half bathroom on the main floor, but other that, I haven't thought about color schemes.

When my parents finished building their newer home (I was about 8), I got a bedroom with pinkish colored walls. That was fine when I was younger, but then I got tired of pink and wanted a different color (never got a different color). Again, I haven't thought of color schemes for the master bedroom. I've thought about having one limestone wall (even if its just like a veneer). Our bedroom right now is a brownish tan color and I just try to ignore it. I think we'll do carpet in our master bedroom, but that's mainly because I don't like walking on cold floors right after I get up.

I stayed up way too late last night and had to get up early this morning, so I'm tired but not tired enough to fall asleep.

I should hopefully stay pretty fit working with my horse and cattle, but stairs help me stay in shape too. The land the house will be built on is fairly large, with most of it being the front yard. The front yard has 7 trees, 4 of which I plan to keep. Chris and I want to keep as much of the front yard as we possibly can, for our dog(s), kids, and as a bit of a barrier from the road. I'm not a big fan of the open floor plan, I like having walls dividing out the rooms. We will actually have our living room in the basement and a sitting room upstairs (one will have a tv the other room won't). Our washer and dryer will be on the main floor and all bedrooms will be on the 2nd floor (3 bedrooms total). There will be a spare bedroom in the basement but that probably won't get used much. I don't plan on every having a permanent set up for a pool, mainly because I don't know how to swim. If I want to have a pool, I'll get a large stock tank and fill it with water, that's what my parents did when I was younger.

And with that, I am off to bed...I'm making too many typos.

I have always wanted an island. I have no idea why lol. It just looks so awesome in a kitchen!

I do that too. I always look at the negative. I started searching out reviews when I saw a curling iron that was supposed to be so easy and quick and give you perfect curls. You put you hair in the end and it looks like it sucks your hair up and perfect curls fall out. I knew that could not be that easy. The reviews agreed with me.

I hope everyone enjoyed Survival! :)

Now we can start getting excited about Masquerade ~

Can't type huge amount, neck/shoulder/arm stabler but still pretty sore.

I went to a festival last night (Montreal en Lumieres). Today's the last day, the place was packed. The group I'm with it's a bit like trying to herd cats... different attention spans, interests, willingness to be in a group. I can do large crowds but it's not something I enjoy. One had an attention span of a nat and winded up leaving the group without telling us. Another winded up having a semi anxiety/aggressive attack which I helped de-escalate; however, he wanted to go home so we arranged for his parents to come pick him up. There was a lot of smoke in the air (machines for effects... plus wood fires with people roasting sausages & marshmallows) not good for my asthma but dang I wish we could have gotten some sausages. The lines were quite long (even for anything including food or beverages) and the free show we winded up watching was jugglers that after a few min was quite repetitive & dropped things.

However... one man that was there made the evening worthwhile. I was feeling tired and was walking slower, he stayed with me the whole time and we talked. We have similar personalities, we get each other on so many levels, and I feel I can be my true self around him. I met him once before at the evening I really enjoyed last month. It feels a bit like a magnet that I'm cautiously drawn to. His mother was the host of the activity for the group but asked him to co-host and I just have a natural thing of helping/leadership so we clicked well. She offered to drive me home and although I normally do my own thing, it was a lot of walking at the event and the travel back would have been very tiring, so I accepted. I had a pleasant time ^^

Hey Sharkies. Everybody ready to start dancing? I hope they wait to begin Masquerade so all the infections complete before it starts. I'll be sorry to see the snowballs go away but on the other hand I gave up on that achievement long ago. It will take years to get it. Darn. It was fun throwing snowballs at people but I just don't have time to sit and buy/throw 24/7. Too bad. I think I'm on stage 3 of the heartbroken infection. Sure hope it completes before we start dancing.

If anyone is around, I'm looking for someone to stick me. Ping me if you're online and can help a girl out. :) Just offer junk and I'll send it back to you.

Trade Lot

I'm around and can stick them for you ~

Awesome! Just accepted your offer. Thanks in advance for sticking me. :)

No problem! Also nice HA <3

I think I'm on stage 5 but it's hard to tell since 5 and 6 look pretty much alike. Just want it to end so I can go back to a normal HA. Did everybody get everything they need in the shops? Can't wait to see what the steam shop has for wearables this year. I don't need anything from the lounge since my gourmand pet already has the achievement, unless there's a new one for eating/drinking certain items. So I have a ton of lounge trinkets in my vault from last year.

Finally got the achievement for having 15k items in my wardrobe ~

Hopefully they don't end up adding more tiers to that one, lol