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Your bridal shower food should be one of the first items considered when planning your event.
Location, number of guests, your theme, and especially your budget must be considered. Lets look at each of these.

Budget: Start with your budget, first. The bridal shower food is typically one of your greater expenses.

Location: If you are having it at a restaurant, you can plan for either a sit down meal, or a buffet. If you’re hosting the party at a private home, a buffet or snacks usually work well.

Number of guests: If you are having a small number of guests, it is feasible to have a sit down meal. A buffet or snacks will work better with a larger group.

Theme: Look to your theme for bridal shower menu choices. A tea party might have simple finger sandwiches and tea cakes, while a beach theme might have hamburgers and hot dogs.

Your bridal shower menu doesn’t have to be extravagant. You may find some ideas from the following suggestions.
Light snacks: pretzels, popcorn, chips and dip, a fruit plate

Brunch: Omelettes, pastries, fruit platter
Cold buffet: Cold cuts, cold salads (potato, seafood, macaroni), and fruit
Hot lunch: Chicken, rice, string bean casserole, and assorted rolls
Just dessert: It is perfectly fine to serve only the bridal shower cake and coffee. An assortment of cookies and pastries may also be used.

The best bridal shower food idea is to serve what you are comfortable with both financially, and personally.

© Copyright Trish Burrell, All Rights Reserved . This article may be reprinted, with all information, authors bio, and hyperlinks intact.

Bio:
Trish Burrell is founder of Bridal Shower Ideas For You. Visit this informational site on all areas of bridal shower planning, at http://www.bridal-shower-ideas-for-you.com.

Patio awnings come in a variety of different functions, styles and colors. You will find custom, modern, designed awnings and traditional retractable awnings that are suitable for residential use. If you own a business, they can be used to advertise locally, provide shelter from the elements, or to just simply make your business more attractive. One excellent use for an awning, especially of the retractable design, is to keep a westerly-exposed home cool from the afternoon sun. Patio awnings have gained more popularity over the past decade, as more and more homeowners are realizing their benefits.

If you install an awning over a balcony, terrace or window it will add value to your home as well as beauty. They are an excellent addition to decks and patios. Depending on what meets your requirements, you can choose stationery models or retractable patio awnings.

The retractable awning is the most popular design and most people install them over patios and decks. If you have expensive patio furniture such as wrought iron patio furniture or wicker patio furniture, it is a great way to protect them from the elements. When the hot afternoon summer sun is beating down, you will like how a retractable awning can be opened up to provide shade for those sitting outside as well as cooling the inside of your house! When you block the direct sunlight from your doors and windows, you’re going to save on air-conditioning costs. When it comes time to finding the right patio awnings for your home, use the internet and do your comparison-shopping. You don’t have to pay a lot of money, and even your local discount patio furniture store should have them at a reasonable quality and price to fit your requirements. Awnings, when properly installed in the right area, are a wonderful addition to any home and can as well increase the overall value!

By Terry Price - Are you looking for some patio awning retailers? http://www.patiofurnitureitems.com/sitemap.html or how about some chaise lounge cushions? http://www.patiofurnitureitems.com/patio-chaise-lounge-cushions.html

For most people, toasters are as basic as breakfast, as elemental as a wedding present, as common as stoves and as cheap as $20. Yet the humble bread toaster maybe one of the most abused, beguiled or unused kitchen tool depending on where you are coming from.

As wedding presents, I use to think that bread toasters and wedding presents are almost synonymous. They are the most popular presents for newlyweds (at least to those who refuse to examine the wedding registry) that it is not far fetched that one finds several bread toasters in the packages. In these cases, bread toasters are either recycled as presents to another newlywed or relegated into the attic unused and better not remembered until the current bread toaster breaks up. Then the reserve in the attic starts finding its use and popular place in the kitchen.

When it does, it becomes a very useful tool for preparing breakfasts and snacks, popping up hot toasts to warm hungry tummy’s until the springs or the heating coils fail and the humble bread toaster find a highway to the black bag.

Bread toaster varieties can come from the basic to the more sophisticated and yet it is not really a very simple machine so much so that if you have invented the toaster yourself, and if it can be patented, you might not be selling bread toasters for a cheap $20. Agreed? Think about it because here’s how the bread toaster works.

Bread toasters use infrared radiation to heat a single piece of bread. When you set your bread toaster, the coil starts to glow red. As that happens the heat dries up the bread (that is why it feels like rubber to the bite when it turns cold) and chars the surface of the bread. Your basic bread toaster has two mica sheets that are wrapped in nichrome wires to make it glow faster. Nichrome wires have a high electrical resistance compared with coppers so that a short length can easily turn very hot. The nichrome wire in your bread toaster does not oxidize as fast as other wires that make it a tough customer in heating and an ideal component to toasting.

Old bread toasters do not have the pop up mechanism that present toasters have. What you did then was to insert the bread, plug the device and when the bread gets toasted you unplug the device, bang the toaster on an edge and down goes the bread. This is very messy practice and that would have been the demise of the poor toaster except that a pop up, spring acted tray mechanism was added. This simple addition prevented users from burning their fingers as they try to draw out the bread and prevented the scattering of crumbs on the table when you bang the bread toaster.

To make pop ups more convenient, a handle is pressed down and with it the bread. Three things happen next.

The nichrome wires are supplied with power, a timing device starts to tick and when the right time comes, out pops the bread. In some toasters, the power switch and the timer are both part of the handle.

When the power is turned on, volts of electricity run down the wires heating it up. Transistors, capacitors and resistors regulate power to the electromagnet that when a certain heat is reached, it stops automatically and that means breakfast.

I told you bread toasters are more complicated than simply heating your bread. If I thought all that up, I too wouldn’t be selling it for $20.

Robert Thatcher is a freelance publisher based in Cupertino, California. He publishes articles and reports in various ezines and provides toaster resources on http://www.your-toaster.info

1. Under which calendar is New Year’s Day Jan. 1?
A. Julian Calendar
B. Gregorian Calendar
C. Jewish Calendar
D. Chinese Calendar
E. All of the above

B. Gregorian Calendar
QQ: New Year’s Day is the first day of the year, Jan. 1, in the Gregorian calendar. Traditionally the day has been observed as a religious feast, but in modern times the arrival of the New Year has also become an occasion for spirited celebration and the making of personal resolutions.

2. What calendar determines the date of the Chinese New Year?
A. Lunar
B. Solar
C. Chinese
D. Zen

A. Lunar
QQ: The Chinese New Year, traditionally based on the lunar calendar, is celebrated in many American cities with the roar of blazing firecrackers, dancing dragons made from papier mch© and cloth, and traditional music.

3. Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the new year for what religion?
A. Muslim
B. Christian
C. Buddhist
D. Jewish

D. Jewish
QQ: Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew, “beginning of the year”), Jewish New Year, celebrated on the first and second days of the Jewish month of Tishri (falling in September or October) by Orthodox and Conservative Jews and on the first day alone by Reform Jews. It begins the observance of the Ten Penitential Days, a period ending with Yom Kippur that is the most solemn of the Jewish calendar. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are known as the High Holy Days.

4. Kwanzaa is a seven-day holiday that begins Dec. 26 and extends through Jan. 1. What does the word mean in Swahili?
A. First fruits
B. First people
C. First days
D. First dance

A. First fruits
QQ: Kwanzaa, or matunda ya kwanza, is Swahili for “first fruits”. This is an African American holiday observed by African communities throughout the world that celebrates family, community, and culture. Kwanzaa has its roots in the ancient African first-fruit harvest celebrations from which it takes its name. However, its modern history begins in 1966 when it was developed by African American scholar and activist Maulana Karenga.

5. In the Middle Ages most European countries used the Julian calendar, so they observed New Year’s Day when?
A. Feb. 14th
B. March 25th
C. April 1st
D. May 21st

B. March 25th
QQ: In the Middle Ages most European countries used the Julian calendar and observed New Year’s Day on March 25, called Annunciation Day and celebrated as the occasion on which it was revealed to Mary that she would give birth to the Son of God.

6. The name January is derived from the Roman god Janus. What is he the god of?
A. Wine and grapes
B. Babies and childbirth
C. Clocks and calendars
D. Gates and doors

D. Gates and doors
QQ: The name of the month is derived from Janus, the Roman god of gates and doors, and hence of openings and beginnings. January was the 11th month of the year in the ancient Roman calendar; in the 2nd century BC, however, it came to be regarded as the first month. On January 1 the Romans offered sacrifices to Janus so that he would bless the new year.

7. When to the practioners of Tibetan Buddhism celebrate New Year’s?
A. Never
B. January
C. February
D. March

C. February
QQ: Much of the ritual of Tibetan Buddhism is based on the esoteric mysticism of Tantra, devotions that involve both yoga and mantra, or a mystical formula, and ancient shamanistic practices. On special holidays the temples, shrines, and altars of the lamas are decorated with symbolic figures; milk, butter, tea, flour, and similar offerings are brought by the worshipers, animal sacrifices being strictly forbidden. Tibetan Buddhist religious festivals are numerous. The most notable are New Year’s, celebrated in February and marking the commencement of spring

8. The Roman New Year festival was called the Calends, and people decorated their homes and gave each other gifts. In early times, the ancient Romans gave each other New Year’s gifts of branches from sacred trees. Later they gave small items, such as nuts or coins, imprinted with pictures of what God?
A. Julius Caesar
B. Jesus Christ
C. Janus
D. Zeus

C. Janus
QQ: In later years, they gave gold-covered nuts or coins imprinted with pictures of Janus, the god of gates, doors, and beginnings. January was named after Janus, who had two faces–one looking forward and the other looking backward. The Romans also brought gifts to the emperor. The emperors eventually began to demand such gifts.

9. What New Year’s gift did ancient Persians give?
A. Money
B. Eggs
C. Cakes
D. Rugs

B. Eggs
QQ: The ancient Persians gave New Year’s gifts of eggs, which symbolized productiveness.

10. In ancient Egypt what event dictated the timing of New Year’s celebrations?
A. Pharaoh’s birthday
B. Flooding of Nile
C. Solar eclipse
D. Exact alignment of stars with Great Pyramid

B. Flooding of Nile
QQ: In ancient Egypt, New Year was celebrated at the time the River Nile flooded, which was near the end of September. The flooding of the Nile was very important because without it, the people would not have been able to grow crops in the dry desert. At New Year, statues of the god, Amon and his wife and son were taken up the Nile by boat. Singing, dancing, and feasting was done for a month, and then the statues were taken back to the temple.

You can enjoy more trivia created by Deanna Mascle at Trivia Teaser, Fun Trivia Online, and Trivia Tidbit.

Excerpted from The Truth about Getting Your Point Across…and
Nothing But the Truth www.leadingonedge.com/truth

At the offices of one of my clients there was a fellow who I’ll
call “Moe.” Moe was your typical pontificator. At any time we
saw Moe he was standing outside of someone’s cubicle or sitting
on someone’s office, coffee cup in hand, waxing poetic about the
latest dumb decision management made, the idiots that run his
division, or last night’s baseball game. Moe had an opinion on
everything and was very free about letting you know every detail
of his opinion. There was no such thing as a five-minute
conversation with Moe. Unless you excused yourself for whatever
reason you were there for at least fifteen minutes listening to
his philosophy. The problem was that Moe was friends with the
person managing our contract so we had to put up with him. Moe
was particularly problematic during meetings. He diverted
agendas, disrupted meeting topics, and wasted tremendous amounts
of time. Despite all this, Moe was a long-time company employee
and understood his job well. But he was still a big pain in the
hindquarters. It’s likely that that you’ve worked with a person
like Moe. You can do your best to avoid him, but there he is,
ready to give you an earful about something. So how do you
handle the Moes of the world during meetings? How do you keep
things on track? How do you avoid frustrating everyone else in
the meeting when the pontificator revs up his engine? The first
thing you can do about the pontificator at your meeting is to
take a good hard look at whether the pontificator absolutely
needs to be at the meeting. Will the pontificator contribute
valuable content and perspective that will add value to the
meeting? If not avoid having the pontificator at the meeting in
the first place. If the pontificator needs to be there, try to
talk with him beforehand and solicit his help in keeping the
meeting moving forward. Spend a few minutes reviewing the agenda
and get him oriented to the meeting topic. If he has opinions or
viewpoints that he wants to air, get him to do it with you
beforehand and try to incorporate some of his viewpoint into the
topic. If he sees that he has been heard and if some of his
thinking is baked into your agenda, the pontificator is more
likely to be a good soldier and not hijack your meeting. If
you’ve taken this step and the pontificator still feels the need
to take control of your meeting, your next mission is to
preserve the purpose of the meeting, keep things focused on the
agenda, and avoid wasting any of the other attendee’s time. It
is vitally important that you monitor what your pontificator is
saying and keep them focused on the agenda item. If he continues
to drift off topic onto his own agenda item ask to have the item
taken offline. If it continues then it is completely within
bounds to cut the person off and bring things back to your
agenda. Whatever you do, don’t lose control of the agenda. Your
credibility is at stake with other meeting attendees; losing
control of the agenda means a loss of credibility, which you’ll
now need to work to regain. Pontificators don’t have to spell
doom and gloom to your meetings. If you can ensure that they
truly need to be involved in the meeting, get them on your side,
and control them when they veer off path, you can still get
things done when they are involved.

Open up your favorite calendar and circle today’s date.

Why? Because no matter what day it is, you’ve been given a wonderful gift: a bright and shiny year ahead to make your writing dreams come true.

What are your writing goals for the coming year? If you don’t have any, this is the perfect time to create them. Clear goals help you stay focused as a writer. If you choose what you want to accomplish, you can arrange your time and priorities to get them done.

Take five minutes right now to decide what big things you’d like to achieve this year. (I’ll focus on your writing, but this technique can work for any area of your life.)

A long-established acronym, SMART, can help you create great goals. SMART stands for

Specific

Measurable

Action-Oriented

Risk/Realistic

Timed

Here’s how each of these words can help you succeed.

Specific:

When determining your goals, be precise. Instead of “I’ll write more this year,” consider “I’ll complete a new chapter every two weeks.”

Measurable:

For each goal you choose, make sure you can measure progress. For example, how will know you’ve completed it?

Action-oriented:

Choose goals you control so they’re not at anyone else’s mercy. Rather than “This year I’ll get a book contract,” set goals to complete and polish two novels or mail 30 queries to agents.

Risk/Realistic:

It’s always good to stretch yourself. However, if writing ten pages usually takes you several weeks, don’t count on writing six novels this year. Unrealistic expectations can get you so frustrated you’ll lose momentum. Instead, create goals that motivate you without being burdens.

Timed:

Setting a particular deadline will help you pace yourself to get things done. For each of your goals, establish a completion date.

Next, take these big SMART goals and figure out what smaller steps you’ll need to achieve each of them. Design these subgoals to be SMART too!

Once you have a list of goals for the year, put them where you’ll see them every day. Print them out and tape them to your computer, your office wall, even your bathroom mirror.

See them, know them…do them.

Writers, I hope this coming year brings everything you wish for. More importantly, I want you to *make your dreams come true*!

Katey Coffing, Ph.D. © 2004 All Rights Reserved

About The Author

Katey Coffing, Ph.D. is a novelist and book coach who helps women delight in writing (and finishing!) their books. Visit her at http://www.Women-Ink.com/.

To receive additional articles and tips for women writers, subscribe to Katey’s ezine, The Write Calling, at http://www.Women-Ink.com/the-write-calling.htm.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? Please do, as long as you include the above short bio and blurb with it. (A short note to Katey to let her know would be appreciated! Contact her at https://www.hform.com/form.cgi?1717945)

Bulbs are the earliest blooming flowers in the garden blooming as early as February or early March. Bulbs can be used in the perennial garden where they can complement other early flowers. Planted in the lawn or beneath deciduous shade trees, bulbs can provide your property with spots of vibrant colors.

Though bulbs prefer sun they can grow beneath the canopy of deciduous trees. In the spring, before the leaves develop, the sun can filter though the tree’s branches. However, while they’ll grow best in the sun, those which are exposed to direct sun during the hottest part of the day are subject to shorter periods of bloom. Bulbs prefer organic well drained soil and will tend to rot if grown in poorly drained soils such as clay. To grow in poorly drained areas amend the soil down to 1 foot. Adding coarse textured organic mulch and compost to the soil will increase its drainage ability and add nutrients to the soil. Another solution is to plant them in raised beds created with well drained soil.

Bulbs, like perennials and annuals, should be deadheaded after they flower. Removing past blooms will prevent the bulbs from forming seed heads. This allows bulbs to put all of their energy into next year’s growth. Wait until the foliage turn brown before you cut the bulb back to the ground. Bulbs receive their energy through their foliage from the sun. This energy is stored below the ground in the bulbs until the following spring.

Wait until the weather is cooler in October and November to plant your bulbs. When you purchase them be sure they are firm rather than soft, bruised or moldy. If you don’t plant them right away be sure to store them in a cool dry place until you do. Generally, bulbs are planted at a depth 3 to 4 times the width of the bulb. Be sure to check when you buy for specific planting instructions. I like to plant bulbs in large massings for clusters of color. Cover the planted bulbs with about 2 or 3 inches of bark mulch to help the soil retain moisture and to reduce the growth of weeds in the garden.

Every few years some bulbs begin to get crowded and need dividing. Bulbs can be dug up after the foliage turns brown and can either be planted immediately or stored in a cool dry place until they’re planted in the fall.

Bulbs can usually be depended on to provide the garden with early spring color. Sometimes, however, bulbs fail to bloom profusely. This can be the result of too much moisture, too much shade or overcrowding. It can also be the result of removing the foliage of the bulbs too soon or improper planting techniques such as planting at the wrong depth.

Bulbs are among the easiest plants to care for in the garden. With some initial work you can provide your garden with early season color year after year. Spring flowering bulbs are a pleasant sight after a long winter and are the best sign of the wonderful things to come.

T Hallinan is a landscape designer and builder in Massachusetts. Visit his garden resource website http://www.gardenlistings.com for all kind of helpful information. For more garden guides visit http://www.gardenlistings.com/resources.htm

Here is how economies really work in a nutshell. This is an extremely obvious economic fact that most people completely forget. If people work together in harmony value is created. If people fight among one another value is destroyed.

Nothing in the world we perceive is in itself of value at all. Only those things that at least two people agree are of value become worth something. Ponder this forcefully for a moment. Is gold really of value at all? It is just an inert metal. There are tribal societies who do not perceive any value whatsoever in gold. You can’t eat it, drink it, or smoke it so it definitely does not directly change the way you feel. The only reason it is value is because people in general say so!

I was listening to a lecturer who is extremely competent at changing people’s belief systems. I was amazed to hear him talk about the creation of fiat currency, money that is not backed by a physical commodity, as a bad thing. This to me was impressive. Here was a very intelligent person implying that an inert metal was somehow valuable in itself completely oblivious to the fact that the gold standard caused as many problems as it solved for country economies!

The gold standard did impose a common standard of value for all national currencies that gave some stability to international trade and investment, dampened interest rate fluctuations, and stimulated the expansion of commerce and investment abroad. In addition the gold standard imposed economic discipline on a country but these advantages were offset by a number of limitations such as the necessary maintenance of free trade, restriction of a country’s money supply by its gold stock making a nation unable to respond to problems of lagging economic growth or rising unemployment.

Now I want you to ponder the stock market. If gold has no inherent value then of what value is a stock? Again, a share of a stock is only of valuable if at least two people consider it valuable. Stock market pundits push things like earnings and healthy financial statements both of which are subject to creative reporting within legal yet wide accounting standards.

Inside corporate executive have been caught red handed in the last few years cooking the books making estimates of any fundamental share value highly circumspect. Again, it all goes back to whether there are more people buying or selling a company’s stock and executive corporate insiders with their gifted stock options are the biggest beneficiaries of the corrupt Wall Street machine.

Corporate America owns the American media. Executive insiders control corporate America. Don’t let Wall Street fool you into thinking that the path to stock market investing riches is through laborious financial analysis because it is a fool’s journey. Learn to read how the public’s emotions in the stock market are being manipulated by unseen corporate forces and you will have the best shot at coming out way ahead!

Dr. Scott Brown, Ph.D. a.k.a. “The Wallet Doctor” can teach you how saving the daily price of a cup of coffee at Starbucks can make you a millionaire in the stock market through long term stock investing. Dr. Brown’s website is: http://www.walletdoctor.com/

If you have managed to get yourself into a situation whereby you have many loans, credit card debt, mortgage, utilities, and other bills to pay, then think about credit card debt consolidation. It can be extremely difficult to get yourself debt free once the downward spiral has started. Maybe you had college fees to pay, got divorced, lost your job or have a large medical or legal bill to pay.

Even if there was no single, major event that caused your situation, it is all too easy to use a credit card for day to day expenses until your monthly paycheck comes in. Maybe you took out loans in order to pay for the amounts on the credit cards and found that you could not pay back the lender. Eventually you ran out of avenues to obtain further credit, and you have not managed to pay back what you owe. If you are unable to pay your utilities you could be disconnected; non payment of taxes and you could face imprisonment.

This situation can be aggravated by multiple demands, harassment, and increasingly threatening communications from lenders for repayments. All the while the money is outstanding, you will be having interest and late payment charges added to the total, multiplied by all these people you owe. You will find that obtaining credit is more and more difficult until your credit rating is so bad that you cannot gain funds from anywhere. If you have defaulted on a mortgage or other loan secured on your home, you and your family could become homeless adding more stress and worry to your situation.

If you benefit from receiving a regular income, then a debt consolidation loan is designed to help you get out of this downward spiral. The loaned sum is enough to settle with all the people requesting payment such as medical fees, attorney’s fees, and college fees, federal state or local tax demands and those debts are then settled outright. Angry communications will stop. You now only have to deal with one person or organization that has agreed to consolidate your credit card debt, and you have one simple payment every month.

Debt consolidation loans are designed so that you have payments, which you know you can afford over a term which you can support. The interest rate and length of term over which your debt consolidation depends on the individual lender and what you negotiate with them. Once agreed, the term and interest rate are usually fixed which will help you plan your other finances around this predictable monthly payment. A longer term will mean that you pay more interest in the long run. If you add up the late payment penalties and the high interest charges (credit cards companies usually apply stringent interest and penalties for late payment) you will find that a debt consolidation loan is far cheaper, and far less stressful, than juggling multiple lenders or risking personal bankruptcy.

Once you have taken the decision to consolidate your debt you can begin to repair your credit rating. A debt consolidation loan could well be the answer to your problems if you are in this situation. Make sure you check with a professional financial advisor to see if you are entitled to any concessions or tax breaks.

Paras Shah
Bad Credit Debt Consolidation - Consumer Credit Counseling
http://www.alifeoutofdebt.com

Almost every log home owner who sells their home will tell you that when they built the house, they planned to live there forever. Because custom log homes are so personal, we sometimes design for aesthetics and forget about practicality. This isn’t always a good thing! Life sometimes gets in the way, and the owners find themselves in a position where the house must be put on the market.

The budgetarily-challenged log home owner will be willing to live without certain things for the sake of getting the project finished, but you will discover that the next owner will not be so forgiving. Here’s a list of items that any Real Estate professional will recommend if you want to get your house sold for the most money:

GARAGE: This is a big one. Very few buyers are willing to buy a home without a garage. If you can’t afford one right away and plan to build a detached garage later, make sure you set aside a convenient space near the house, and don’t use it for anything else. If the buyer can visualize a future garage, this will make the purchase easier.

CENTRAL AIR CONDITIONING: We all know that log homes are cooler in the summer than framed houses. However, this doesn’t matter to a buyer who is accustomed to central air conditioning. There is a large percentage of folks who will walk when hearing that the house is not air conditioned. In fact, our mortgage company made sure central air was in the design before approving our construction loan. If you can’t afford to install the whole system, it would be advisable to at least incorporate the ductwork into your design for future installation, so it doesn’t have to be retrofitted.

FRONT DOOR: I find, these days, that lots of designs with big decks tend to minimalize the front door, reducing it to the status of a side entrance or eliminating it altogether in favor of glass doors that open directly into the great room. But I’ll tell you: buyers are very disconcerted when they can’t find the front door. They walk around the house looking lost. Something is missing. This is a very personal choice, but doing away with such a major feature is taking a big risk.

COAT CLOSET: I see a lot of log homes without a place to hang your coat. Again, it’s not a crisis, but it can be a big annoyance.

FIREPLACE: Everyone expects a log home to have a fireplace, or at least a wood stove. This can easily be a “deal breaker”. If you can’t afford the fireplace right away, at least try to design the foundation with footers to accommodate the weight at a later time.

BASEMENT: I strongly advise you not to settle for anything less than a full basement. If you are building in an area where basements are expected, anything less will be a huge problem. First of all, the wiring in exterior walls will be run from the basement (or crawl space). Secondly, you’re probably giving up your attic if you have a cathedral ceiling, so where are you going to store everything? Even a healthy 5-foot crawl space is considered inadequate by a buyer. There is just no compromise.

TINY LOFTS: People like a loft they can put furniture on. Narrow lofts that run along an upstairs wall full of doors can be disappointing.

Designing for expansion is always the best way. Some plan a space for a future elevator when stairs become a challenge, or use wider doorways for a possible future wheelchair. It’s a lot to think of when your biggest worry is staying within budget, but if you plan ahead for your eventual old age, you might accidentally be making your house easier to sell when other opportunities come along.

Mercedes Hayes is a Hiawatha Log Home dealer and also a Realtor in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. She designed her own log home which was featured in the 2004 Floor Plan Guide of Log Home Living magazine. You can learn more about log homes by visiting http://www.MercedesHayes.com.