DistrictDarling's Profile

Matching shaker side chairs, but with different color combos of chair tape to keep it a little eclectic: http://www.shakerworkshops.com/catalog/view/shaker-dining-chairs/No.-5-Slat-Back-Shaker-Side-Chair/F531 (note the build-it-yourself kit option)

Use the chairs in the background of the photo as your endchairs. Also agree strongly with Lisa Hunter that not all the chairs should be kept pulled up to the table. At least some of them should be kept against the walls. That will also help keep it from feeling too banquet-y.

Dog hair and bread crumbs and dirt clods. Oh my.

You can keep paperwhites from getting so tall and top-heavy that they fall over by using a 10% vodka / 90% water mix to grow them. Won't negatively affect the blooms, just keeps the stalks shorter.

Nothing cooks better than cast iron. Just can't be beat.

More day-dreaming material would be nice.

The wrinkle-phobic husband would luuuuv this.

32 people for a holiday brunch = lots of cleaning to do.

Cool product, goodnightdean. Sounds like that would bring back the embedded fiberglass color, while a gelcoat would allow you to put a whole new (or the same, for that matter) color on top. Options are good.

On sanding fiberglass - yes, you really don't want to inhale it, and it's damn itchy if it gets on/in your skin. But it's also not dangerous as long as you take reasonable precautions. Always work outside, wear gloves and safety goggles, and get a good respirator (not one of those cheap Michael Jackson masks). Wipe the surface down with tack cloth or something to get any loose fiberglass shards off once you're finished sanding, then refinish with your preferred product.

Stormwater runoff from your roof is a major environmental problem, even if you live in a city that has a modern "separated" storm sewer system (meaning extra water in the system won't cause sewage overflows). In separated systems, the storm drains (carrying water from your roof and the streets) are channeled directly, untreated into your local stream. So all that hot (from hitting black roofs, asphalt, etc.) water is speed in high volumes and at high speeds, untreated, into the system and gets spit out a stream outfall like a firehouse. This wreaks absolute havoc on stream ecology. All that high-temperature, high volume, high velocity stormwater erodes the streams, strips the channels of vegetation and siltation, and changes the chemistry of the water such that native species have a hard time surviving. The end result is something called "urban stream syndrome". So... by disconnecting your roof downspout, you reduce the amount of stormwater going into the sytem, and therefore the amount of environmentally disasterous stormwater being dumped into our streams.