jmcpd's Profile

In Canada it's rude if you don't take off your shoes. Sometimes even in doctor's offices there will be a no shoes or boots policy.

I made the switch to open shelving a couple of years ago. I love it, and I use my dishes often enough that dust isn't a problem. I do wipe down any shelf whenever I have a bunch of dishes in the dishwasher. Also I made the switch over to all white dishes to cut down on visual clutter.

Part of my open shelving is part of my pantry. That took me awhile to get used to and figure out how to organize. It always looks nice and organized now but it was a challenge I'm the beginning.

The only thing about getting neighbours opinions is that often people don't 'get' it until they see it. We painted our house a greenish colour with off white trim and a red door after we bought it. Nobody understood what I was trying to do when I tried to explain and I got a lot of resistance from friends and family. They thought it was going to look like Christmas. Once done it knocked everyones socks off and everyone loved it. I had strangers knocking on our door to say they loved it and wanted my paint colours.

A few years later I changed the siding and windows. The hardie siding went up a taupe colour (I wanted green again but couldn't get the colour in my area) with white trim around the windows and black metal clad windows with exterior mullions. Again everyone though I was crazy and again everyone loved it when it was done and again strangers were knocking on the door. For awhile cars would actually park outside our house several times a day and the people would sit and talk and point at or house. No one questions me anymore but the criticism was hard in the beginning.

I think a HOA would stop the bad ideas but it would stop the good ideas too. Hopefully the homeowner of the yellow house will quickly tire of his bright choice and change his colour in a few years.

I have an extra large sink in a tiny (but beautiful) kitchen. I can happily live with a small kitchen but I could never live with a small sink.

I bought myself a granny square afghan for Christmas from Etsy from this seller. http://www.etsy.com/shop/turtlemurtle?ref=seller_info I don't crochet and have been coveting one for a long time.

I believe usefulness is beautiful. Before I buy anything I think, 'Is it useful? Is it practical? Do I need it?'

We have lots of company, and I have four kids in a medium sized home. I don't have room for impracticality.

I'm really excited about this one. I'm really good at letting things go but I haven't gone through my books in a long time.

This looks like a lot of work but I bet you would get a lot of success with picky eaters. People eat with their eyes. I'm sure this would make any child excited about veggies.

I have a family of six and we also often have dinner parties for twenty. We have a smaller kitchen and I think this is a very efficient idea that would work great for us.

I would assume that the divider is removable for easy cleaning. I don't think it would be any dirtier then horizontal storage. A cutlery tray would just be slightly easier to clean.

We have open on all our upper cabinets. We use everything often enough it doesn't really get dusty. Every now again when most of the dishes are in the dishwasher I give the shelves a wipe. I like it.