HollyP's Profile

#1 all the way.

When my youngest child was 2 I bought a white upholstered arm chair for my living room. Our house is small and the living room is used constantly. I talked to the sales person about the fabric. She recommended microfiber, saying she had seen red wine clean right off of it. I had my doubts about the veracity of her story but selected the microfiber as the best option to stand up to abuse from kids.

The week after the chair was delivered, I left the 2 yo alone in the room for 5 minutes. This afforded her the opportunity to write ALL OVER that chair with a red sharpie. I was sure the chair was ruined, but tried to salvage what I could.

No lie, every last bit of the permanent marker washed right out. Eight years later and that upholstery still looks fabulous despite all the abuse two kids and two dogs could dish out.

I don't know about the other alternates, but the 12-bin organizer rocks for kids' rooms.

We have two that our kids used when they were little. Because the bins are open, and it is easy to toss everything in its bin and for little ones to find what they are looking for. An added bonus is no struggle to put the bins away.

I live in a neighborhood teeming with kids. They ALL prefer to play in the front yard so they can see when their friends are out and greet passing dogs. Back yards are only for when the whole crowd goes to play on someone's swingset.

When my elderly dog was too frail to go on walks anymore, we would hang out in the front yard to watch the world go by.

Like the pp I enjoy my privacy, and thankfully my neighbors respect that. Just a pleasant wave and maybe a word of greeting.

I'm just aghast that a 4 or 5 year old kitchen is considered "dated". This is an investment of many tens of thousands of dollars.

ITA, I have a knock first policy. The kids were and still are always welcome to come in for a snuggle, but they need to knock first. If they are playing outside of our LR, they are encouraged to do so in their bedrooms. There isn't a lot to play with in my room, besides the bed/trampoline.

Despite this, one of my kids' fondest little-kid memories is of playing spaceman in my bed. They get the memories, without having been given unrestricted access to the space. Mom needs a little privacy too!

After my experience with the DesignerAtHome.com service (an online-only interior design service) I am very dubious about any online design service. IMHO there needs to be some personal give-and-take that just can't be done entirely online.

Lovely space!

Open the windows from the top, and get an adjustable sized screen to fill the opening. (You can buy these at nearly every hardware or home improvement store.) That will allow you to put cafe curtains or some type of bottom-to-top blind in the lower half of the window while still getting airflow.

Love this! I wish we had the climate to pull something like this off.

Thank you AT for recognizing that not all "kids" are still in cribs.

If you have never seen Ari Brouillette's customer review of the Secret, please click on this link. Best.review.ever. Mr. Brouillette's other reviews are worth a read, but all other reviews pale in comparison to his The Secret review.