Sorry Nebraska, I missed that!

So, nobody's talked about the powder room yet? I'm surprised that with such attention to detail in the rest of the house the powder room fails on so many levels. I adore the house, hate the powder room. Maybe someone taking the tour can fill us in on whether there are remedies for this.

1. There is a window at toilet-seat level that looks out into the street. So, that's fun.

2. No toilet paper holder is visible, and with glass tiles up the entire wall one must drill through the glass tiles to mount one, or get a free-standing holder.

3. With no toilet paper holder installed, one can assume that they also failed to provide a towel bar--none is visible on the three walls that can be seen from the video and picture. More glass drilling.

4. The sink is a vessel, on a skinny pedestal. This leaves absolutely no flat surface anywhere for the soap.

Is this just another case of design trumping function?

Federal law doesn't provide specifics for "valid" service animals. And, not all service animals are guide dogs. There are 2 legal requirements, and they exist to prevent undue hardship on the disabled. 1) a person must be disabled and, 2) "The ADA defines a service animal as *any* guide dog, signal dog, or other animal individually trained to provide assistance to an individual with a disability. If they meet this definition, animals are considered service animals under the ADA regardless of whether they have been licensed or certified by a state or local government." (Quoting from ADA.gov)

Many people, myself included, did not get a free service animal. There are waiting lists YEARS long to get one for "free" that has been trained to work with a person's specific disability, but private training is available, if someone wishes to avoid the wait. But yes, it's expensive. To tell people that service animals are available for free to anyone who is disabled is, at best, stretching the truth. Most dogs don't even make it through the training, which adds to the time and cost involved. If I had to go to some government "proof" agency I would literally have to have a seizure in front of them. A bit ridiculous, humiliating, and unnecessary.

I do think some people take advantage of the broad definition of "service animal," but beware of painting all disabled people with the same brush.

The problem with that is that training schools are *very* expensive, would not be covered under any insurance or government program, and would place an undue hardship on those of us least able to afford it. (disclaimer: I have a service dog). A professionally trained service dog can cost $20-40K, just to give you an idea of what I mean by *very* expensive. That's why "official" schools and certifications are not required under the ADA.

Well, in the case of Hermes specifically, they actually farm their own skins (even crocodile) and the entire bag is hand-cut, hand-stitched, etc. by a single craftsman in France. It takes a craftsman somewhere between 40-80 hours to make a single bag. It's a work of art, literally.

Unfortunately, Coach bags are now made in China, so it does sting a bit that they charge those sort of prices for bags made right next to ones that would sell at Wal-Mart.

It would cost at least 10 times $428 if it were Hermes. :-D

Some would say spending that much on a gun is a waste. Or golf clubs. Or a video-game console. Everyone has their special toys.

Coach has been doing this to sellers for years. Google: Coach Scarlet Letter and see what's been going on and how many people are affected.

It's not just her. Coach does this all the time.

Why do people think a small police department has the money to test anything for DNA when it was just a robbery?