Family Wish List

House

• A charging station or two to hold all the thousands of rechargeable gadgets modern day living seems to demand. Something like this is lovely, but it wouldn't have to be exactly this one.
• Gift certificates to Bed, Bath, and Beyond or Ikea for pretty household things & useful kitchen stuff
• A new waffle maker, as our old one is wearing out. Our current favorite is the Black & Decker G48TD Grill & Wafflebaker for several reasons. First, the plates are removable and thus make clean-up MUCH easier. Secondly, it makes 4 waffles at once, which is fantastic for our large family. We make waffles often, and doing them one at a time is very tedious. Third, it has the bonus ability to be a grill, which is again good for expanding out our ability to mass produce meals for the family. This particular model gets high marks from consumer report people.
• A 12" non-stick frying pan with a lid, preferably somewhat deep
• Our VCR is also going. We wouldn't bother to replace it except that we get movies all the time from the library, most of which are VHS. Even a second hand VCR would be just fine. If by any chance there are blu-ray players with built-in VCRs, that would be ideal!!!! Alternately, a combo DVD player/VCR would be great so we can reduce the number of things hooked into our TV.
• We hope to upgrade to a blu-ray player at some point before DVDs are outdated completely.
• A new hi-def TV sure would be nice.
• Digital picture frames to hang on the wall, like one of these
• Serving dishes, like dip dishes, serving platters, and serving bowls, for when we have company over.
• Carry out dishes to make it easier to carry food to potluck dinners. For example, the casserole dishes with lids and insulated carry bags. Or something to carry pies in to keep them from getting squished. That sort of thing.
• Doors for our bookcases from Ikea - white, 15 3/4" x 76 3/8". We want to eventually get 16 for all of our bookcases, but even 1 or 2 is very appreciated.
• This one is a real biggie!! We would love to be able to replace our worn out and falling apart sofa set with a new one from Ikea. The line of products is named Ektorp. We desperately want a sofa, 2 chairs, and a footstool (which isn't currently listed online for some reason but is designated as Ektorp Bromma). We'd prefer the Idemo Beige slipcovers but white would certainly do as it's a lot cheaper. Even just getting one piece of the set would reduce our expenditures greatly, and would be very much appreciated! A few brightly colored throw pillows to liven it up would be appreciated as well.
• A fireproof, burglar-proof safe for the garage so we can protect valuables without having to pay for a safety deposit box

Yard

• We need to replace the fence around the pool, as it's falling apart and the gate won't even go on. It's extremely dangerous and I worry about the kids falling in. That said, a new fence is going to cost $500-$1000 (maybe even more) and we just don't have the money for it. If you would like to donate money or labor to the cause, it would be very appreciated.
• A new ladder for the pool as the old one fell into pieces. Only Bill know the specs for the ladder.
• A safety pool cover, that locks in place so if a child fell on it, it wouldn't pull them under the water. They are also usually mesh so rain water passes through without weighting it down in the center (and thus creating a water hazard)

Golf Cart (Yamaha)

• A locking dash cover so I don't have to worry about people stealing things
• Seat covers - no vinyl or fur! Canvas or fleece sounds nice to me. The cart is a primary blue, so something neutral is probably the way to go. We would actually want a set for the front seat and one for the back, though I'm not sure what brand seat covers would go in the back. Most of the Yamaha seat covers are three piece sets (seat bottom plus two seat backs) but the back seat only needs a two piece set (seat bottom and a single seat back that stretches across)

Misc

• Any of the classic Christmas movies or TV shows on DVD, other than The Year Without a Santa Claus.
• Decorations for the yard/golf cart/inside the house for the various holidays. The boys have really taken to enjoying decorating for holidays, and we have almost nothing for any holiday other than Christmas, and even those decorations are mostly limited to Christmas tree ornaments. Any holiday, from Valentine's Day to Veteran's Day to Thanksgiving to whatever, is appreciated.
• A gift certificate to some place that does family portraits, like Sears
• A family-sized toiletries bag for family trips away (I like the plum color, but red or black will do if plum is sold out)
• Pushing Daisies on DVD, season 1 or season 2
• We would like to get little ceramic plates with baby pictures of each of the kids to hang on the wall. Meaning, three plates - each one has a baby picture of one of the kids. There are places online that do this if you upload the pictures.

Last Updated 10/28/09