So many topics, so little time

2 years and no posts?!?. So many topics and so little time.

To buy a house or not? The market has come down, but can we afford a house?
No.

To refinance or not? Rates are 2% lower than our current mortgage (or were before QE II).
Yes.

If we don't move, should we renovate the kitchen?
Yes.

I've wanted a second car for some time. Should we get one?
Yes.

Which one?
Used 2008 Acura MDX (whew, difficult decision. I love it.) Lousy gas mileage, but I don't drive far or often.

The Eye-fi Explore X2 8GB for pictures is great. I'm not sure the easy wifi component for uploading via numerous hotspots is working, but it is still a great convenience.

I'd like to get a computer for the kitchen. Not a full computer but something with a touchscreen than can do basic tasks like displaying webpages, recipes, the weather and slide show of pictures. I have lofty goals that it likely won't make it into this version. Things like a kitchen database and barcode scanner for making shopping lists for containers we throw away or what we have and what recipes can make.

A wine cellar database would be fun too. We tried Zagat Wines but weren't impressed with the selection in the case specials for the price. I'd rather go to Westchester Wine Warehouse and pick out my own mixed case.

An under-cabinet-mounted Android tablet probably makes the most sense for now. Set up in such a way that it can be replaced later with something else.

Coffeebeandirect.com is a great place to get coffee. We order 6 or 7 lbs every couple months for les sthan we could by in the stores.

Soda Stream is great for making carbonated water. The 110L tank lasts us about 8-9 months. The best part is not having to carry 1L bottles of seltzer home. We don't drink cola etc. so we don't spend money on syrups. We do like flavored seltzer and fortunately they sell flavoring for adding to the water. We save lot of money and headaches.

For the kitchen we decided on Jenn-Air appliances. Hope they are as good as I expect. I also want to get an under-sink water filter. ConsumerReports.org lists the Whirlpool WHED20 as a best buy. Unfortunately it is sold at Lowe's not at Home Depot, which is not close by. Purchasing it is not a big deal but it is the filters I worry about. I'll probably buy on Amazon.com anyway, where we have had a Prime account for the last year and find it very useful.

Recently I'm interested in options trading. Motley Fool sent me one of their offer emails and I took them up on it. They had an affiliate program with optionsXpress.com which has more "options" for my options trading than Sharebuilder.com has. They give you $250 for signing up and $250 after 20 trades, which washes out the (seemingly expensive) $500 price tag of the Motley Fool Options service.