laughinglizzie- Sorry to hear about your scale problem and so-called local expertise. As repair guy stated, scale is the result of not maintaining pool balance. Scale happens when hardness is high and PH is high. Salt cells tend to push PH high and if not balanced periodically with acid PH will become too high. If hardness is also high, then scale will result. Check your PH and calcium levels and adjust to within range. You should also check your filter and clean it as high PH and hardness will also require the filter to be cleaned more frequently. It is possible to maintain a high PH pool with SWG and minimize acid usage, but hardness and alkalinity need to be balanced to avoid problems such as scale. Below is a link to information on maintaining a high PH pool that may be helpful. This is a little advanced as far as pool balance is considered and if you are uncomfortable after reading this, then I would recommend maintaining the balance as recommended by commonly accepted pool industry practices. I have a SWG pool and have been using the high PH method for about 10 months and it works. Prior to discovering this method, I was using about a gallon of acid per week for our 34K gallon pool at $4/gallon. Now, I use about a gallon every 3 months or so to adjust alkalinity and PH stays around 8.0 and I keep calcium at the low end of acceptability. No scale, no algae and minimum chemical cost. In my opinion, the less chemicals to add, the better from both a cost perspective as well as environment perspective. As you have learned the hard way, checking pool balance and maintenance is necessary no matter what system or method is being used. Once the pool balance is in check, youÂll find that checking chemical levels once a week or so and adjusting every other week or so will be adequate. Hope this helps! Here is a link that might be useful: High PH Pool

Hi,I think the main trash would be better along the perimeter; that is where the baking center and main sink are. You will be unwrapping refrig'd and frozen food there. I guess that's where the cartons/boxes of room temp, frozen and refrig ingredients will be unwrapped, scraped, chopped, meat trimmed, cans opened and then mixed, arranged, sauteed, empty bottles of condiments, juices, whatever, will be tossed. I prefer the perimeter because I would not want to carry potentially wet, sloppy garbage across the aisle to the island. Your kitchen is huge compared to mine, with clearly defined zones, so two trash areas for two prep areas are not far fetched. Particularly because u/c trash can be in a cab as small as 12-15". Yes, I agree, that carrying a bag or moving a trash receptacle to a specific work/prep area is absolutely fine. After all, let us never forget that Julia Child had a large round trash can near her. But, unfortunately, she did not have the benefit of GW and the many posts on pull out, one action, trash disposal systems. Almost as an aside, a lot of the trash in my family is empty soda (pop) cans, water bottles, wine bottles, which has nothing to do with food/meal prep. And certainly mail, papers, junk. None of the drawn layouts have the prep sink in the island altho the posts talk about including an island sink. Where do you unwrap the pasta, near the cooktop? The boxes of ingreds? Unwrap and trim, cook, drain the meat, protein? Will you always cut/wash/trim veggies near/at the prep sink or near/at the main sink? Will you then cook the prepped veggies and the proteins at the big stove or oven. Uncooked veggies, where plated? Would you carry the prepped veggies, chopped onions over to the stove? Seems to be a long way. Re hip bump trash--there is a thread about door mounted trash pullouts with Haefele foot pedals or a gizmo attached to the pullout mechanism. The gizmo works on the same principle as a ball pt pen...but the soft close features need to be removed. The gizmo (that's the scientific 'industry term') sits in the back of the cab, and a bump of a hip into the cab door will pop out the cab door with the trash baskets attached--so no cruddy hands need touch the face or handles of our 4 million dollar cabs. Am I correct that the round 18" sink next to the Marvel frig is the aforementioned prep sink? If so, it's far from doughy hands, and cooking/heat zones. I don't know the kinds of foods you cook and that bears upon the kind of trash you have. Right now, we have a 17 yr old left at home....pasta in a box, with a fox, or in cellophane, or coated with orange K goop, aka mac/cheese. DH is anorexic-cares nothing about food and prepares his only meal of the day-at dinner,,,a sandwich on a bagel w/ pot chips and coke. Cooking has no magic for me anymore, ha! /what a shock! But you, babycakes, you bake and cook for 50!!! I will look for that hip bump trash thread and forward t'u. Trash s/b near...

herb flavor thank you for the advice I think those are the two choices we are down to. We are planning on talking to a local cabinetmaker to see what he can do or have new cabinets made. We would use the cabinets some place else or another time. What we are wondering is when you pay to get a scaled floor plan and interpretive elevation drawings should it have the sizes? We were told if we buy the cabinets from the KD half of what we already paid her would go towards the cabinets but if we take the designs to someone else and buy cabinets she does not give us any money back. The designs she gave us do not have any measurements. Should they have the measurements on them? I am still wondering, people that have bought kitchen cabinets were you given two prices one for the perimeter cabinets and the other for an island (if you have an island) and told that is all the pricing could be broke down. Were you told how much for example the panels are or cabinet above the refrigerator or shelf is or how much your crown molding is. I am unable to get those prices from the KD. Thank you for any advice or comments.

I realize this is a modern construction but there should be some alignment and or grouping of the windows. For instance, the tops of the windows horizontally should align. If the windows don't match there should be some logic in the choices. Like all third floor windows are more narrow than the ones below them. We search for these patterns, when they are not clear it is off-putting. You are investing in new construction, please work with your architect and builder to make it the best it can be.