I recently had a Nichols & Stone display cabinet with two sliding doors delivered (ordered from Rose Furniture in NC. I didn't realize until about 1/2 hour after the delivery guys left that the right door would not slide easily to the left and there was a gap at the top of the door approx. 1/4 in wide. I sent an email immediately to Rose and they contacted N&S. N&S said that gap width was within their standards and would not fix it. Rose was going to give me the name of a furniture repair person in my area. I reminded Rose that in my email, I stated the door wouldn't slide and thought the gap was a by-product of whatever was causing the gap. They contacted N&S again and N&S has arranged for someone to come to my house this week to fix it. I love the cabinet and am keeping my fingers crossed that they can get the door to slide properly. I have heard N&S is a great company but the jury is still out until I see what happens. I was disappointed to hear that their standards would allow for a 1/4 gap between the side of a sliding door and the edge of a cabinet.

Chicory, any pictures of the house yet?? You make a good point about the gravy train coming to a halt - I really hope that prices start coming down. Maybe they'll get better manners, too! It's disgusting how many don't return phone calls, don't show up for appointments, etc. Michael, that's a lovely roof on your retirement house. We just want something plain in a coppery-brown color - we won't be able to afford a real copper roof, but something that emulates that "old penny" color in the painted/powdercoated products works for us. (If we win the lottery I'm not doing it to this house, I'm selling it and buying another one I know of and putting a copper roof on THAT one!) Most of the FDs up here are well-stocked because we're relatively close to Worcester MA where that terrible fire that killed a whole slew of firefighters was. People started really pushing to equip their firefighters after that, and Sawzalls are one of the cheaper things they can really use. It won't help in your area but the Jeremiah Lucey Grant Program provides $25,000-50,000 for equipment and training for FDs in NY, MA and along the Gulf Coast. BTW - In my book, Michael isn't advertising because not once has he ever posted the name of his business nor any contact information for it - in fact, more than once in the past he has gone to great lengths NOT to do so in order to comply with forum rules, even though he's been asked outright. It would be rather ridiculous, not to mention tedious, to call every roof/window/door company in northern Ohio and ask "does Michael-who-goes-by-the-nickname-Brushworks-on-Gardenweb own that company"? :-)

I found some BA slabs with those great swirls at the expensive granite place. I didn't want to spend $8K on granite, but I keep coming back to BA over and over and over. I'm going to see if I can cut back a bit somewhere else. We're doing much more work than just the kitchen so it might be tough. Or I can do without a backsplash until after the project is done when we can save up some more $. I can't believe you picked those without seeing them in person! Good job! Countertops make such a statement in a kitchen that I don't want to not LOVE it!

Hmm. I wonder if DAR is actively trying many of their varieties in their own roots to evaluate the "best", most vigorous ones. That's something I could get behind. ***Edit: as of this morning, 03/17, MW is listed as own root only on DAR's page. Weird! I prefer own roots IF they're hearty growers and bloomers as such. Goodness knows that many of Mr. Austin's creations don't need the "push" of a root stock unless it's something wimpy period like Fair Bianca, or the zillions of hybrid teas/floribundas that should not have been sold as garden plants. Congrats on the all own root order, noseometer! Steven