Hi Sherry, We are under construction and the house is almost totally "dried in". I had some trouble deciding on a few window placements, but we were able to support the structure until we worked it out. Today we placed our window order, and they will arrive in about 3 weeks. I think we're realistically looking at about May before we can move in. We're doing tongue and groove cypress inside rather than sheetrock, so that is going to add to the timeframe. I am also very good with wood, and very fussy, so I will be doing the finishing work on it myself. I might have mentioned before that we are building the old Florida Cracker style house with a full wrap around porch, and log siding. I love it and it is becoming everything we envisioned. I am starting to picture roses and trellises around it. I can't wait to get my hands dirty in the soil again!!!! Things have taken longer than we expected, but it took a long time to design things out and get it the way we want. My husband spent a few months engineering the structure out, and then there is the permit process, etc. I have great plans for gardens, but they have been on hold for the time being. I just couldn't design a house and work on building it and break new garden ground at the same time. I do have a few roses planted and they are doing well. The greatest joy about these old teas is that they are so beautiful despite total neglect. The potted ones have been sorely negelcted and I will be lucky to have more than a handful come out of it O.K. Your Le Vesuve is gorgeous. I wouldn't do a whole lot to him (or her). I think if you just do a little cleaning up and nothing drastic you'll have armloads of blooms this year. I can see some chickens running around in my future too. The locals tell me they are wonderful bug eaters. Sandy

thanks everyone. I know you are all trying to help. I have been through all these issues and questions a thousand times, and I am sure what I have is my best option. If we were moving in the near future, we'd cater more to the "norm", but this kitchen will be mine for years, probably decades. mindstorm - My only must have is the peninsula/seating area, and not having dirty dishes/clean up area between where i prep and cook. the dishwahser where it is, and bringing in a second smaller sink, gets it out of my way. Also, not shown here is a wall of floor to ceiling cabinets with my fridge that will serve as the main storage area. The cabinet above the range hood is quite deep, it goes back into that wall void created by the diagonal wall. What you see here though, is actually pretty close to what we have for storage currently, and the "wine rack" will actually be a narrow cabinet for cookie sheets, the Ikea software didnt have any other option that narrow. david - my farm sink is 24", and the smaller one will only be about 12" wide (the same width as one side of our current double sink).. big enough for most dish cleanup. On the occasion I have something larger (right now only my baking stones which cant be around soap anyway) I can always use the other sink. ideagirl.. this is the one thing that bugs me too, but having it on the other side will bug me more. That is where the dirty dishes will collect, and I dont want "dirty" in between where I am preparing and cooking. I dont anticipate too many times where I'll need both doors open at the same time. Cleanup happens AFTER we are done cooking and eating. Quite often though, my son is emptying the dishwasher while I am prepping for dinner, and where I am prepping (the far right side of the big sink, is on the opposite side of the dishwasher.

Lindac, Everyone knows the wine has turned, just no one wants to tell her. I would want to know and we know them well enough to discretely say something. It is true that it depends upon how well you know the person. I am quite comfortable with them, not sure why this is an issue and why we insist on suffering in silence. Not doing anyone any good. Ann, that is a good idea, however, since I usually bring a hostess gift and food, one bottle should suffice (since they cleary don't drink wine on a frequent basis, it's a shame to bring a bottle for 'later' and have it go bad, expensive or not) with the statement that we are anxious to try the wine. Thank you both for the input.

annz--thanks for the advice! You are right that I like contempory more than craftsman, but I like craftsman too as long it has light wood. I do like our current sofa and chair(even though they're really not my style-it's a long story how we ended up with them) but need to replace them because the fabric is defective and the detached back cushions roll into a big lump everytime we sit on the sofa. The manufacturer did send us new covers for the custions so the sofa and chair look better now than they did for a while, but all the cording around the base of the sofa and chair is raveling and looks bad and I can't think of a way to save the sofa, specially when you add the problem with the back cushions. I am working on the accessories. The pictures in the link are old, so it looks better now than in the pictures but I still have a long way to go. We have also added cushions on the window seats which soften the room a lot. We will be adding more wood to the room though in that we are going to do a built-in in the recess where the TV is to clean up that area a little bit and we are adding more wood to the fireplace, but not a lot more--just getting rid of the white spaces and making the mantle deeper so that I can set things on it. As you can guess, my DH loves wood. At least this house has less wood than our old house--our old house had wood ceilings in the living room and foyer and wood walls in the bathrooms which was just too dark for me. Thanks again for the help!