Finally remodeled the kitchen in our 50s California ranch style house. Waited 18 years but it was worth the wait. Room is about 12 x 12, U shaped but the fourth wall has the fridge and some pantry space. BEST THING: repainting the original cabinets (creamy white, Benjamin Moore Pottery Barn Mascarpone) and hardware (that old black colonial stuff) to save $$ for top notch appliances. I replaced my old cheap wall oven & fridges in kitchen and laundry with a 48" Sub Zero. It is quiet and it is so flat -- I gained a wider walkway through my kitchen. Even though the fridge is smaller than the two fridges that it replaces, I can fit everything in there that I need (though now I understand the popularity of the "drink station" fridge!) I replaced my 42" avocado green cooktop with the La Cornue Cornufe 43" in Provence Blue with brass trim. I did not want to give up double ovens, but the usual Viking / Wolf etc. 48" would require me to give up too much cabinet space, plus I never liked the huge oven and tiny oven combo and cramming 8 burners into the space where I used to have four plus a big griddle (that I used to plop things down, mainly). Now I have 5 burners so I have room for big pots and handles. I was really nervous about having two smaller ovens. However, you get the half sheet pans from Williams Sonoma and they act as racks. The fitted roasting pans that come with the stove work fine. I roasted a big five bone prime rib in there. I use my ovens so much more now than I ever did before, especially for meats. That stove is a thing of beauty and a real show stopper in the kitchen. LOVE the blue. So YES, the appliances make all the difference. ALSO LOVE having everything look kind of old -- we have Carlisle wide plank hard wood in rustic white oak (knotholes and marks); we have Barroca soapstone with some white veining; my cabinets are not pristine but they fit with the overall look. Patina galore even with new things! GO CHEAP with the faucets and just get chrome. With everything else stainless, it's nice to have something more glittery on the countertop. We have chrome in every room with plumbing and all of the rooms "match" even though we have faucets from different manufacturers. Accidental benefit: We hid the trash can in a pull out inside one of the low cabinets. We just attached the door face to the pullout mechanism. Well, one of my undercounter cutting boards slides out perfectly so that I can chop and then sweep the trash directly into the trash can. Sweet! By getting the new fridge, I gained more countertop space to the right of the fridge. I was able to have a built in shelf made for my microwave to get it up off the counter. We converted one of the broom closets in the laundry room into a tiny little bar. We used a remnant from our countertops for the counter; we spaced shelves for wine and soda storage. My husband routered out a few leftover strips of the hardwood to make wine glass racks on the top of the cabinet. It's kind of cute. What I'd change? I don't dislike my Kitchen Aid dishwasher, but for some reason it is hard to load small things like pyrex bowls, small cereal bowls, etc. It is great for tons of plates and glasses. However, I like to cook and I use a ton of those little custard cups for prep. I store leftovers in 1c, 2c, 3c, bowls and they never seem to fit right. I did not get the dispenser on the Sub Zero because I think it will stay cleaner and also the dispenser takes up room inside. However, I do miss crushed ice more than I thought I would. I always dreamed I'd have a fancy backsplash behind the stove. However, this stove is so beautiful that I do not want to upstage it. I will just hang a pot rail behind it like you see so often in the ads for the stove. Also I did lose storage space -- we moved a hanging cabinet over the countertop peninsula. I lost my baking rack storage when I hid the trash can. I lost my pots and pans storage when I replaced my cooktop with the drop in stove. I have been getting rid of old things and making room for new things but I am still moving items around to figure out where they should go.

One thing I would change: Get the delayed start timer to be more able to measure timeframes that are less than an hour. The one I have lets me choose hours. Apparently also less than an hour, but it's not very fine-grained there. The dial LOOKS like it takes delay start times of less than an hour, but it doesn't really do that. Sometimes I'm going out to do an errand, and I want it to start and finish before I get back. Instead, it hasn't even started yet when I come home, or it has barely started. Defeats the purpose. Counterproductive. The complete opposite of what I wanted. Frustrating. So, I've had to teach myself to turn the dial to the last click (also very coarse and not very finegrained). Even then it's not impressive. Why can't I have a delay of 10 minutes? Why can't it be easy to turn, and reliably set at ten minutes? OK, I realize that many will say "who cares" and "why do you need to delay start for ten minutes". This is the feature that I want, for my own reasons. It will determine my next purchase. If I move I'm selling with a wonderful FL washer already installed and in its place. HTH

I wouldn't have believed the societal message that the only honorable thing to do when having a baby, if you were unmarried in 1969, was to place that child for adoption, so he could have a "normal" stable, two parent home. It was not the best for him, nor was it good for me. The societal message was that it was the loving thing to do and the only way to redemption for the "sin" of pregnancy outside of marriage. That was immediately replaced by a new societal message: What kind of mother would give away her own flesh and blood? That "normal, stable" two parent adoptive couple divorced when he was 5 and he was raised by a single mother! I knew the minute I left my baby in the hospital and returned home without him that it was a mistake. But the adoption industry ($$) was so powerful, they would have young women believe that there was no turning back, no changing your mind. All lies. They had a baby to sell and there was no hope or help to fight them.

I was thinking yesterday--life hasn't changed YET. Church: I go to adoration on my way to work and find Father saying Mass--telecasting on Facebook and stayed so, so far that is all same same. This Sunday it won't be. DH goes to work as usual, I do to--my 'work' has changed as students are 'on line' but still. Card group is cancelled..we take our walks as weather permits as usual.DH's compound bow league has been on until this coming week but it was near the last weeks anyway. Our offspring all live in other States. They all continue to work--DD#1 is working from home managing her counties website. DD#2 is working on a treatment in her laboratory for this virus. The cows are peculating--it's about three weeks out yet. Son like father is doing his engineering thing...I think those of us who are not movers and shakers who are home bodies are really not as affected. I shop once a week. Will go this morning at 6 as usual..will get what I can. Yesterday shopping the local walmart for students, what I saw says I will be able to get what I want--milk/fresh vegis/fruit. I buy sales so have a freezer full of meat and staples. Stay calm enjoy being out of the rat race. Life here in the quiet simpler lives is really not so bad.