Thanks Josh, the pruning, root pruning, and downsizing of the pots is what I have read everywhere, and everyone seems to agree on it. That is why I canâÂÂt figure out why the ones I left in the large pots and didnâÂÂt prune as much did the best. In fact, the Carolina reaper plant, that I didnâÂÂt prune at all, is doing the best of all. IâÂÂm glad I did my little experiment and didnâÂÂt prune them all back and put them in smaller pots, because if I did I wouldnâÂÂt have any left. Unfortunately, my experiment left more questions than answers. My conclusion is, all the small pots died, all the large pots on the left side of the same window died, and all the pruned plants on the left side of the widow died. The ones I messed with least are thriving. I just canâÂÂt hash out what is a coincidence and what caused my problems. I should have mentioned before that the ones on the left side of the window and right side both have a heating duct.

I think the best thing you can do right now is to sit down and draw your kitchen up to scale...preferably on graph paper. Include all windows and doors/doorways as well as the widths of each and the distances between walls and the windows & doorways. Once you have a to-scale drawing I think you will begin to see how everything fits, or not! Yes, there are recommended guidelines for aisles and seating clearances, etc. See the link below. Take your time...don't let KDs or cabinet guys or anyone else pressure you into making a decision just because they want to get going. As Bmorepanic said, this is your kitchen and you will have to live with it for a long time while they're just around for a short time. Remember, you're paying these people to do what you want, not what they want. Some KDs stress form over function...i.e., they care more about how it "looks" than how it works. So, relax, step back, and go back to the beginning! Good luck! Oh, BTW...don't start demolition or anything else until you have a final design that you're happy with...AND the cabinets and appliances are in. You don't want to be without a kitchen while you wait around for your cabinets...and many times cabinets, etc are NOT delivered on time. Here is a link that might be useful: NKBA Kitchen Planning Guidelines

rhome... you are so amazing! I can't believe your talent and genorosity. Here's the latest... now DH has finally started really looking at my concepts, thanks in part to your input. He doesn't like the idea of the cooking area being on that southeast wall because to the right of it is the hallway to 2 bedrooms and just below that is our only family room area. It's a small house that I've conceded to move to in the interest of a lower cost of living and comfortable retirement. I was trying to work around that huge 9' window that is also roughly 7' in height (8' ceilings) and 9' long. I would have love to have my kitchen in the back of the house leading to our screen patio and HUGE backyard pool area. He NOW says he's willing to replace that window with something more workable so I can use that wall space. We may even be able to cut out that little jog in the wall (west side just below window) which is 6" depth and width but I'm thinking it may be easier to just work the cabinetry around it. with a little tweaking. So I feel awful that you spent so much time and now that we can see it, are going to look into completely changing things around. I am repurposing the old laundry room into a pantry. That space is 10' long x 6' wide. The entrance is that doorway opening on the west side. The water heater is also in there. It leads on the south end to what used to be the garage but is now a third bedroom. I won't need an additional pantry closet but would love pullouts for spices/oils by my cooking area. I love love love the idea of the TV on a swivel/pullout. We were planning on putting one somewhere in there. The front of the house (south) will be our main TV area but not viewable from the kitchen. I definately want some informal seating in addition to the round table. So now I have to put pen to paper (since I'm too lame to effectively manage the programs I've downloaded) and come up with a new plan utilizing the back of the house as my kitchen. I was thinking we could use the section below the sink island as the eating area. What if I were to flip the sink and and then overhang to the opposite sides of where they are now on the island? The sink and DW is in that basic location now so I thought it would be easier when reconstructing. As it is, he's getting crazy with all the changes I want to make. I'm going down to that house on Monday and will take pictures of what existing now. I'm hopeful that will help in making sense of my nonsense. My husband can't get over the value of the information available on this forum. All this time he thought I was just goofing around. You guys are THE BEST!

Marcolo and Blfenton, the box thing in the southeast corner is just that, a box constructed out of drywall to take up the corner. I hate blind corner cabinets, so I would rather "waste" the corner entirely rather than spending money on corner cabinetry I hate, especially since it lets me put more efficient drawer storage on each side of the corner. It also allows me to have tall cabinetry on the east wall and uppers and lowers on the south wall, without having an issue where they meet in the corner. I might put a door in the guest room wall to utilize the 27" x 27" space from the other side to store items we do not need to get to often, like luggage. I agree that having the wall ovens 4' away from the nearest landing spot on the island is not ideal, but it is a big improvement over the 7' walk between wall ovens and counters in our current kitchen. If we move the wall ovens to the east wall, there is still at least a 4' walk to the island. Amanda, the trash pullout and dishwasher are on opposite sides of the sink cabinet. I will also have storage for dishes, Rubbermaid containers, plastic wrap, etc. on the south wall. That way, after meals, the plates and pots all go to the counter next to the sink, leftovers can be packaged, dishes can be scraped into the trash and then go into the dishwasher. When I empty the dishwasher, the dish storage is on uppers on that wall. It sounds like cooktops on islands are not popular. I agree it is not ideal, but it was the only way to get the entire wall of tall cabinets on the east side. My DH loves the look of that wall, and that wall will be highly visible from our kitchen and dining room. I would prefer a real hood to a downdraft vent, but, then again, I have lived without a proper hood for 10 years. Mahlgold, I am having trouble balancing the look we want with function. We plan to do prep on the island and the counter to the left of the sink. Those 2 areas give us more counter space than we have had in any prior kitchen. We do not own a coffee maker or toaster oven. Our only countertop appliances are a KA mixer, small toaster and blender. The mixer and blender will go under the uppers to the left of the sink (mixer in far left corner on an angle). The toaster could also go on that counter, or maybe behind the lift door on the left side of the east wall along with bread storage. We only do breakfast and lunch at home 1 or 2 days per week. I am not sure how many or how deep of drawers to put in the tall cabinets. I drew each side with 5, but it could be 3 or 4. This kitchen has so many more lower cabinets than we have ever had before, that I am not sure what to put in all of them. On the right side tall cabinet, I thought I would want a couple of shallow drawers at the top to store extra trays for the Advantium, pot holders (those will be kept in 3 different locations near all the hot appliances) and wine tools like the opener, Vacu-vin, etc. Maybe a drawer for DH's vast tea bag and leaf collection and related tools. We could put all the empty baby bottles and plastic plates for the kids in a drawer in that tower or on the south wall. On the left side tall cabinet, I could use the drawers to store pyrex, roasting pans, pie tins and other baking dishes that might not fit in the drawers below the wall oven. My stove top pots and pans and utensils will go in drawers below or next to the cooktop on the island, as I have several feet of drawers on the south side of the island. The wall ovens were put on the north wall (where they are in the current kitchen) because they are less attractive to look at. Also, if we get the side opening Gagg ovens, they would be difficult to place in the east wall because they need at least 8" between the hinge side of the oven and an adjacent wall, so we could not put them at the very end of a cabinet run. It is also tricky because we are trying to find space for 3 wall ovens: standard 30" convection oven, speedoven/microwave, and steam oven. They are too tall to stack all together in one column and still have at useful heights. I will use the speedoven/microwave more than once a day, so I would be miserable having that oven below countertop height. I also hope to use the combi-steam oven regularly. I feel like we should have 1 full size oven, but that one will get the least use (I very rarely bake or cook large meals), so I could buy the Thermador wall oven with the standard door and put it under the counter somewhere and stack the other 2 together on a wall. The problem with swapping all the cooling appliances to the north wall and the pantry to the east wall as was suggested is that the pantry is only 16-18" deep and the appliances are 24" deep, which would prevent us from having a 24" deep coat closet on the hall side of that space. (We really need a coat closet because the house does not have one now.) I will think about whether we can steal coat space from another room, like the guest room. I am debating the idea of a prep sink on the island. DH looked at me like I was crazy when I suggested a second sink 5' away from the main sink. We do not use the sink a lot for prep. We rinse the veggies, but then put them on a cutting board and move it to where we want to work. We use a large bowl to collect veggie or meat waste when we peel, chop and trim. Sadly, we do not have any family in this state, so no one brings us food to prepare. It is just DH and I in the kitchen now, although we hope our two daughters will like to cook as they get older.