Richie, I started a post called, 'Richie, where are you?' Can we continue on the new thread..this one is a tad long, and takes forever to download. I'll never remember the questions you asked, so I might as well answer here..lol First, how are YOU doing? I hope your're well. And your mom? G/f? About my new Gardenias, I'm very upset. I guess the weather did more harm than I thought..I doubt any gardenias will make it..the temps were just too cold. I dont know if I should notify the owner or not, since he waited a long time before shipping. All the leaves are frosted, every last one. I dont know what to do. They turned black and crisp. I didn't mention it because I was in denial, hoping I was wrong, but they've pretty much had it. BTW, the nursery ships wonderful plants, it's not his fault. It's my fault for not asking him to hold them longer. Sounds like you got a bunch of new plants too..it must be the season, or maybe we can blame it on a full moon..lol For us in Il it's the season..tonight rain AND snow! I dont want to see snow until next year..lol Foxtail, Ming, Spreng and Plumosia Ferns are well, but need new, big pots..they are huge. In fact, you know those huge square pots to plant outdoor plants? The pots I'm talking about are orange, square. I might end up potting ferns inside each planter..the problem is I need 4 and they've gone up in cost. If they're 7.00, I can afford it, but if they're over 10.00 I'll have to devise another plan. Dividing! Variegated Ginger needs a huge pot too..gotta find a place that 'gives away' free pots..lol.. You're lucky you finished gardening..family helps..my family have no interest in gardening, so I don't ask. A lot of digging and planting..sigh..I feel like spraying weed killer, but won't..can't because of the dogs for one. Our little dog would be rolling in it..lol.. We had to give him an emergency bath a few mins ago..dh took them to the woods, and that little brat found a mud area..of course he came home with 4" of mud on his little body. He ran up to me, telling me he needed a bath which he got. The sink was filthy..he had enough dirt to fill up a plant pot..lol.. Richie, dont forget..I started the thread here on GW looking for you. Please answer on that thread..my puter takes too long to dl long threads..thanks, and I know I can speak for others, we're glad you're back..hugs, Toni

Haahahahaa! Karen this is SO funny. I'm bursting into laughter reading these posts again, and remembering writing and reading them at the time. Well done! And my favourite part about Martha Stewart dropping in with her dish towel parachute!!! WAY too funny!

I see a double sink in the angled eating island, far from your other work areas. What if the angled idea is done away with and you make a double wide island instead, placing sink area linear to the most common work area. You have the eating area at one end and the sink at the work area side. This gives more room and maybe you can incorporate a kitchen dining table better? Personally not liking the two islands the way they are placed for sake of flow, and the double wide islands are better for storage, and baking space ie really spreading our for cooling cookies etc, also the shelves below can be open for access at either end which will allow storage space for any oversized platters or cookware. The look would be nicer and more substantial than a 24 inch wide island even if theres 2 of them. I have had a double wide island, with both sides accessing storage clear through, and prefer it to a 24 inch wide anyday. Also while in the planning stages consider 36 inch drawers for pots and pans and plastics etc instead of lower cupboards. Much easier to keep tidy and access things. You wont regret it. I didnt look at the prior list of suggestions, sorry if this is redundant.

I thought I'd close the loop on this thread, since my original intent was to chronicle our adventures with a contractor. We're DIY-ers and this was our first foray into the world of hiring others. We had a few issues come up near the end. Here's what they were and how we resolved them. I strongly believe that the fact that we still owed him $10,000 helped us resolve them without too much trouble. 1. He told us that he could recommend someone to do the soffits and gutters, we told him that was in his bucket to do. He said he hadn't included that in his bid. We referred him to the plans, which were very detailed about what was to be done, and highly specific about which things the owners (us) were doing. The plans were referenced in the contract we had. He groused about it, but we politely but firmly told him we didn't feel responsible if he had overlooked their inclusion in his bid. He called out a sub and got them done. 2. The floors of the addition were not level with the existing house in 3 of the 4 places they connect. Fortunately, the one place they were was where we need to continue existing tile from our kitchen into our breakfast nook, so we were okay there. He told us that they lined up the nook with the existing floor and built it level from there, so the part our sunroom attaches to was not level (subfloors are off 3/8"). The flooring will not be continuous, so we agreed to deal with that ourselves when we refloor the family room. Haven't decided whether to build it up, use a transition, or do some sloping of the floor to graduate the transition. Upstairs the new floor was 1/4" higher than the old floor, and we're continuing existing carpet. There was no excuse for this, IMO, and he said it was because our existing joists had shrunk, and the new ones he used were higher, so what did we expect him to do, plane down the joists? Yup, that's what we would have asked for if he had pointed out the issue. He suggested pulling back the carpet, and putting some leveling compound down. I suggested he do that. He gave us a $200 concession. 3. Change orders: He had 3 add-ons to our contract price. $250 for attaching the transom to the slider (he said normally they come attached, and this was a pain to put together); $125 for some extra cutting in the brickwork (he had told my DH about this); and $250 for hanging 2 sets of french doors. We protested about not being told on the slider/transom (change orders were all to be in writing), but agreed to pay it. Hanging the french doors was in the plans, so we once again referred him to those, and he withdrew the charge. Soooo, bottom line, we paid him $40,175 for the beautiful shell he built, plus we bought the windows and doors, which totalled around $6,000. Hopefully we can eke out the inside so the total comes in under $50,000 for the 500 square feet we added. And here are our final outside photos. We got hit by the remnants of Hurrican Ike that blew through the midwest, and it stood up like a champ, shingles and all. We plan to take Thanksgiving week off and do a blitz on the inside then to finish it up for the winter. And next spring a new deck....