Your preconceptions about kitchen design are in conflict with the actual footprint and type of kitchen shown in the plans. Either your preconceptions or the kitchen design need to change. You would have a much more functional kitchen if you eliminated the trendy island and extended the base cabinet line on the right downward to intersect with the free-standing column and then leftward for about half the distance between the column and the desk wall. That would give you sufficient counter top space for all your appliances, including separate cook top and ovens, and some seating area, if that's truly important. Wherever you decide to locate your cooktop, you will need a vent hood to deal with odors and grease. There are plenty of situations where trendy islands simply don't work very well. This is one of them. Good luck with your project.

Well, as im reading, all of you have such great input on what the actions i should take, but im not sure everyone understands the situation, i can suggest counseling and some other types of help we can get, but it doesn't seem to matter, because if i suggest it, she will say "your right YOU do need it." just like the other day she was telling me that i needed to back off on our son, MY argueing is affecting him, as if she never done anything wrong, its not just my argueing, its hers too. but she doesn't see it. that way, another thing, our son backing her up in the situation of our argueing she doesn't see anything wrong with that, even though she knows our son is in the wrong, and for her to admit that shes wrong would crush the whole essence of her being right all the time and she couldn't live that down. Thats why i say im in a NO WIN situation anymore. I can admit when im wrong, she cannot, even if she knows she is. and that alone is affecting me. Bottom line, no matter what happens, between anyone in our family, no matter whos fault it is, SHE SEES THAT SHE DOES NO WRONG no matter what, and the blame goes to me. I rather just not even talk to her anymore, its pointless, i can't win. she is also emotionalless, i mean that to the extreme, she has no emotion anymore, but she also doesn't see that as affecting our lives. In fact her quote was " i don't have to have emotion to show that i care about someone" if im not mistaken, isn't caring an emotion. Im so frustrated, and i honestly don't know what else i can do. In her eyes, im root of the problems.

Stainless certainly has advantages in that it's very nonreactive; i.e., acidic foods in the pan don't react with it the way a raw aluminum or cast iron pan would. The problem is that stainless is a terrible conductor of heat. So what most good cookware manufacturers do is have an inner and/or outer layer of stainless, and have a disc of a good conductor (usually aluminum or copper) on the bottom of the pan (sometimes up the side of the pan as well) to provide good conduction. It has to be a decent amount of material, as well; that little bit of copper on the bottom of Revere Ware doesn't contribute that much to the performance. As I understand it, whatever toxicity non-stick materials has comes about if you heat certain pans really really hot and it gives off some gas; some pet birds have died that way. Using it at normal temps (certainly at egg-cooking temps) should be safe. But if you're concerned, use something else. By the way, raw cast iron can develop a seasoning which makes it nearly as nonstick as Teflon, and fairly nonreactive as well. I keep a couple of old black cast iron skillets just for searing steaks.

Hello, midwaycat. In your location, you probably can use just about any of the macrophyllas (aka, mophead or lacecap with white, blue, purple or pink blooms), arborescens (mophead or lacecap blooms too), quercifolia (aka, oakleaf; has panicle shaped white blooms too... usually) and paniculata varieties (white or green panicle shaped blooms). To obtain best results meaning reliable bloomage, consider use of arborescens and paniculata shrubs as these produce flower buds in Spring and are normally not impacted by winter weather issues. Also, in my opinion, their leaves handle “too much sunlight” issues better than macrophyllas so they have less wilting or drooping. Examples of arborescens hydrangeas are Annabelle (white blooms but sometimes suffers from flopping due to the weight of wet blooms), Incrediball (white larger blooms; less bloom flopping after 3+ years), Invencibelle Spirit (pink blooms; two versions: I or II), Bella Anna (pink blooms; have not seen it for some reason lately at my local nurseries though); White Dome (a lacecap version of Annabelle). The species versions of H. arborescens is also sold out there; has white blooms in lacecap form but White Dome's blooms look better to me. Because arborescens cannot be seen with bloomage some times of the year (nurseries cut them for unknown reasons ???), and since wrong plant labels are a problem that happens, it may be useful to see these arborescens plants in bloom before buying so you can match the bloom against the bloom in the plant label. Thus, if the plant has lacecap-type blooms and the plant label says Annabelle, woops, beware. You can use any of the macrophyllas or oakleaf varieties too but they can be affected by winter weather because their invisible flower buds develop in the July-August time frame and open in Spring. They have bigger leaves too so they can be a pain with leaf wilting/drooping in the hottest part of the year and especially in their first summer(s). If winter gets way too cold for the plant hardiness or if the temperatures fluctuate enough to make the plants break dormancy, that can kill the invisible flower buds. Just recently, these last two winters, I have had issues with both of those 2 types. Last winter, I had some –not all- macs and oakleafs not bloom. Two years ago, I had almost zero bloomage from all those (but the arborescens and paniculatas came thru with no problems). White macs that only bloom once in Spring but which impressed me with their reliable bloomage are Mme. Emile Moulliere and Sister Theresa (or Sister Therese). Those two macrophyllas (mopheads) are non-rebloomers, produce invisible flower buds in July-August and tend to flower when similar ones do not. Macrophyllas that advertise reblooming will have blooms as usual in Spring and then again in the July-ish time frame and perhaps still again in mild winters. These can be good for you because you do not loose bloomage for the whole year when there is a bad winter. You may loose the Spring bloomage for example but there should be another set of blooms later on. The Endless Summer Series, the Together & Ever Series, the Let’s Dance Series and so forth include examples of these mopheads and lacecaps that re-bloom. Most of them are great as they include colored blooms: white blooms or either blue-ish/purple-ish blooms in acidic soil or pink-ish in alkaline soil. But for really reliable bloomage, you may have to winter protect them even if they are hardy. Winter issues are not usually a problem for me so. I do not winter protect. But I pay the price (no or limited bloomage) on 'bad' winters. The oakleaf hydrangeas have oak shaped leaves, are hardy to zone 5 and have plain gorgeous Fall Leaf colors! I have a compact Pee Wee that does not disappoint and it develops reddish leaves in November. There are other compact ones and even much larger ones (10’) so check the plant labels to see if the size will be good in your planned location(s). Little Honey has yellowish leaves and is compact. Other compact ones are Sikes Dwarf, Vaughn’s Lillie, Ruby Slippers, Munchkin, and some of the Gatsby Series. Oakleafs are more drought resistant than the other hydrangeas but, they catch root rot if allowed to sit in water for long periods of time. Paniculatas are extremely hardy to Zone 3, have smaller leaves and develop invisible flower buds in Spring-early Summer. They include many interesting new compact versions whose name has the word “little” in the name: Little QF or Little Quickfire (very early blooming for a paniculata), Little Lamb, Silver Dollar, Sweet Summer, Little Lime (a compact version of Limelight with green blooms that stay green longer with the less sun that they get), Strawberry Sundae (a compact version of Strawberry Vanilla), Wedding Gown, etc. Fall is a good time to plant but during the Fall Season, many nurseries usually have zero or low inventories. If you find any now, the good news might be that the plant has spent the growing season developing a large root system so you get a larger plant than if you had bought it in the Spring or early Summer. Do prune any roots circling in the pots. Size is usually not much an issue as most times, they tend to grow a lot quickly. But I have had some that hardly grow on year 1 and leave growth for years 2 or 3. Go figure. As long as their soil acidity, sunlight exposure and soil moisture requirements are met, you should be fine. Too much sun can make the leaves turn all yellow including the leaf veins. But I suspect your area does not have summers with a strong summer sun like I do. Do not let them have wet-dry-wet-dry soil conditions but evenly moist soil with lots of mulch. Use 3-4” of mulch up to the drip line to protect the roots from the cold temps and lengthen the soil moisture; fertilize in Spring with ½ to 1 cup of organic mulch, composted manure or cottonseed meal; use liquid seaweed, liquid fish or coffee grounds thru the rest of the growing season (but stop fertilzing by thend of June so they will go dormant at the appropriate time); and again, maintain the soil evenly moist as best as you can. Stop watering when the soil freezes but, while dormant during mild dry winter months, you can water during dry months once every week or once every 2 weeks. If your soil is alkaline, plant nurseries will offer for sale amendments that can be used to acidify the soil. I amend in Spring and sometimes again by late summer or early Fall. In alkaline soils, the leaves can turn light green or even yellow-ish colors while the leaf veins remain dark green giving the leaf a skeletal look. Be aware that hydrangea blooms start life with a certain color and, as time passes, the blooms mature and change color until, at the end, the blooms are brown. You can keep these brown blooms for winter interest or deadhead them. Consider too that if you go shopping now, whatever hydrangea bloomage you see now in the local nurseries may not be (color wise) what you will see in Spring. Originally white blooms may now be green-ish or pink-ish. Due to the reduced supply of plants now, consider buying the in Spring instead. But also consider that it may be cheaper to buy now (one of my local nurseries have azaleas and hydrangeas on sale 30% off). Oh, decisions, decisions, right? A book like Hydrangeas by Glyn Church contains good info if you want to learn about these shrubs. For online reading, I recommend going to this website: http://hydrangeashydrangeas.com/ I hope that helps. By the way, if you post pictures of the planting location(s) and its dimensions, I am sure a lot of folks will chime in with specific suggestions. Luis