boxerpups, thanks for your info. I have to say that your kitchen is one of the first ones I saw, and I just love it so much! I am still going back and forth, but my current thinking is that I found that a sears outlet near us has tons of inventory. They have the bosch 50 floor model (seems to be the same size as their 800 series, but doesn't have a wine rack or door alarm but does have a child lock) for $1265. They have a kitchenaid that sounded really nice too for around $1300, but it's too tall for my existing cabinets and if I'd like to avoid moving them if possible. So I think the bosch in the kitchen, and then something in the basement, either getting a smaller top freezer (from the outlet or craigslist) or trying to fit our monster down there will work for us. I will likely go with the smaller one. Thanks so much for listening to me! My dh has officially told me to stop talking about refrigerators and says I am starting to sound like our 4 yr old daughter (who has autism and is particularly stuck right now talking about beds in hotels all the time)....that's probably funnier to us than how it sounds typed out. ; )

We've found a solution to the problem. We're keeping the existing door (undamaged) and the window contracting company is repairing the minor rot damage on the jam. It's the most cost effective solution and won't delay interior or exterior work. Quite happy about this! Here's what I wrote on my thread in the kitchen forum: After much discussion and research, we're keeping the existing kitchen door and addressing the jam rot only. I talked to a supplier about purchasing a custom made new rot resistant jam for the TT door (their old doors were an inch taller than all other brands). And then I talked to the owner of the window contracting company who suggested that since the rot was minimal, another option was to remove the affected wood, fill with epoxy and sand it smooth. Once painted, we'll never know that it was damaged and there would be no reason for further damage to occur (the leak that caused the rot happened years ago and has since been addressed). This is a cost effective solution that won't delay the exterior or interior work so we're quite happy about it. This company has an excellent rep (BBB, contractor's board, Angie's List, Yelp, etc, plus two suppliers told us that, hands down, this is *the* company to work with. Their work is excellent). They are conscientious about making sure that all installs are to code and won't cause water issues down the road. The amount of flashing, wrapping, etc that they are adding to our windows and doors is more than twice what our initial install had 21 yrs ago. You should have heard them mumbling about how poorly the house was flashed and how amazed they are that they haven't uncovered any dry rot (so thankful for that but it could have been a different story if we hadn't replaced the failed LP siding when we did.). Thanks to everyone who helped me figure this out!

Here are a few from a warm weather gardener (who has done ALL of these things): Any tiny rose volunteer sprout which emerges in the garden anywhere (including in the middle of the lawn) must NOT be pulled up (or mowed down!) until it has grown big enough to produce mature blooms, and then also not touched until I find out whether it repeats or not, and then it might be moved to a large pot in order to observe it further, .... If a climbing rose gets too big for its trellis, build a bridge for it to the nearest building or large tree. Water the roses if there is a drought and hot weather, if necessary at midnight. In order to do this, talk your DH into building some sort of system to pipe bath & shower water into the garden automatically. If your water bill is huge because of tiered pricing, pay it and cut the household budget somewhere (anywhere) else. Volunteer to help your next door neighbors with that annoying "hell strip" in front of their houses, if those strips are obviously being neglected and have run to weeds. That way you can plant them FULL of roses. If there are telephone poles or large street signs in the hell strips, they make great structures for climbing roses, as do street trees. If your next door neighbor has a neglected rose within sight of your garden, beg them to let you prune/take care of it, as the poor thing is suffering. When you have run out of sunny spots to plant roses, you can plant climbers in full shade, and then sweet talk them into getting taller really fast, at which time you can guide them up a tree (on your property or the neighbor's), the neighbor's fence, or your or the neighbor's house. Jackie

Getting rid of the header and dividing wall will give you a lot more space to work with. Whether you want counter space or not depends on how you think you will use it. Will it become a dumping ground? Do you want to keep the curtain, or make the area more presentable without it? Are you willing/able to spend the money to build cabinetry? If money was no object, I would keep the W/D stacked, and build cabinets around/above them. I have pull-outs above my fridge that I find very convenient for light-weight or rarely used things - my canning pot, paper towels, extra cereal boxes (the open box is in a different place). Something like that would allow you to use the deep space without losing things in the back. On the pantry side, use some combination of drawers and doors to suit the items you need to store.