It's a Robin, but it's got the shortest tail I've ever seen!

I'm a married man with a 10 week old child and a shih tzu. I do dishes, laundry, take out the trash, mow the yard, keep a fruit and vegetable garden, build and fix whatever, work over 40hrs a week, and try to keep "MY" flower beds looking decent lol. My wife could care less most days if the yard was mowed or if the flower beds looked like anything. For some reason I have a crazed anxious urge to stay on the move all the time. I very rarely crash and take lazy days, even though the laziness is well deserved and well needed. I love more than anything to mow the grass and to garden in the flower beds. I'm always feeling guilty that it just isn't right. Bare spots here and there in the grass, a few weeds in the flower beds, flowers in the wrong spot, more to buy, more to plant, more more more to split and give away.... lots of it is overwhelming. And at times I feel stressed and guilty over all of it, possibly that I'm neglecting something.. maybe my wife and child lol. My urges lie in the progression of everything else...but then again I'm human and more precisely a man lol so go figure. I never claimed to be romantic =P

Thank you all for your responses! I've been away from my computer for a few days and am delighted to see and read what you've all shared. " I couldn't give up extra storage and dead space, to me, is crazy! " I agree with you Jennybc. I hope your new kitchen works great for you. : ) Ilovecookie, you sound like an experienced island owner. : ) It'll be interesting to hear which island style is your all time favorite. Marykh, having a 48" deep island with a cooktop sounds like a very good idea. Island cooktops without a lot of extra depth always look so scary to me. It's neat that you liked your current configuration enough to do it again. Sjhockeyfan (bonus points for you!) I love the way you did partial storage and partial seating. Great idea! That's a good compromise, and you don't have to crawl like a troll under a bridge to get your things out from the back side. Nice. Scootermom, that's funny. I can just picture my dh sticking one of our little kids on top of a towel and scooching them around by their ankles to clean the middle of that mammoth island. I don't think I'd want one that big, for sure. Ah, Cloudswift, you have my favorite island cooktop configuration. I don't think we'll be doing a cooktop, but if we did, I think it would look much like yours. I also like your idea of doing storage just on the ends. Good thinking! Thanks for the pictures. You get bonus points too. ; ) Oldbat2be, just look at that sunshine streaming across your island. Pure loveliness. Sigh. I get the stuff spreading across the island. I think that's one of the downsides of a big one. It's all too easy to set stuff and then push it around rather than cleaning it off. A small island is much easier, imo, to keep cleared for working. But once the big one is cleared, like chiefneil said, it's a great spot to work! Debrak, I can picture you and your cat doing your island dance, LOL. We have a cat with a similar bent on life that likes to hop in our vehicle when we go to leave. I can't tell you how many times we've had to chase him from one end to the other of our 12 passenger van, over and under seats and around passengers and belongings before we can get him out(the little weasel) But we love him. Nhbaskets, I really liked your old kitchen, and your new one is going to be beautiful, too. That's great that your DH made you check to reach the whole island before install. You get bonus points for your picture as well. : ) Sherri58, I like the sounds of your island configuration too, with a mix of seating and storage. Do you have a different spot for hanger-outers since you won't have island seating in the new kitchen? I like to have someplace for those sweet visitors to go that's out. of. my. workzone. Otherwise, I like you, would make it all storage! Calquail, thanks for asking about the island dimensions, and thanks, sjhockeyfan for your detailed description. That's so helpful! Good point about going a little deeper on the shallow bases. Thanks all!

Thanks folks, I have a sack of about 10 different 1/4 yd cuts that I've bought/ordered/lived with. I had them all up for varying lengths of time from hours to overnight to days. Hubby is sooooooo over it. Every time I tried a bright color it just looked off to me. Once I put a big, bold pattern in it just clicked better. I actually really like the same pattern in blue over the sink, but when it's in the eating area it's not quite right. So essentially I think I'm ready to go neurotic but not quite certifiable crazy yet. I'm going to accessorize with a lot of blue but if I decide to go back to red or yellow or orange in the future, a can of spray paint solves the issue. This thread has also made me love suzani now. :) The eyebrow comment is valid and definitely makes me think. I've got one more fabric store to visit today, but at that point I think I have to make a call of some kind. I could put this off for months if I let myself.