First of all if you have an air handler thats 13 years old you may want to consider a replacement. Just not with that guy, thats all. A leak repair in a coil in an air handler can be a royal pain in the butt. The actual repair of the hole or crack can take less then 5 minutes but you can easily spend half a day taking the thing apart to the point where you can access where the leak is. So now you get a bill for all this labor etc. which will probably give you "poopy pants" and somewhere in the not to distant future another problem arises. Maybe the blower motor quits, or the drain pan has rusted out and water is leaking all over, if its an air handler in the attic you probably made a hell of a mess to your sheetrock ceiling and if its over a furnace who knows what damage it can do in there to cost you more bucks. And heres another scenario. That old unit was rusting out and the blower bracket lets go. You hear one hell of a racket coming out of your duct work, (oops, more poopy pants) and you find out the whole blower assembly has to be replaced. But the unit is so old getting the right parts are almost impossible. So its 95 degrees out and no relief in sight for days. The service tech appears to be sympathetic to your dilemma but inside he's saying "serves you right you cheap SOB, I wanted to replace that POS when you first started having problems" So you try to make a deal, you ask him if he would be interested in a can of freon as part of the deal for a new unit. You say you paid over 300 dollars for it and only used a few pounds. The guy says sure, I'll know off 50 bucks to take it off your hands and I'm doing you a favor, you're not supposed to have the stuff anyway! One of the interesting side bars of the heating and air conditioning trade is that you collect sooooo much money from some people whose original intention was to save themself a few bucks by doing it half as---!

I'm another one who would vote for telling your kids, but doing it in such a way as to not tell them outright to go tell their dad, but in such a way that they will think they've got a great secret that they're telling him. Or, just go out and buy a box for yourself, either before or after the holiday, depending on how much you want to spend. But I am totally against sending it to yourself or doing anything that would lead your husband to even remotely think that the candy was a gift to you from someone else. That's game playing, and at this stage of your marriage, especially since you say he's always been faithful and provided well for you, that's just wrong.

Did you try a sample of it on a board before you painted? Who purchased the paint you or your contractor? Did it look like it should reflect like metal. If so then I'd guess either the painters didn't stir it properly or they used the wrong paint. Before you get too upset at anyone go look at the can and see if what was bought was what you asked for.

I think the fridge location could go either way, but I'd definitely lean towards swapping it with the ovens, but that's because in *my* house the "browser" traffic to the fridge is at least 50-100 trips a day, but the "chef" traffic is more like a dozen trips. When I'm cooking, I like to get all my stuff out of the fridge and at the ready in one or two trips instead of grabbing as I cook. But kids and others are constantly going in and out for drinks, condiments, snacks, etc . . . so I wanted my fridge convenient to snackers and browsers and diners. :) I also like keeping hot stuff far away from seating. :) Also, if you move the cooktop to that side wall, then also moving the ovens allows you to use the cooktop as a landing zone for hot stuff out of the oven, which I personally find very convenient. Also, if you leave the fridge where it is but move the cooktop, I don't like having the fridge (browsers, drink getters) so close to my cooktop and thus the fridge landing space (for drink prep) being right there by my cooktop. So, yes, I'd swap the ovens and the fridge. I do think moving the cooktop to the side wall is a *great* idea. That would be a huge improvement IMHO by increasing the workspace between the sink and the cooktop and separating the clean up zone from the cooking zone by some good workspace for both the clean up person and the chef. In my kitchen, when major cooking is underway or recently completed, it is not uncommon for me to have 36" or so of counter space (above the dishwasher and beyond) covered in hand washed items drying -- piles of cookie sheets, large pots, knives, crystal, etc, so I need at least that much space on the "clean" side of my sink free for that without impinging on cooking/working/serving/prep areas. Meanwhile, I need at least 24" free on the "dirty" side of my sink for the stacks of dishes awaiting processing/loading into the dishwasher and/or sink for washing. So, that means my cleanup zone really needs (and has) 8 linear feet of space for the 24" dirty counter + 36-39" sink base + 36" clean space. I have that much space for it, and it all gets used. (My trash pull out is under the "dirty" side of the sink . . . but you could tuck it under your sink base if you plan it right and have a compatible sink and plumbing locations.) I'd absolutely die (obviously not really, but still) if I didn't have a trash pull out near the "dirty" side of my sink for scraping dishes. If you can't fit the main trash pull out there and want it over by your prep/cooktop area (assuming you do move it to the side wall), then I'd only do that if I could fit a second nice trash pull out UNDER my dish sink. Even if that sink pullout is a bit smaller than the typical kitchen trash pull out, it'd be sufficient for me. Not ideal, though, and I'd really try to have it to the side of the sink. FWIW, our dishwasher opens to a 42" aisle (45" cabinet to cabinet), and walking by it when it is open is no problem at all. It's not in a super high traffic zone, but we do walk by and around it when it is open all the time without any trouble. I wouldn't go crazy about the window size, even though I do agree that a wider window would be better. If you do stick with the smaller window, do be careful to keep your cabinets away from it a bit, as the cabinetry crowding the window will block even more light. I'd definitely give up that under-counter cabinetry where your seating is. Make the island a bit narrower, allow 18-21" overhang for diners, and let go of the idea of using cabinets for storage under there. It'd be super awkward to access, and cabinets cost $$ . . . redirect that $$ to other items on your wish list. If you cabinets are custom, you could make those island cabinets extra deep (say 30") which will dramatically increase their storage capacity. (I have just one stack of 30" deep drawers, and I swear they have twice as much capacity as the standard depth ones, although I know that is mathematically impossible, lol.)