Hi amelie325: I checked out the roses you listed in HMF. You have a great selection, that's the first time I see William Jesse, it's beautiful ... please inform when they bloom, would like to know how they smell. I am leaning toward Old Garden Roses for the scent. I have 15 Austins ... but when I bought and sniffed Comte De Chambord, Jacques Cartier, Paul Neyron, Annie L. McDowell, and Gruss an Teplitz .... I'm hooked ever since. I'm excited about these 6 roses coming this Wednesday.... I got them for $8 each during Roses Unlimited's summer sale last week: Lawrence of Arabia, Summer Samba, Duchesse de Rohan, Angel Face, Le Rire Nias, and Gene Boerner (this has no scent unless the weather is cold, but it's almost thornless & DR).

AnnKH - your before and after pix show a beautiful kitchen. I also can easily visualize what my kitchen will look like if I use some of the advice given on this board. If you were to switch the placement of the sink and range, and put a full cabinet over your sink area, you have a very similar arrangement to what I want. The added height of your cabinets was a great idea - my 36" vs the normal 30" height will be a good idea. I do use a hand held "reacher" device to get things down in any kitchen I have ever used, so the added height will be used. Although your kitchen may be perfect for you, I see items that make me return to some of my original plans. I would not want the angled corner lower cabinets -- that, to me, squeezes in the kitchen visually far more than angled uppers. With squared cornered lowers and angled uppers, I will actually be able to reach corner storage better (being shorter). Using the wider cabinets around the window was a good idea -- I would have made them even wider, to frame the window even more. Although you did add length and needed storage by adding the pantry next to the fridge, the full size fridge does intrude into the room too much for me. I will pay the extra to get a counter depth fridge. The pull out for the cabinet above the fridge is a good idea. Regarding the 42" lower, I have already had one in my old home, and it was very well organized. I guess it make a difference what is placed in the cabinet, my pots and pans either stacked well, or I had lid holders mounted to the doors and sides. I like the yellow tone of your kitchen - it makes it "happy". I am looking for a yellow or caramel tone that will match the warm browns of my cabinets and the knotty pine cathedral ceiling over the kitchen. An enlarged picture of my old kitchen above will show the 10' side walls of the kitchen and the soaring knotty pine ceiling above.

sf_treat - how do you like your floor? how is it holding up? I'm looking at some floors from hardwood bargains. the samples are impressive, but I'm in Philadelphia so I'm going to have to pay some pretty hefty shipping. The price is low enough that even with the shipping it will be reasonable compared to some other options, but I'm concerned about ordering something that I basically can't return. (I could but I'd have to pay ANOTHER shipping charge)

What are you doing about weeds? Have you used a selective weed killer? Are you planning to use glyphosate? Are you doing an overseed or a renovation? What is your seed down date? Move the "mow short and bag everything up" to right before seeding. If this is an overseed, you should gradually reduce your mowing height. You may or may not need to dethatch. The aeration earlier may be enough. You want the aeration holes to fill in before seeding so the seeds don't fall down too deep. It's best to keep lime and fertilizer apart. Also good to do the lime well in advance of seeding (several months ago would have been ideal), so the sooner you can do that, the better. I have used lime before at seeding and nothing terrible happened. But it's better if the pH has been adjusted and is in a good range before putting seed down. Lime takes time to work. I would do it today. The aeration, when you can get that done, will push the lime further down into the ground, having about the same effect as if you applied the lime after aeration. Just get it down.