Thank you ladies. I can't wait until it's finished. It's put on hold again until Saturday, darn it! My backyard isn't that big. It's going to be nothing but ponds, flower beds, paths and a few patio areas and hopefully a screened in sunroom. DH thinks I should leave one large patch of grass, but I'm not convinced yet. And I will surely want to post pics when it's finished. I'm really proud of our work on it. Yachter, I'm sorry you lost all of your pics on your comp. I bought a flash drive and hopefully I have everything on it just in case and I put a lot of my pics on CDs. We're going to keep all of the ponds. Two of them are already connected to each other and we will be building a short stream to connect those 2 to the large one. The smallest pond is a "QT" (for new or sick babies) and will stay by itself.

Taggie, the snack center by the MW is a clever idea. I think I need to keep our "real" dishes close to the table, but I'll keep the MW area in mind for disposables. That'd make grabbing a quick snack nice and simple. I've never kept my bread in a drawer. I can be a "out of sight out of mind" kind of person, so I wonder if I would remember to use it before it started grow fuzzy in there? It'd be nice to have it off the counter, though! Hmmmmmmm.... Thanks for posting the pictures Aliris. It's always nice to see KIA shots. I like your open area for being able to get the collanders and compost containers (and cutting boards, too, LOL) quickly and easily. 7 kiddos means we are constantly cycling things out of the house. We don't have a big place or a lot of storage, so we have to make hard decisions on what to keep and what to let go. I stopped at Sears last night and spent a good while reading through the manual to a Kenmore Micro-Convection combo unit that sells for about $300. (It was nice there was a rocker recliner across the aisle from the Micro display!) Frankly, I came away from it unimpressed. The chair was nice, but the combo deal took precious little time off the cook time, and it only had 1 (1!) bake rack, which was round. Bah. Did find a Nesco 18 qt electric roaster on clearance there. Whoo-hoo. : ) That'll take care of roasting a turkey and a bunch of other big jobs, relieving pressure on our big oven. Also, I found an Oster convection toaster oven (at Wal-Mart) that will toast 14 slices of bread at once (Cheers!) and it will fit 9 x 13 baking pans. It actually has 2 racks, too. More pressure off my ovens. Rhome, it's funny you mention putting drawers under the table top. I was discussing the dilemma with my Dad yesterday and he suggested the same thing. : ) I've also wondered about bucket style containers that could be hung from the pegs under the uppers, or even those wicker syle containers that picnic plasicware goes in. I don't want to toss out this plan for lack of traditional flatware storage. It certainly has been work getting this kitchen plan to develop. It was much harder than I ever imagined it would be. I appreciate the honest assessments of what works and what doesn't, even if those were hard to hear sometimes. Then I'd have to go and let it rattle around in my brain and try to format a plan with more of those qualifications in mind. Sometimes the criticisms ended up being the most constructive. : ) Question: Would it be a good idea to build a tall stack of 2' deep cabinets to the right of the top window? They would house the MW and Convection toaster (it's HUUGE, 21" across and about as deep), and then maybe tray storage above and some drawers below? This would shorten up the counter run by 2' and would help in substantially in cutting down the countertop cost. Good idea? Bad idea? Ambivalent? My reasoning follows: [Somewhat related, I had posted about doing a DIY solide surface, but when I did the math and factored in the glues, gun, router bits, sanding supplies, yadda, yadda, it's still way up there in price (about 3k for the whole kitchen.) and still is susceptible to scratching and staining.] If we keep the back counter to 6' or less, we can get a pre-made granite slab for around $200 for that spot. If we make it 8'long, then it would have to be custom from a fabricator shop, and the price jumps to $950. Thoughts?

Lisa, how exciting! Purple Martins need every informed and dedicated landlord they can get to keep them from the brink of extinction. As do all our native bluebirds, woodpeckers, nuthatches, and other cavity nesters so threatened and decimated by lack of habitat and predation by EHSs and EUST (non-native European House Sparrows and European Starlings). If you could manage even a colony of only four gourds, or the large (new specs) 4 house colony, it would do wonders for the species in your area. I always try to encourage new "landlords" to go slow, study everything, and start with fewer, but much larger cavities, such as the gourds or houses with 7"x7"x12" compartments. The ASYs and SYs I referred to with the martins are just more Martins. The initials refer to their age/breeding/plumage status. Yes, PMs will allow other PMs to help feed their young. Sometimes the SY males help feed; sometimes they just harass the nestlings, hoping to encourage the female to renest with them. They little home-wreckers! The martins don't mind when the doves, gold finches, hummingbirds (!), etc. perch on the rack. They fight with the Tree Swallows; I can send you info on how to manage Tree Swallows and Bluebirds so you can have one pair of each, nesting in harmony about 50 ft. from a PM colony. That stops the fighting and everyone wins. My pair had a couple knock-down drag-outs with the wrens, but since the wrens now have a box near the large white spruce tree, everyone is happy once again. Next year the wrens will be in the back yard. Since they, too, are native birds, it takes careful management, but they can be safely and legally persuaded to move. Had my colony been full of breeding pairs, or even half-full; the wrens would have never ventured up there. Since I'm began all over in a new location this year, and had only one pair, I've had extra problems, more challenges, and even more interaction with them. It's been a great year. The fledglings will stay around and sleep in the gourds for a couple weeks, or longer. If I had a "full" colony they'd hang around, with their parents, until all the chicks were fledged and the entire colony was ready to begin the migration together. It's a wonderful pandamonium when several nests are fledging. Grackles, the messy, noisy things can be a big help to a PM colony, too. We have only a few pair here during the summer, hundreds during the short spring and fall migrations, and none in the winter. When I hear the PMs' "HAWK" scream (once you hear it you'll never mis-understand it again!) all the martins in the area swarm high and fast. Hot on their heels are the grackles and everyone attacks the hawk. He won't stand a chance. I've not seen a grackle in two months, except for the couple of times a hawk passed by; then I see dozens. You can email me through "My Page" if you want to talk about PMs. I can share what's worked for my birds. Check out the PMCA; they have all sorts of PDF links on the bottom of their main page. That's a great place to start. Linda...how big is your yard and how close are the neighbors? Is there an open area, at least 50' from very large trees? Are your neighbors nature-minded? You might have room for a small house or gourd rack, if you were so inclined. Do you have power lines? How do they run from your house. Martins like to use them as perching areas if they are close to the rack. As long as the lines don't pass right over your car, there will not be any "mess" problem. My birds perch only on the gourd rack (no power lines here). PMs feed on the wing and range up to 10 miles away. They're never on the ground or perching on furniture, plants, etc. They don't even land in the trees except when they are building their nests and need green leaves to line them. They're stickly birds of the air, they even drink their water on the wing while skimming above ponds or lakes. Here is a link that might be useful: PMCA

Bumping this up because I am now confused. I was set on the 95 till I saw it discontinued. My wants are the heater, allergen and sanitize. I think from reading I don't want tier 3 because of low water? I have a husband allergic to dust mites and two young kids who make a mess of their school uniform shirts! nice to have would be the rinse cycle and the load and go. The 87 model mentioned above is on sale at HD by me. I could just go with that, but is there something better with enough water that replaced the 95? one other question I dont' see the 87 model listed on this site. should I worry about that? NSF thank you - and I can start another thread if that is better. :) oh and I do not want an LG, that is pretty much my only requirement. I have an LG set now and am not sad that we are leaving it behind when we move in a couple of weeks :)