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?

you are correct theotherside, but it's not right to use the support from one father to support another father's children. If both are paying support, then it is should be assumed that the rent comes from both fathers, not just one. But if only one is paying support, then the children of the father that pays should not suffer because the father of the other children does not pay. If the other father does not pay anything, then the mother should pay more toward the housing costs instead of using child support from the father that pays. How can his children share in his standard of living when she averts some of the money that is meant to use on them, to other children, whose father doesn't support them? I think THAT is wrong. I have three kids with three fathers. If I get support for any of them (and I have on occasion, never regularly), I might use part to help with the bills, but the child that it's intended for should get more of a benefit, whether it's a new pair of shoes, outfit, spending money or whatever. I have always given them something from it. Like I said, I've never gotten a large sum... usually less than fifty bucks, but they get some kind of direct benefit from it. I usually would say that kids don't need to know about child support issues, but on occasion, I have told my kids when I get any money from their dad that they are getting X because their dad sent some money. Since they never saw their dad, I felt they needed to know that he was at least contributing, even if it was only here or there. I never complained that I didn't get support. That only makes kids feel bad about it.

@sal 60 Hanzlik..I remember the granddaughter "little pinky", she had a condition where her skin was pink. She was young, had a boy friend that she broke up with, then got back together. Mama used to put on crazy makeup & wigs to make her laugh. She was sickly, in bed most days, maybe 20 years old when mama passed.