I'm glad that you took the time to complete the story. It really points out a lot to people who are thinking about taking on a project. I think the most important thing that it points out is that is the effort you put into it from the get go and with the follow through. You showed a lot of people that you can't just pick a name out of the phone book and turn it over to them and wait for perfection. There is a certain amount of work locating a designer or LA who you feel is going to be able to do a good job AND be able to work with you. That is not an easy task and sometimes you have to settle for less than the ideal candidate for one reason or another. Sometimes it is price and other times it is availability. After that you have to get it built. You can sometimes pay the designer/LA to manage the project. Sometimes they are really good at it and other times they are not. Sometimes they have strong ties with certain contractors whom they have worked with because they work well together or because they know that the contractor is so capable that it won't take a lot of effort to manage them. Other times they just want to get the pay day and hire someone and hope for the best. But, a lot of the time the outcome is really in the hands of the property owner. That can be because they don't want to pay more for the designer's recommended contractor who may be the best one to mesh with the designer. It also could be that the PO does not feel that the project management is in the budget or worth the money so they contract it on their own. Some contractors are great at somethings and not so good at other things. Some crunch the numbers tight to land a job and then fight every expense (cut corners to manage the budget, often by simply hurrying to keep labor costs down) to keep the job reasonably profitable. Others are great at most everything and charge a lot of money so they can give it everything it needs and not be hurrying or trying to save nickels and dimes, but they are often seen as over priced. Some are just plain over priced even though they are not that terrific. This thread really illustrated most of this stuff. The biggest tip that MadTripper gives is to watch everything and don't let things slip by. You have to have real time quality control. That is what a Project Manager is supposed to do. If done properly, it clearly takes on a great responsibility and takes a lot of time - read "it costs a lot" into that. In the absence of a good project manager, you as the property owner are left to be the project manager. You essentially have to earn the money that you save by being that manager. MadTripper was up to the task, but many will not be. How do you know if your designer/LA who wants to get paid to manage your project is up to the task? You really have to talk to others who he has done this for. One of the qualities it takes is to have a sort of commanding personality. That is not the same personality most people want to deal with in the design process is it? If you feel that you can push a contractor around better than your designer, it might be best to manage the job yourself. I believe that he best situation is to find a designer/LA who works with a contractor or two very closely whom you can afford. They rely on each others success as a mutual benefit. The contractor is less likely to walk all over the designer and the designer is less likely to walk all over you. That is definitely in your best interest. It is way to easy to be in a situation where you a re trying to control the designer, he is trying to control the contractor, and the contractor is trying to get done and walk away with a profit (sometimes because they are spun around in circles by the others and sometimes because they just want to take the money and run. It is never text book.

Thought I'd chime in with one more thing, since I just read the "4 y/o Bosch bites the dust" thread... Maybe it's attributable to my fastidious dish rinse routine or sheer dumb luck, but I have managed to make my low end Whirlpool Gold d/w last 12+ years. Not even really sure how old it is -- it was here when I bought this place 10 years ago and I vaguely remember hearing that the previous owners replaced all appliances two years before I bought it. I have not, not once, not a single time EVER, had to have it serviced. It sounds pretty much like a freight train during an atomic bomb detonation but it runs every time, all the time. That is the kind of reliability I need in my life. I'm wondering if I can realistically expect that with a Miele or Bosch or any other manufacturer (including Whirlpool) for that matter. ::Thinking twice about even posting this, due to the jinxing risk::

Can't help you with salt - our water hardness doesn't require this - but remember reading it in the manual and sighed a sigh of relief It will be worth it in the end. I didn't formally test the water but we get a water report 2 times per year from the city - so used this. I also think there is an auto setting in the machine but not sure. Using a Miele certified rep increases your warranty to 2 years - otherwise most installers can do a Miele.... That being said - I did buy the extended warranty and used it to return the first lemon after 4 years - turns out the installer did some things incorrectly which toasted the machine in time - not to scare you but things can be done wrong. So after swearing off Miele, I studied the internet, read every review on every dishwasher, looked at the repair rates, talked to several high end appliance stores and decided - I just had the one lemon. I purchased a new one (I received a full refund) and bought my new one which has been terrific. Last night I tossed in the dinner dishes, a grungy baked on muffin tin, pots, pans, etc - everything came out clean. I am currently using the Miele tablets without additional softener as they have softener as part of the cube. I might try cutting them in half for general use. If you go with an extended warranty - I would go with the Miele version and not the local appliance store version - then they send out their repair folks. I had a minor problem with mine and explained the problem. They sent out the repair guy with the replacement part in hand - no 2-3 trips! The repairman didn't like how the top rack was working - one of the flipper bars popped off, so he said - let me just order you a new top rack and it showed up at the door - he would have come back if I needed but was easy to swap out. Everything comes out clean - I sometimes have a small drip ring at one spot on the glasses if they are at an angle which I just wipe off with a soft cloth. If they are straight up, not a problem - but some of my glasses will collect water in the base, so I tip them a bit. Enjoy!!

I think the answer is yes they are the same but maybe not...in square footage they are, of course, the same. However, your house is not just square footage. A bedroom with the bed centered on a 13' wall will feel different than the same room with the bed centered on a 16' wall. This really has nothing to do with the size of the room, but where large pieces of furniture can be placed in a room can drastically change the room. I wouldn't freak out too much about an empty bedroom looking smaller than you expected. Beds are such dominant pieces of furniture in a room we often picture them larger than they really are. Additionally, what you usually see in homes is that rooms look bigger with less furniture, but smaller with no furniture. While that room may seem small now, I bet it will be fine. In fact, I bet window placement is going to be way more important to you than bedroom size.