Cool counters, Alisa. With our last remodel in 2011, we did a white shaker kitchen. I loved it at the time. This time around we are taking a design risk. When researching for our current kitchen remodel, we looked at a lot of MCM/modern kitchens and the vast majority of them either have walnut, rift sawn oak or lacquered white slab cabinets. While those are beautiful, we wanted to do something different. We chose fluted cabinets that were inspired by a piece of MCM furniture we saw. The island will have stainless steel cabinets. I've never seen a kitchen with cabinets like this before, and I'm a little nervous about how they are going to turn out. With a white shaker kitchen, I had a vision of exactly what my space would look like -- it looked like many of the other kitchens on here. With this kitchen, we are going into unchartered territory with a unique cabinet style and stainless, which is not all that common in residential applications. It could turn out great, or it could be an epic fail. But I'm pushing myself to take a risk this time around.

I doubt that many architects have had anything to do with the majority of tract builder's subdivisions, Maybe, but I know for a fact that one major designer of the huge custom Mansion antecedent of the McMansion in the general region I grew up in is a licensed architect. And his website is full of examples. I know someone who got into trouble with him because he guaranteed them he could design a historically pure classical house with authentic details. He couldn't: he had no idea what they were, and when the historian client and I showed him the actual details he insisted they were wrong and that's not how he did it. A license does not guarantee taste. The individual who had among the worst esthetic tendencies in my design program was accepted to a good architecture program. Perhaps they got rid of those tendencies in her program, but perhaps not: no one seemed to be able to educate her out of them in design school. I agree that most of this stuff is probably not designed by licensed architects, but a license alone is not enough to guarantee that an architect won't.

rubyclaire, my friend who is in her 60's, has a hat very much like the first one that mtn posted with the fake fur ball. She doesn't look crazy at all, in fact, everyone was telling her that they loved her new hat. Her's was a different color of yard though but essentially, it was the same hat.

There was a time in my life where I was quicker to judge and always so very sure of what was right. The older I get the less I feel that way. I have never referred to any of my cats as my “fur baby “. So what if someone does? Why should it bother me? It’s harmless. It takes all kinds. So in a moment of whimsy, I took my Halloween scarf off my neck and put it on my cat like a babushka, just for fun. She didn’t mind a single bit. It’s ok. My daughter found the tiny sunglasses. We put them on Sunshine for a picture which we find amusing. Jeeeez. Stop raining on the parade.