Thanx...let's move this down

That is great! I am so happy for you. I am helping my fiancee with an application for a graduate teaching program right now. I get the impression that the admissions people are really nice, from the conversations he has had with them and the application materials. He decided that this program was the only one worth applying for (and I agree with him, based on the alternatives), so I sure hope he gets in. I would love to hear your story. I think it is important, what you said, "it is most important for children to understand that their parents CARE about school and what their children are doing while they are there all day." Because there are a ton of children whose parents can't help them with their schoolwork, but just knowing that they care can be enough. Look at (and it is probably largely a stereotype, but also based on fact) the children of immigrants who can barely speak english, but their children do well because it is comunicated to them that school is important - not because their parents are necessarily able to give them constructive help with their homework. I just read the most incredible article, I wanted to link it but it is not available on the web, it is in Mother Jones magazine. It is about a 60's civil rights activist, Bob Moses, who has designed an innovative math program for junior high and high school. In the article he talks about the concept of "sharecropper education." The idea is that you can go to school and get an education, but it doesn't matter what you learn if you don't see people around you whose success is a result of education. So he has designed a program to help children who aren't exposed to educational success (and any other children whose teachers learn the program) get an understanding of advanced math, which is a solid way to get ahead because practically every person in the U.S. is pathetically clueless when it comes to math. I was amazed at the things that he said and the experiences he'd had registering black voters in Mississippi in the sixties. You should get the issue, I think any educator would be really excited about the program he has designed.

Thanks everyone for so many nice comments. Izerare ... The dimensions of the space for the kitchen are 195 inches along the stove wall and 194 and 3/4 inches along the window wall. But, the stove wall has a door on one side and a useable aisleway must be provided along that side of the kitchen ... the window wall also has a door (to the back porch) at the end and agains an aisle past the end of the island must be provided. All of this and much more detail on dimensions shows in the original design thread http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg1014051516644.html?17 The island is 51 inches wide by 87 inches long over the granite and the result left working aisles about 49 inches wide. That produced the spacious feeling as well as proving very workable with multiple cooks when entertaining. I was helped in this regard by working a bit in a kitchen with 38 inch aisles - it is just so tight to be almost unmanageble with more than one person working in the space. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, a squaare kitchen of the size we have is not large enough to be the dream kitchen shown in magazines. Lots of goodies do not fit and tradeoffs must be made. I wanted counterspace, large aisles and am unclettered feeling so could not fit in double ovens, larger range, warming drawers and other things like that. The pictures do not show fully that we retained our "kitchen table" eating area just to the left in the second pic and as well a dining room which is used at least once a week if not more often. eileen217 ... the range is a Bluestar 36 inch - the Canadian Costco version. It is available here for just over C$3000 and they currently have an additional $500 discount for executive members - it is financially a no brainer for Canadians as anything else comparable is at least double the price. The range hood is a 42 inch Kobe and has so far performed flawlessly - I do a substantial amount of stirfrying so the venting gets well tested! No makeup air systems were required by the code here. lynn2006 ... the walls are painted Benjamin Moore "Straw Hat". The Typhhon Bordeaux granite and the cabinet stain were taken as base colours and DW plus advisors chose everything else to match achieving an understated traditional look. The granite is deceptive - it has a grey green undertone that an untrained eye does not easily detect. Only through trial and error (and a million trips to the granite vendor) did the final combination of elements emerge. My advice would be to choose granite early and then work with it on style and colour - keep in mind that the dim flourescent lighting of the granite warehouse is really very poor for matching colours and viewing tiles, paint chips and fabrics. It is a challenge stlistically to get it the way you would like it. The way you like it is easy to say ... having a style design goal early on is important just as is having a functional design goal. The planning was helped immensely by thinking some of this through in advance.

I do have my own lawncare/gardening website: http://thegreengreengrassofhome.blogspot.com/ But I provide information as freely there as I do here, usually generated by questions people have asked me face to face, or that show up in my search results. Or just things I notice happening in my own garden. Not that I'll object if you go and click on some of my ads, but it's not exactly a money-maker, nor designed to be. Think of me as your Public Advocate for Mostly-Organic Gardening. People have asked why I don't run a lawn care company. The answer is that doing this correctly requires pretty good timing, so I could take limited clients. And the amount of work involved per lawn means it would be incredibly expensive until the lawns reach maintenance, but that takes years.