I got the perlite at a local nursery, so I'm sure it's the right stuff, and it says it's a larger size...not sure how it's worded, but it seems to be bigger than the usual BB size feeling it through the bag. I plan on making some up as soon as it's warm enough to be in the garage without wearing my coat! My real worry is the size of the bark. I know it is the same bark this nursery uses for its roses and other containers. They mix it with peat and sand. They had actually told me I didn't need the lime...but I'll go with you Al, having lost entirely too many tomatoes to BER. (It wasn't poor watering, really! Had to be the calcium. ;-) LOL!) But a lot of it is definately bigger than 1/4 inch. We'll see how much I can get screening it. It's less than 1/2 inch though. I figure if it is between 1/2 and 1/4 I can use it for gritty mix, right? Or mulch-always need mulch.

Camlan and jmc01 -- excellent idea, to assess the need first. I had made a list of what space I'd need for what items a few months ago when I was doing the same for the kitchen, but it was mostly off the cuff instead of actually looking through drawers to see what needs to stay and what can go. I have been avoiding the purge-and-consolidate process. Blah. lol. Last night I started emptying out drawers to see how much space we'll need for the things in them (in addition to the things that have no home). We already have a desk, it's very old and it is enormous -- too deep, as we lose things in the backs of the drawers and never see them again. We also have an antique wooden file cabinet (also full of stuff). I don't think we'll keep either one; I like their looks OK but they just don't meet our needs now. The file cabinet drawers don't slide very easily. You know how it is with antiques sometimes. About custom work -- we are in an urban area, and the last time we had a cabinet quote from a carpenter (for a bathroom) it was very high. But that was many years ago and things may well have changed, so I will definitely keep it in mind, thanks! Camlan -- that is a very good point and I agree with you. What we need is a place to put the "action" items other than the middle of the kitchen. The desk (surface covered by books and toys at the moment) is not in the main walk path of the house, though it is near it. The kitchen peninsula is for all intents and purposes not part of the kitchen at all; it is nowhere near the prep/cook areas and functionally it is more a part of the den. It IS right in the main walk path, so we tend to drop things there. I am planning to do a (hopefully not too major) kitchen rearrangement when we replace our chipped countertops. One of the things I would like to do is to get rid of the peninsula entirely. That should help force a change of habit. And you are quite right that things like mail and library books don't need to be stored (I'd forget them too, if I couldn't see them) -- those are things that I envision going into either cubbies or open shelves or vertical slots. Just not flat down in stacks right in the way of everything. And some of the stuff on the peninsula HAS no place, mostly childrens' things. The house was decently well organized when there were just two of us in it. lol. (DH once looked at the stacks, then at me and said "But your house before we got married was so neat. What happened?" lol. I told him that I can deal with MY stuff just fine; it's handling 4 people's stuff that gets overwhelming, especially when there is no designated area for it. I might have also mentioned offhand that I am not the only one capable of putting away [somewhere] the kids' things.) Anyway. My car, at least, is still neat as a pin. Forhgtv -- I never in a million years would have thought of a closet company. I looked up a local one and what do you know, they have pictures of this kind of thing on their website. And they're near our house too, so at some point I will run over and check them out. Thanks for the suggestion! Hmm, reading over all this makes me think we need to rethink the storage-ability in the kids' rooms too. Great. Need new kitchen countertop, therefore must reconfigure children's closets. The usual logical progression of remodeling.

I would want what I need for storage out there . I find no matter how great the cabinets are dust gets in there somehow so I use drawers for outdoor dishes and drink ware and usually put all of that in my basement store room in the winter. I have outdoor vinyl placemats in a drawer too and I have a hanging rack above my grill for utensils I use for grilling .I use the cabinet under the grill for the cover and one to the side for the propane and the other side for the cleaning brush , gloves etc. My husband also does BBQ so he has one 24” wide drawer cabinet for his stuff.

How you plan to use the cabinet matters. If you want a coffee maker on that countertop, just add an overhead cabinet above the ?thermostat? but would try to minimize open shelving. You might consider a combination of shelf and cabinet. You could add one open shelf (shallow rather than deep ) above the light switch and electrical outlet, so you can reach/use the switch and outlet but leave open the space from that shelf to above the ?thermostat? (if that needs to stay in place). You could put your spices or coffee related items a shallow wood tray that sits on that open shelf. You'd still have access to and use of the countertop. Then you could go ahead and add a full overhead cabinet above that ?thermostat?. You could have doors to access that overhead cabinet from both the kitchen and hallway and either door could have shallow shelves within the door.