Yes, I was just looking for that thread so I don't have to wade through this one for gory details :-) I just potted up some liriope, pink mums, and a couple of iris tectorum alba. The crocosmia will travel in paper bags. Since the sell them as dry corms, it should be fine. The Korean mum thingy from NYBG is just too small for fall division. I'll do something about it in the spring. Since I haven't made a swap in about two years (ooooh, has it really been that long?(: ), what is the mapquest address for the park? If it goes in a different information thread, that is fine. I'm OK as far as I-84 east into Connecticut, but after that, it's fairly vague.

Hi all,Good Morning! I see that a lot of you haven't received your books yet, is no problem to wait, lets give it the rest of the week for everyones books to arrive. After all the first lesson involves the book LOL. So everyone who signed up, once you all get your books, pop in on this post and let me know when you get your book then hopefully we will start on Friday or Saturday of this coming week. Woodpat, glad to have you join us. This will be a casual and very easy exercise, I am hoping to have lots of thoughts going back and forth between everyone participating in this.

Hi, We did buy some of the items online for our build. But here are some tips on what to do. Think logistics. 1) Check and make sure with/in your Contract as to how much money you will save if at all, if you go down this route. 2) If you delay getting your item, then what is the impact to the budget. For example if you are missing a shower valve. That delays bathrrom sheet rock, and tiling. Will there be a charge, and a delay on the build? In general buying things yourself is work and alot of it. The advantage is you get the things you like, rather than some default. For complex items like plumbing, I would use a proper shop which will coordinate with your Gen Contractor. You do not want expensive plumbing parts on site until they are needed. Damage, loss and theft are all issues. Even if you have the parts deliverd to your own address. You will then have to drive to the site and hand the items over to the contractor. You will also have to make sure you got the right parts. Any error in the logistical supply chain and you will eat the cost. Worst of all if you order the wrong part!!! You will have to return it, order a new part, and hold up your whole build. Again eating cost. For simpler small things like door knobs you can order online. The trick here is a spreadsheet and focused attention to detail. Inswing, outswing, left hand right hand, which finish etc. How many? Then you need to encode this into an order number which may look like Baldwin-4637B-OilRubBronz-Insw-Left or some code number like that. Any error you eat the cost. We did this, and so long as you are precise and extremely careful you can say money. The parts should be deliverd to where you live, not to the site. When the builder needs the parts, drive over and deliver them. Note avoid any type in web page. Do your order in a spreadsheet. Then having checked it over, FAX it at the company. Then follow up with a phone call. It is easier and less painful for you and the guy putting your order together. The store I used to love was Home Depot Expo. Cheap prices, and lots of stuff all in one place to. Sadly these stores where closed. If you do order from Home Depot, try and learn their ordering system. No kidding! By the end of my build I got so good at it, and you need to be that good, you would present a spreadsheet, printed out with all the SKU order numbers, pallet sizes, number of tiles etc. Last thing you want is some Home Dept clerk messing up your order. Any delay, wrong part, you eat the cost! Even if you can return it. Try returning a pallet of Garden Rock!!! As a side note, my daughter now hates Home Depot. This is because we spent so much time in those stores trying to order parts! Final word: Be Precise, Accurate, and Think Logistics and you can save money and get what you want. Good luck on your build, Best Mike.

Donka & rmkitchen I agree. I think dropping the uppers down eliminates any use of these side countertops. These countertop do have function. This eliminates any use. It is also heavier on the eye when sitting at the table because you feel more enclosed with the cabinet there. It would be even worse if the cabinet was 24" deep. The raise cabinets have more of a feeling of openness, along with the deeper counters that you would not normally have in a galley arrangement. Also you can se more of the wall paint color on either side keeping them as uppers. The other thing that one has to consider is the placement of light switches, outlets etc. Pushing out the upper cabinet eliminates any space for switches, since the most logical location is over the side counter on the wall between the kitchen/LR. These are the details I have tried to keep in mind when revising this layout. I am used to unfunctional and wide walk space. If I never came upon this forum, there would have been cabinets around the perimeter with over 7' of walkspace. This would make the kitchen feel really wide open but obviously a lot of walking and not functional. Thus this still leaves a feeling of openness is a smaller space. Actually my wife is still very leary about feeling confined in this new space and thinks its going to be small. I am trying to get her to see the light that bigger isn't better. Hearing the various viewpoints helps me make a better informed decision and know the pro's and con's. I need the storage space as well since there really is no additional closet space in this house. I currently have stuff in the garage, laundry room, office/downstairs den and the basement. Would be great to free up those areas for other things. I hope to add a mudroom within the garage in phase 2 of this project but unless I can get the stuff out of the garage and back into the kitchen that is not happening :). So not eliminating the uppers for the sake of function is a tradeoff I am willing to deal with. I think the other choices I have made in regard to function more than offset this trade-off. Also, with the deeper base cabinets on the rangetop wall at 27"( but I could fudge a little and make them 30") and the wall cabinets at 12" deep, you now only really have cabinets that are interfering 6" into the workspace as opposed to no wall cabinets with standard 24" deep counters. Is 6" really going to make that much of an impact? How wildly is one swinging mallet? I have never hit my uppers now and they are 12" and 17" off the countertop (The ones in this plan are currently at 19" off the countertop. Not sure if that is right or not) not to mention my current counter is only 24 1/2" deep. FYI the side base cabinets in the renderings above are 24" deep. I could make the rangetop counter deeper but then where is the line between practical depth and not as well as the ability to still reach even the bottom shelf of an upper? If deeper could be done and be practical I'm willing to listen. I agree with other that baking can be done on the inside corner or even prep. The reason I stated using the side counter across from the ovens had to do with solving another kitchen dilemma. This is the issue of where do you put items that can be used in more than one area. For example, measuring cups, prep bowls, measuring spoons, etc that can be used between baking, double Ovens & rangetop. My thought was if I put those items in the corner most set of drawers, they are easily accessible from both stations and no need to walk across the floor. Holligator: Going shallower I would think would be great for the spices and the oils/etc but then render the other shelving higher up difficult/impossible to use since it would be so narrow. My thought was I was going to steal Mamadadapaige's idea, where she has a spice rack on the door of the upper and then narrower shelves, where the spice rack is, to put the oils. This gives the best of both worlds I think. Single file spices on the door, Shallow lower shelves for oils, etc and then normal 12" shelves higher up for storage. IN regard to the other question about the inside corner, I did mention that above. My current plan is to use the Blum "Space Corner". Basically the drawer fronts on the left and right side and connected and you pull out one large drawer. My cabinet guy said no problem. If I don't use him or it is an issue the second choice would be a some type of susan. I will be getting new dishes and stuff and thus have no idea how big they will be but the idea was to use the base cabinets next to the fridge for the plates, owls, etc. I have to look at the platters I have and then see how wide they are and if I need to make any uppers bigger. A drawer would work but then I would think you would want narrower drawers, since the deeper drawers would probably be a waste of depth. Maybe I need to start a thread "Show me your platter storage" ;). I could put deeper uppers on the sink wall I guess. I also re examined this wall and see that technically the window is not centered over the sink. If I did do that though the window would need to shift slightly to the right. To keep white space the upper to the right of the sink would ned to become 12" wide from its current 15". I never really studied this wall enough and not sure if I should shrink down the wider cabinets on the left side (This upper is 36" wide). I could make it one single at 12" and a double door at 14" and then all upper doors on this wall would then be 12 or keep as is. Thoughts? Rmkitchen: The drawer fronts on the base cabinets on the side counters (i.e. the MW Drawer cabinet) and the one closest to the DO are false fronts. The base cabinet next to the wall between the LR/Kitchen is a regular 24" deep cabinet. I haven't done a whole lot of baking but looking forward to it in the new kitchen. So its hard for me to say where is better. That's why I am hear to listen to the experts ;). I do know I made homemade pasta with the kids the other week and the bigger the counter the better so here would be a perfect place using the side counters to roll out the fresh pasta.