Chiming in to say 1) probably yes because you are female (not necessarily just because you are young) 2) we have a problem in our society in general of poor workmanship and lack of ethics as well Advice: 1) do a lot of research before getting your bids and signing a contract--this site has been very helpful to me, as well as asking neighbors, co-workers, checking with the BBB, doing a google search, etc. 2)Get a good digital camera and take pictures of the entire process-before during and after, and make sure that they know you are documenting. Also document your conversations. Half of these workmen won't blink an eye at lying about what happened, what was done etc. They convince themselves that they are justified in some way. 3) Make sure that you know multiple ways to contact the contractor--phone, email, etc, so you can get around the "I didn't get your message" excuse. 4) If you can have a male around at the time of signing the contract or even the estimate do so. They don't have to be related, just just need to appear like they know something and have an interest in the situation 5) when or if you do have to dispute something, remember that thanks to your documentation and contract, you control the situation and the paycheck (you haven't paid them until you are satisfied, right?) and don't have to put up with it. Continue to state with a friendly-to-neutral voice and demeanor what needs to be fixed and why, and DON'T let the contractor distract you with red herrings (like "I shouldn't have to fix this hole in the wall because you changed the paint color") and excuses ("Grandma was sick") Remember, you don't need them to LIKE you, and they don't care if you like them. About the cabinets: I hope you have some sort of warranty. I would be asking for a refund and opening a complaint with the BBB.

Pulling back to a 500-foot high-altitude view, it seems to me that if you want a scullery (and I can see how that would be attractive) and/or the sensation of separate areas, that you should carefully separate your areas by function. I'd suggest: - Clean-up area in the scullery. (Isn't that what they're all about? Make it a 'work' zone - form following function.) - Pantry and fridge storage probably also in the scullery. (Large and bulky items that often aren't all that attractive.) - Prep and cooking zones in the heart of the kitchen, so prep sink and cooktop/range/ovens. (What's the deal with your cooking appliances? How many? What configuration? Set-in-stone?) Can your baking needs be accommodated by the same setup you use for other prep and cooking? - Cozy dining area with nice views and great ambience. - Your Napanee kitchenette? Is that more of a decor item? More functional? Or sorta both? (What does it do?) If it's very attractive, I'd tend to put it where it's visible from the dining area and main kitchen. - Since you're splitting off the scullery, I'd really try to keep the rest of the kitchen and ding area open to each other to avoid making the spaces too small. Give each space a different design identity, but don't close off your floors or sight lines. The trick is going to be getting the cozy separateness you want without getting claustrophobic. I think you can do that with wide doorways, small ceiling divisions or wall sections, and different wall colors. It's hard to explain, but sometimes all it takes to 'divide' one large open space into two rooms is a painted trim board on the ceiling and walls and a change in wall paint. I'll try to illustrate with this photo taken from our living room and sowing the kitchen (far left) and dining area (background). See how just the columns, ceiling boards and wall paint take what is essentially an open space and make three different rooms? a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v733/Sweeby/?action=view¤t=GreatRoom005.jpg" target="_blank">

Gosh that's a rotten shame. If your sinuses get too bad you probably should go to a dr. You don't want a full blown infection. Have you tried boiling a pot of water and placing a towel over your head and inhaling. It works wonders on the sinuses. I prefer that to the neti pot.

shaddy- What it sounds like he did was to take your perfectly good -- but almost full -- old hard drive and transfer everything from it onto the new drive. That was a good thing. This should mean that your computer looks and functions just like before and you don't have to do anything differently. You basically went from a small hard drive with maybe 70 GB used and 10GB free to a larger drive with 70 GB used and 930 GB free. You didn't lose any info and now your computer should not be slowing down due to an overcrowded hard drive. In the future, if you got a new computer, the contents of the large hard drive you have now can be copied onto another drive. Or you could possibly choose to buy a computer without a hard drive, and just have your current one installed in the new housing. Or you could even have the current new hard drive installed as an additional hard drive alongside whatever is in a new computer (it would be sort of like having an external hard drive, except it would be inside the housing and out of sight). The only thing to remember is that at some point all hard drives fail, so you should always have critical files, photos, etc., backed up in another location. In addition, even if you kept transferring the contents of your hard drive from one computer to another to another, at some point you will want to have a newer operating system installed. But that is something to worry about some time in the future. For now, I hope you're set for a good long while.