Thanks lynn2006 and aliris19--love the pun, aliris! We don't have flowers all the time lynn (wouldn't that be nice though?), but I should have taken a new kitchen pic with my beautiful Valentine's Day bouquet--DH drove to the store that Friday morning (after, during? the snowstorms we had) to pick them up for me! Flaten, I have a couple sets of Chilewich placemats (one set I got at Century 21 for something like $4 each--I couldn't believe it when I got home and googled them and saw that they retailed for $20/ea!), so I know how nice some of their materials can be! Here are some pics I have in my PB showing a few of our shades: Guest Bathroom: MB (reflected in the mirror--you can see how sheer that particular fabric is): Guest Bedroom (you can see part of the shade): The shades in the Guest Bedroom and in our "Spare Room" are the prettiest ones we have fabric-wise (IMO), and those have the most texture, too. The shades in the two bathrooms, and our bedroom are solid color, flat weave, and are fairly sheer during the day--we wanted to maximize our ability to look out the windows during the day, while leaving the shades down (on nice days, with the windows open, we raise the shades to the height of the open portion of the window). We have room darkening micro-pleat shades mounted behind the screen shades in both bedrooms. We lower those at night, and raise them fully in the morning when we get up. Privacy micro-pleat shades are available as well, BTW. I haven't seen them in person, but would think they allow more light into the room. Some light does seep in with the room darkening micro-pleats--there are pinholes up/down the length of the shades for the strings that help to raise and lower them. FYI, they do NOT make the Roman Shade style Designer Screen Shades anymore (like the two in our bathrooms, and the ones in our office and FR which are not shown here). They are only available now as a completely flat shade (like the one in our Guest Bedroom). They offer a range of fabrics; from very sheer to fairly opaque, completely smooth through textured, etc. HTH!

More on the dog: The Akita (large dog) is crate trained. We do often confine him to a room when there are guests in other parts of the house. We just aren't willing to do this for our two regular and close friends who don't mind the dog out and about, but just not touching them because we already have a solution we LOVE-LOVE-LOVE (seating in the kitchen with narrow enough entries) They come by too often. We are lazy, we don't want to have to do anything special when they arrive. This must-have design rule brings us too much joy to give up for a lesser solution. We've also now discussed the partial door issue and decided against it too. It will result in this partial door being extended permanently. We are too lazy to move it back and open the area. Really. I'm not kidding. This is just who we are. How do I know this? Mr. Chef pointed out that our opening to the living room is already 5' and we put a kitchen cart there to block it further. The cart never moves. Never. It is just sitting in the living room offering extra kitchen storage and serving the purpose of narrowing the opening to make the dog easier to control. I should probably put this info into a web page. We've discussed this issue in person and on the web for hours with dozens of people. It's human nature to be polite to the first 5 or 10 people who suggest a crate/gate solution, but when the 67th person makes the suggestion, it's harder. The 67th person doesn't realize that you've already discussed this in great gory detail with 66 people before them and rejected it after very deeply considering it and they deserve the same politeness as the 1st. But it's hard. Maybe if I write it up and just point people to the URL explaining it, I can avoid being less than civil about it.

You're not being too picky. Don't leave their sides until they get it right. My husband and I went round and round about our dining room light. He thought it should be centered in the room. I designed the house and KNOW that the light was being installed over the table. No matter how much I explained and showed him on paper, he truly did not understand nor 'could see' in his mind's eye what the end result would be. He is just truly challenged visualizing some things. Lighting placement was one of the issues we struggled with building this house. And our electrician struggled with viusalization, too. It was horrid. How he could install lighting for a new home was beyond my patience. I had to stay with the electrician constantly. If I was not around, he would ask my DH a question, who never gave the correct answer.

I'll hold off on the detailed analysis until I work up one with a cooktop & wall oven - not until tomorrow, though. Quick Look: Perimeter counters, base cabinets, and upper cabinets are all 3" deeper than standard. 28.5"D counters, 27"D base cabs, and 15"D uppers. If you cannot get 27"D base cabinets, then pull the cabinets 3" out from the wall when they're installed. -- Sink run...gives you more space for the sink, faucet, and other fixtures and allows the upper cabinet to be 15"D and down to the counter without the loss of landing space in front of the Dish Hutch. Note that a Dish Hutch can be more of a traditional look, so if you don't like it, then the upper does not have to go down to the counter. (I'd still keep the deeper cabs & counter.) -- Range wall...helps make the Refrigerator look counter-depth. The refrigerator is also made to appear "built-in" by flanking it with finished end panels on the sides that are deep enough to cover the sides of the refrigerator and a full-depth cabinet above the refrigerator that's pulled out to line up with the front of the refrigerator carcass. The doors will still have to stick out past the counters & cabinets so they can be fully opened. Trash pullout in main Prep Zone in island but close to Cooking Zone and Cleanup Zone as well as the Prep Zone b/w the range and main sink. Pantry houses a large appliance garage along one wall with base cabinets below. The counter is 30" deep to allow for an 18"D appliance garage. If it doesn't need to be that deep, then you can reduce it. The base cabinets are also deeper, if possible - 28.5" or 27". Dish storage is in a 36" Dish Hutch (I think it's become my "signature" along with a plate rack when the sink is against the wall!) It's close to the DW for ease of unloading as well as very close to the seating island for ease of setting the table! The refrigerator is offset from the island so it's not blocking the island aisle and it's located so it's easily accessed from the Prep Zones, Cooking Zone, MW/Snack Center in the Pantry, the island seating, and the Great Room -- all without outsiders using the refrigerator getting underfoot of those prepping & cooking! Since it's only the 2 of you 90% of the time, I put in a 42-inch aisle b/w the range counters and the island. The aisle will be a couple of inches narrower in front of the range. If two of you are working, there are two Prep Zones, so you won't be in conflict with each other. Layout #1 -- Range and Table-style Island with seating for 6: . Layout #1 Zone Map: