I used to eat toast or English muffins, french toast (still whole wheat) a bagel, that sort of thing for breakfast. I don't eat that anymore. The healthy bread is for when I want a carb but I cut the bread in half and after baking freeze it. I'm not inhaling it the way I used to and it's primarily for weekend breakfasts. I haven't bought a ciabatta loaf or baguette in nearly a year. We stopped eating most pasta, rice, potatoes, pretzels, popcorn and other carbs mindlessly. I still eat some carbs every day but I do think about it and have to really want it. I had a slice of spinach, meatless pizza from Whole Foods today but only one slice not two and I don't get any of those tempting desserts (a gelato cup) to go with it. If my weight creeps up, I skip or heavily cut back on the carbs. For every carb I skip, I eat some natural, toasted nuts. I buy raw cashews and almonds and toast them myself. I also eat more lean meat: smoked oysters, grilled chicken breast, non fried fish, sirloin, pot roast, etc. No rotisserie chicken anymore- I loved the skin too much. I stopped baking sweets. No more brownies, cakes, scones and pies around all the time. I used to bake because it was just fun. I still make something for special occasions, but that is what it is, a special occasion. No ice cream in the house all the time or cake squares in the freezer. No constant availability of homemade brownies. I do keep my favorite dark chocolate around for when I want some. I still eat some cheese but not as much. I eat a lot of Greek yogurt and spend more money on the vegetables I could eat all the time: asparagus and fresh wilted spinach. I rarely eat fruit. I rarely eat sandwiches and stopped getting fast food a couple times a week. I'm 161 right now at 6' and right in the middle of the bmi. I would like to be 140 ultimately but then I will have to buy all new clothes again. Probably a whole lot more than you want to know, but I am so happy to have lost weight!!

To me, there's nothing wrong with mixing "high end" and lower cost, functional good-quality kitchen components. More important to me is to avoid the waste implied in buying things that will not last or that will certainly become unfashionable. I live in a working class neighborhood, mostly little 1950s houses with lots of retirees, including myself. Although our lot is on a lake, this property will NEVER command top dollar because of the settlement pattern of the community. The recession has really hurt home values here; I thought our house was $275,000 to $300,000 because of previous improvements, but I believe that it's now $220,000 and that was before we launched a major addition, geothermal, and new siding, etc. No matter what we sink into the house, it's for us, not for resale or peer pressure. We have decided to retain the 30 inch refrigerator we bought last year (an emergency purchase) but to put it in a position where a larger unit could some day fit. No wooden housing around it. We are keeping our old electric range, but are adding a portable induction burner that can be set out on the countertop to increase functionality. There is room for another oven on a wall outside our new G shaped kitchen, but I don't think I will be the one to buy it (unless my grown children move back to live nearby); a portable roaster oven will suffice to augment the baking and roasting for large gatherings. We use our outdoor gas grill in all seasons for grilling. My husband enjoys the ritual of being the griller and he shovels the access space before dinner parties. The broiler in the old range suffices if he doesn't want to venture outdoors. We are retaining our existing dishwasher. Our big innovation is to add a second sink to the kitchen. All sinks and appliances are white. My muse is the idea of a "workshop kitchen." I am not trying to reproduce any particular theme, unless it is a farm kitchen that processes a lot of food in season. I do hope to make the kitchen work as a functional, welcoming space for myself and husband now that we're empty nesters and for events when we have visitors, whether large or small groups. Laminate for countertops is sufficient and my ego does not require anything more dazzling on the countertops, although there will be slabs of butcherblock on either side of the stove. Hubby decided to go with hardwood floor and install it and finish it himself, although I was ready to order the vinyl. We have found a local cabinetmaker who said he would meet the price of a sample plan of readymade cabinets from the Big Box home stores. Now, we're adding custom touches to the cabinetry plans, not in decorative features but real utility features, such as tapping the space that was wasted in "spacers" between boxes. All materials are American made, or American harvested. Except for the old siding and walls and flooring, very little is going to the landfill. Furnace went to the scrap metal guy. My own eccentricities will add all the "pop" and pizzaz that this kitchen will need. Fabric, color, laminate choice, color of stain, art, displays of collections-- a creative outlet without a high end price tag. We have splurged on a bank of windows and a few light fixtures (No, we're not putting in "cans" because the ceiling feeds to an attic where we're fighting heat loss.) We are working very hard to live within our means, following the requirements of good sense and ignoring consumer manias. When I get myself too fired up about making a more upscale purchase, I remind myself that the photos, the ad copy, the home shows and the open houses, are all there to facilitate SELLING, not living. Here in Minnesota, where granite is quarried, I know that some of the rock countertops are fairly reasonable, but as I have declared elsewhere on this forum, I refuse to purchase anything that is sold with a "how to care for it" bottle of something and some warnings about how to protect the finish. In many ways, by definition, I am free from the pressures that other posters feel in order to keep up with the neighborhood, to make a kitchen that defines a house value, or to prepare for the brutal house market. I don't envy the young and broke. But I was there once and I not only survived but thrived on it. The original kitchen in this house was painted baby blue without concern for the cathair? gobs in the paint and the kitchen 'table' had a hinge so we could access the refrigerator. My hubby and my carpenter father and a different local cabinetmaker came up with a sufficient re-do that we have appreciated since right before the Bicentennial. I raised two sensible daughters in that modest kitchen. This doesn't mean I'm not agonizing over choices today, though. "Leave me alone, I'm thinking!" is a common mantra right now. Today's musing: Do I want to order fancier cupboard doors? It's always something. Enjoy your day. Florantha

francoise, I skip the dish soap. When we our counters were first installed, I mixed a few drops with water for cleaning (at the rec of our fabricator), but I didn't love it on our black granite. Left it a bit streaky/smeary. I wonder if the addition of alcohol counteracts that? I had checked with a marble guy (marble institute type place?) re: the safety of alcohol-water on marble, and he assured me it was fine, wouldn't harm it. FWIW, all of our stone is sealed (with solvent-based, penetrating sealers). Our granite and marble are still as shiny as they've always been. HTH!

Ooooh, pretty colors! I may need to head back to SW. Got a call tonight, the couch is arriving with the chair a week from tomorrow. I'm going to continue to investigate all suggested colors and get more chips. Then hopefully once the furniture is here it will be easier to pick! I need to focus on getting a closet system in the living room closet so I can clear some floor space this weekend for the furniture, but I will try to post a few of the suggestions with the suggested color swatches after I get some chips to look at. Thank you for all the great suggestions! More are welcome...