Thanks for reminding me...I love making bread.

Gary, One thing to keep in mind with orchids at the big boxes is many are, for the money, a better deal than buying cut flowers because they last so much longer. I do that, knowing that I know very little about keeping it alive or getting it to rebloom after it finally peters out. I just stick them in the boot of the palm tree out back and once in a blue moon fertilize them. And several have died out there, but one rebloomed for me recently. I felt like I doubled my money on that little very common purple and white dendrobium. I do the same thing with the little broms with the spectacular flowers (or whatever brom's non-flower flowers are called.) After several weeks, the flowers die and I plant them in the ground. I've had several of those rebloom too, and I'm even bringing pups and big divisions to the swap. They're not fancy, but for the $8 I paid, I got a lovely flower in the kitchen window for weeks, and if I get more, wow, yippee! I also think the orchids make much nicer hostess gifts than showing up with a bunch of cut flowers. If the hostess can't keep it alive to rebloom, he or she will at least get to enjoy the nice spray of flowers for much longer than cut flowers will last. (so when you see me at HD, don't bother to counsel me on my brom and orchid buys... just all the other stuff I might buy and potentially kill or hate!) As for the in-store kills, I saw a massacre in the making yesterday. Someone should go to the K-Mart in Miami Shores and convince the manager to sell them all the broms and orchids for cheap. They lost the shade covering in Fay and everything there is burned looking and won't last much longer. I thought about talking to him or her, but I don't know enough about orchids to think that even if they were heavily discounted, I could keep enough of them alive and get them to rebloom to make it worth it. susannah

They do -- and I like those. They caught my attention with the ones that were a little different though. Take a look at their website -- they have Italian marble and swirled alabaster shades in 14" and 16" sizes and in brushed nickel. You cans search the site by finish. You might find a local dealer who will order it for you if you don't find it online. I'm looking for a breakfast room fixture too -- probably a dark bronze or wrought iron with fat candles. I saw one in a store that I really like, but I don't like the shade on it -- they are butterscotch color and too dark. I'd really rather have white and they just say tough. Can't change them. The gal at another lighting shop who sold us our dining room fixture showed me a white glass that might work, so we ordered one and I'm waiting for it to come it. Meanwhile, I really don't want to buy from a store that offers no customer service (same story when we were looking for the dining room) but I saw this fixture when looking for the dining room fixture and haven't seen anything like it anywhere else. I've been looking at pendants thinking about replacing the recessed fixture we have in a dormer above our front entry. There is a window, but you don't even see the chain of the foyer fixture, so I thought it might be fun to have something you do see from the street. I've always liked that in other houses. I haven't seen anything that really grabs me -- especially for an area that will be so hard to clean. We put a small Christmas tree up there our first couple of years in this house. I loved it, but not having to go up the ladder and climb up there. Getting up on another ladder or step stool to clean a fixture once up there is not something I would look forward to, so I will have to love it to make the change.

I think the sink opposite the range is fine. But I don't think there's enough refrigeration looking forward with a growing family. Now perhaps this is just me -- your desires and needs should be paramount. You're taking down a wall and combining the kitchen and dining room. LOVE that! Very smart. But then there's a tangle of chairs and stools around the island. The table is a few steps away. That makes no sense to me honestly. I see it all the time and think it might be so much better to build an island with storage and prep and additional refrigeration features -- things that even the kids can use as they grow. If they do their homework or art projects they can use the big table. That lovely bay window is practically ignored! I'd look to use that with a window seat built in and a mom chair nearby.