The ground keeps getting further and further down! I can't say exactly why I can't get up and down.........I guess its a total system failure. haha I tried using Rubbermaid containers in the backyard for veggies, but they didn't work out so well. You really need the soil to come in contact with the worms and the other soil microbes, and I didn't want to use fake soil. I dream of a waist-high raised bed, but it needs to be soil all the way down to the ground.......which is a ton of soil (or more!). Anney.....my stool is plastic and has pretty thick sides, but if the soil is soft, it can sink. I think a small board under yours is what you'll need. Last year, when I was having alot of leg pain and needed physical therapy, I got into using one of those big rubber exercise balls. I started thinking that a slightly smaller one would work great outside. Its easy to sit on them, and then just glide forward to where you're working. I saw a smaller one at Target (its called "hoppity ball") with a rubber handle on it and thought that would work great. However, when I got it home and blew it up, it was so small that I couldn't even get down to it! So I will continue my search for the bouncy ball that can handle an adult's weight, and be just the right size. As to the reacher tool.........I have about 6 of them! I just wish they made them in a professional grade. I use mine for so many different things. I used one to pick up small branches in the yard, reach things up high in my chicken coop, reach things in my water garden. I even used one once to try to catch a snake. haha I even use them to pick tomatoes through my wire cages too. Romas seem to grow so low down, and fall to the ground easily. Can you tell I love those things!? Anything that helps us continue to garden after our bodies start failing us is a good thing! Here's another tip if you have trouble leaning over for lanting alot of seed.......I got a section of PVC pipe (about 3-4' long), 1" diameter, and if I'm having more trouble than usual leaning over, I use that pipe to drop seeds through, in my rows of beans. It places the seed exactly where you want it. Anney.....I'm really glad you started this subject!

Plumberry - how many times will you NEED to access the top areas of your cupboards in an average week? For me, I purposely am putting only infrequently used items up at the top past where I can relatively easily reach. Even though our kitchen isn't done yet, I have most things in the cabinets. So far, aside from putting stuff in the higher places, I've needed to use my step stool twice in the past month or so. Because of that, my step stool won't occupy a "prime" area and is a simple fold-flat plastic step stool that will go in my toekick drawer...it needs to take up some of the least prime areas. I do have another taller, more robust step ladder that resides in the basement that I typically don't need to use in the kitchen but in other areas of the house. I'm also rather short (5'3"), so it's not that I am tall and don't need boosts, I just planned my storage so that the things I need the most are handy in the areas where I will be able to reach them most easily. I've also attached a picture to explain how I have set up most of my kitchen storage...if you try to keep this in mind, you may find that you need your stepstool much less often than you imagine, even with tall uppers.

Hi Scrappy25, I'm not sure how tall the soffits were but they seemed huge! We took down two soffits. One soffit was in a wall that we took out (now it's an archway and a peninsula). What you see now is just trim - we just ordered some stuff and played around with what would look best above the cabinetry. I definitely knew I wanted top of the molding to match the rest of the house, so the carpenter recreated the original molding for the new space - we just needed to fill a small gap (since the cabinets were semi but not custom),so that's when we played around with other molding pieces. The space between the top of the cabinets and the ceiling is nothing compared to the soffits that were there before. The house is 1940 - so nothing is even. So everything was a challenge! However, we had to leave the soffit above the sink - I just had the carpenter make the soffit itself smaller - then we added trim over the soffit above the sink. That's why the two walls look different if you're really staring at them. But most people come to the house and just love the overall kitchen. I'm really happy with how it turned out - we did the best we could with what we had, under a certain budget. It's always a game of give-and-take! The hood - I believe it's the AK2500S Zephyr Power Series Hurricane 30" Under Cabinet Hood. God luck, and happy kitchen planning!

Just had to check the label on mine :) and it says Samsonite with a bed bath & beyond sticker on it. It looks like Annie's, but I think mine might have a higher handle on it. I like the high handle to lean against or hold onto while atop the high step. Is this the same as Annie's? Looks the same, but look for a high handle. http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Step-Folding-Step-Stool/161655837033?_trksid=p2045573.c100033.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D35375%26meid%3Da1a570706d2242f48d33588a5537a293%26pid%3D100033%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D7%26sd%3D161655837033