Im sorry for your loss also I know what you are feeling. I lost my husband on Dec.1st it has been a month today. We haven't been apart that long since we were married 36 years ago. I feel like half of me is gone. Morning noon and night are the worst. I went back to work on Dec. 26th and I literaly had to fight with myself to get there. I was glad that I did because not everyone was at work because of holidays so it was a tad easier. It was good to be with people. My kids are grown with young children of their own and they have been with me as much as possible. We have horses and dogs that my husband always cared for so it has been very trying to keep up with feeding them. My son has been over every night to help me with the chores and that is nice. It's just when he leaves I get all blue and cry again. The weather is also a concern and bless God it hasn't been too bad. My husband had a massive heart attack and thank God he didn't suffer but boy have I. I can't believe he is gone and it is hard to believe that he has been gone a month. This note is probably not very uplifting but I think it helps to let people know about your loss because others know what you are going through. My problem is that I was the listener and my husband was the talker and it is hard for me to open up to people about this. Thankfully my husband's friends have been so helpful with giving me hay for the horses which is short supply because of the hot summer. So I know that providing me hay is a sacrifice for some of them. We also burn wood for heat and so many neighbors have come through with wood for me. I feel lucky that my husband had so many friends that cared for him and that it is carrying over to me. I will be praying for others that are in this terrible grief hoping that all of us can get through this coming New Year the best way we can. God bless you Louweze

Detailed Analysis: . General: First, note that I expanded the Kitchen a bit into the Nook space. With the configuration you appear to be forced to stick with, you really need more counter space. You don't want to try to combine the Prep Zone workspace with the Cleanup Zone workspace. It's an exercise in frustration when you try to prepare a meal while dirty dishes are in the same space. So, you really need plenty of space on both sides of the sink. The zones are nicely separated for allowing more than one person to work in the Kitchen at the same time - prepping and/or cooking and/or cleaning up. In addition, you don't want your dirty dishes "front and center" and on public display - so you need to hide them somehow - either behind a wall as in this design, or on the back wall where they're out of the way. Oh, and no one likes to sit at a counter with dirty dishes in their face - prepping OK, b/c you're working there, but not the day's dirty dishes. OK, maybe it's just me, but I find it very distasteful to sit at a counter with the day's dishes in my face. The peninsula is a more useful squared off design (similar to what your DH designer did - that was a good change, btw.) The counters on the bottom wall are 3" deeper than standard - this allows for more and better dish storage as well as enough counter space in front of the uppers - which are a Dish Hutch style and go to the counter. More on that in the "Dish Storage" discussion. The normal kitchen workflow is Refrigerator/food storage --> Sink/Prep Zone --> Range/Oven/MW/Cooking Zone --> Either Serving Zone (table) or Cleanup Zone. While the design doesn't follow the flow perfectly, it's actually pretty good. The cabinet on the peninsula end (left end) is turned 90 degrees. This gives you a better use of space than a corner cabinet. For cabinets - get as many drawer stacks as you can. Drawers are far more useful & functional than stationary shelves or even roll out tray shelves (ROTS). There are a lot of discussions about drawers vs ROTS on the forum; here's one: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2664194/drawers-or-doors-with-pull-outs The landing zone for the refrigerator is either to the right or across the aisle. With French Door refrigerators, landing space across from the refrigerator is usually more useful than next to it. The MW is mounted under the cabinet to the left of the sink. Alternatively, it could be in the corner - just be sure you can open the MW door. Or, you could make the Dish Hutch shorter (say, only 27" wide) and gain a bit of space to fit the MW in the corner. I put in a wider aisle b/w the peninsula and the range wall b/c the Cooking Zone and range are not only unprotected, but in the middle of a busy aisle. By making that aisle wider, it will allow people to swing around farther into the Kitchen and farther away from the range. Will they do it? I don't know, but at least the option is there. -- However, It doesn't address the issue of trying to cross a busy aisle with a pot of boiling water from the range to the sink for draining. Without changing the range's location -or- the location of the peninsula and the DR doorway, I'm not sure there's much to do to fix that. It's unfortunate as I think the cost would be relatively inexpensive (as opposed to changing later if you find it's an issue) and well worth it at this point – no walls are up yet, just frames. -- Do you have young children? That would be the biggest hazard – children (or pets) running around underfoot and you trying to dodge them without spilling the boiling water on them or you. I put in a 9" utility cabinet b/w the refrigerator and wall for a couple of reasons -- First, it pretty much guarantees you'll have enough room to open the refrigerator doors fully -- Second, it pushes the refrigerator out of the somewhat narrow aisle in front of the DR doorway. When the refrigerator is open, the person opening the refrigerator and the refrigerator door will block that aisle. It should only be for a short time, but it will block it. (I have a similar pinch point in my Kitchen - b/w the refrigerator and the end of one of my peninsulas.) -- Oh, and a third - it pushes the refrigerator into the Kitchen more it's even easier to access it from the Prep Zone. OK, it's just 9", but that's 9" closer! :-) Dish Storage: The dishes are stored in a Dish Hutch arrangement. The upper cabinet goes to the counter and gives you a lot of extra storage - something that I think you may need in this Kitchen. (It's also a nice look.) The upper cabinet is 39" wide x 15" deep - the extra depth will allow you to store wider dinner planes, platters, etc. Note that when a cabinet is stated as 12" deep, that is the total depth - including the back wall and the front frame. The wall & frame can shorten the depth by up to 1.5" - leaving you with a cabinet that's really only 10.5" deep. Adding 3" to the depth gives you 13.5" of usable depth. (If you have frameless cabinets, you only lose the thickness of the back wall since there is no face frame in frameless cabinets.) The 27" wide base cabinet below it is 27" deep - also adding 3" of additional storage. The location of the dishes will help keep people getting a dish or setting the table out of the Prep and Cooking Zones. It also puts them next to the DW and next to the DR. It's also a direct shot from the Nook to the dishes w/o wandering into the Prep Zone. Prep Zone: Utilizing the peninsula, the Prep Zone has a nice expanse of counter space - 27" immediately adjacent to the sink and another 30+ inches on the peninsula. The trash pullout is in the Prep Zone for easy access during prepping (prepping and cooking generate the most trash & recyclables than cleaning up - and for a much longer period of time.) When prepping on the peninsula, you are a bit closer to the range, which will help when you're carrying prepped food across the Kitchen to the range/Cooking Zone. Cooking Zone: The Cooking Zone contains the range and surrounding landing space. Prep work will (should) be done near a water source, so you will be prepping next to the sink across the aisle. However, you do need space for emergency landing space as well as staging food/ingredients for placing on the top of the range or in the oven. You also need landing space nearby when taking things out of the oven Post & Pans can be stored in the drawers next to the range. I would have like to include the MW, but there really isn't enough room on that wall. Cleanup Zone: I think I've covered most of the Cleanup Zone comments throughout the above discussions. To summarize, the Cleanup Zone is separated from the Prep and Cooking Zones and it's near the dish storage. .

I would recommend the LVT as opposed to the Pergo/Laminates. I do not recommend the gray color LVT you have pictured. Of the photos you have posted, the Eucalyptus is my choice. However, I know you said you do not want to paint the trim; my concern with that is what type of shoe molding will you be installing? Or will you be removing the base moldings and reinstalling them? When it comes to a floating floor system, besides the furniture "holding down" the floor, we either install base or shoe molding or both in some cases. You will have to decide which floor goes with your trim color as well as whether or not you are going to install shoe molding or remove the base molding and reinstall it.

Tell him that if he ever wants to sell the house it's not going to happen if he does this. NOBODY is crazy enough to buy that. But then, it will all fail pretty quickly, so you'll have a good chance to get a real bath in a year or so anyway. Of course, on top of contractor fees and a gut remodel, you'll have to pay for some heavy-duty mold remediation, too. ETA I just hope your outer walls are something like CBS and not wood, or this could be even more expensive than a whole wing addition.