I'm a married man with a 10 week old child and a shih tzu. I do dishes, laundry, take out the trash, mow the yard, keep a fruit and vegetable garden, build and fix whatever, work over 40hrs a week, and try to keep "MY" flower beds looking decent lol. My wife could care less most days if the yard was mowed or if the flower beds looked like anything. For some reason I have a crazed anxious urge to stay on the move all the time. I very rarely crash and take lazy days, even though the laziness is well deserved and well needed. I love more than anything to mow the grass and to garden in the flower beds. I'm always feeling guilty that it just isn't right. Bare spots here and there in the grass, a few weeds in the flower beds, flowers in the wrong spot, more to buy, more to plant, more more more to split and give away.... lots of it is overwhelming. And at times I feel stressed and guilty over all of it, possibly that I'm neglecting something.. maybe my wife and child lol. My urges lie in the progression of everything else...but then again I'm human and more precisely a man lol so go figure. I never claimed to be romantic =P

Thank you all for your responses! I've been away from my computer for a few days and am delighted to see and read what you've all shared. " I couldn't give up extra storage and dead space, to me, is crazy! " I agree with you Jennybc. I hope your new kitchen works great for you. : ) Ilovecookie, you sound like an experienced island owner. : ) It'll be interesting to hear which island style is your all time favorite. Marykh, having a 48" deep island with a cooktop sounds like a very good idea. Island cooktops without a lot of extra depth always look so scary to me. It's neat that you liked your current configuration enough to do it again. Sjhockeyfan (bonus points for you!) I love the way you did partial storage and partial seating. Great idea! That's a good compromise, and you don't have to crawl like a troll under a bridge to get your things out from the back side. Nice. Scootermom, that's funny. I can just picture my dh sticking one of our little kids on top of a towel and scooching them around by their ankles to clean the middle of that mammoth island. I don't think I'd want one that big, for sure. Ah, Cloudswift, you have my favorite island cooktop configuration. I don't think we'll be doing a cooktop, but if we did, I think it would look much like yours. I also like your idea of doing storage just on the ends. Good thinking! Thanks for the pictures. You get bonus points too. ; ) Oldbat2be, just look at that sunshine streaming across your island. Pure loveliness. Sigh. I get the stuff spreading across the island. I think that's one of the downsides of a big one. It's all too easy to set stuff and then push it around rather than cleaning it off. A small island is much easier, imo, to keep cleared for working. But once the big one is cleared, like chiefneil said, it's a great spot to work! Debrak, I can picture you and your cat doing your island dance, LOL. We have a cat with a similar bent on life that likes to hop in our vehicle when we go to leave. I can't tell you how many times we've had to chase him from one end to the other of our 12 passenger van, over and under seats and around passengers and belongings before we can get him out(the little weasel) But we love him. Nhbaskets, I really liked your old kitchen, and your new one is going to be beautiful, too. That's great that your DH made you check to reach the whole island before install. You get bonus points for your picture as well. : ) Sherri58, I like the sounds of your island configuration too, with a mix of seating and storage. Do you have a different spot for hanger-outers since you won't have island seating in the new kitchen? I like to have someplace for those sweet visitors to go that's out. of. my. workzone. Otherwise, I like you, would make it all storage! Calquail, thanks for asking about the island dimensions, and thanks, sjhockeyfan for your detailed description. That's so helpful! Good point about going a little deeper on the shallow bases. Thanks all!

tos~ How she and her best friends have maintained their friendship, despite the miles, is a source of amazement to all of us. They have a very special relationship and they are all so close. I was just speaking to one of the other mothers last pm, and we both continue to marvel at the strength of their bond. They make it a point to spend lots of time together whenever they can (when she's here for visits). My stepson is best friends with the 2 older brothers in the families, and we adults are friendly as well...have occasional cookouts, pool parties, etc. Although, I think the kids friendship has fostered the adult/family gatherings.... As far as her friends in NC...the majority of her non-school time is spent in dance class, so she is friendly with the girls she dances with. But she says that she really doesn't have any super-close school friends that she "hangs out with", etc. She rarely has sleepovers or talks of anything she does with other kids there. Mostly she is at the dance studio...she's a very accomplished dancer. Lack of good friends there was actually one of the things she discussed when she brought up the idea of coming here for high school. So tos, it's your turn....are you a step-parent? Are you a NCP? What would you have told your daughter in the "hypothetical" situation I posted?...seriously WWYD? Like you, I have no intention of EVER divorcing, but I can "imagine" what I'd do if I were faced with a similar situation....so, please, tell us what you'd say. For the record, my DH fought the move in court. Michigan is a no-fault divorce state, and spousal infidelity has NO bearing on custody, whatsoever. Michigan is VERY pro-mom, despite the fact the courts say they have no "gender bias". Essentially, the only time a mother does not win custody is if she can be deemed "unfit", due to drugs or extreme circumstances. Even homeless mothers win custody here...since we have many women/children shelters, etc. It's really disturbing that the courts do not really have the best interest of the child as their main focus. At the time of his ex-wife's affair, the children were ages 1 & 4. Since they were babies (toddler) he felt that the kids should stay in their home, and with his work schedule at the time, it just made more sense for her to stay in the house. He got an apartment closeby with the understanding that it would be temporary while they "worked on it". Obviously, the outcome was different than the plan. Trust me, if he could have changed the outcome of the custody situation, he would have. Initially, they had joint custody, 50/50 split. When she decided to move, she filed for sole physical, joint legal. He fought it and lost. The judge thought that her soon-to-be new husbands job promotion was more important than children having close, easy access to both parents. That was the sole deciding factor...her husbands increased income. So they can use spouse income to decided custody, but they won't use it to calculate child support...go figure...great court system.

Hello everybody, Unfortunately, I am having a relapse triggered by a family fight I had today. As I mentioned in my first post, my relationship with my mom is not good and she is very disrispectful with my stuff and has thrown away very special things to me. Things that I really treasured. Today, I picked up a carped that my mom had removed almost a year ago. She wanted to throw it away, but the carpet was in good condition and I liked it, so I took it to a place to have it washed and storaged. Today I finally got it back home and put it behind a wall in my living room. It was well hidden and it wasn't taking too much room. My mom saw it and started acting like crazy and told me she was going to throw it away tomorrow. I got angry and she started telling me that I had my stuff all over the house, which is not true, and then mentioned that the fact I put my little dog's stuff, like his plate and little bones in the laundry room was a problem for her to. This made me get very angry and I went down the stairs because I wanted to make sure my dog's stuff were safe. suddenly, my uncle, who was at home for a visit, stood up and got between me and my mother because according to him he thought I was going to hit my mom, which is a terrible lie. He dared me to fight and I told him I was not going to accept his attitude in my house. Then he asked me to go outside and I said: OK. Let's go. Next, my brother showed up and my mom to avoid the fight. Then my brother told me he didn't want to fight because he was much heavier than me and that it was going to be easy for him. I said: Come on, let0's do it. And he refused it and said he loved me. Ever since my parents divorced he has interfered in many of my family's issues that are not concer of his and sometimes he has tried to act like the man of the house. Today was the last straw and made me lose my mind. He has brainwashed my mom several times, my mom almost always does what he tells her to do and of course, he usually takes my moms side. All this conflict made me have a psychiological crisis and miss my little dog a lot since I feel very alone again and I have no friend and partner at home to rely on. I really didn't need this since I was starting to feel better about the loss of my beautiful Guyton, to heal, to rearrange my life without suffering too much and feel more peace. On top of that, my Psychiatrist took the liberty to show my mom and my brother my diagnosis file after a visit my mom and my brother made to his office, which was a terrible violation to my privacy and to the confidentiality respect Mental professionals have to have. It's the most basic and important rule. Now, my mom is using this as a weapon and threatening me to send me to a mental hospital because my Psychiatrist also told her and my brother she could do that. It is just unbelievable. He betrayed me and put me in a very difficult position. Specially now that I am trying to overcome the death of my little dog and my mind is unstable. It just looks he also took my brother's and mom's side and they are their patiens not me. Now I am missing Guyton a lot again and their loss became bigger again too. I am lost and sad again. I really hope you can reply to me. Thank you very much in advance for your help and kindness