The set up is working great and I love it. It's cool how the Logamatic 2107 regulates everything (out side temp. sensor is installed). At the beginning of the season, when just taking the chill out of the house, the boiler wouldn't run that hot. Just enough to warm the radiators. (I would say 100-130 degrees.) Because the outside air temp was not that low. Now that the outside air temp. is much cooler (even below 32F at times), the boiler runs hotter. (around 150-200 degrees.) But the temps. vary widely and these temps. are not absolute. When the thermostat calls for heat, the boiler doesn't turn on along with the circulator. If the water in the boiler is hot enough, only the circulator will come on until the boiler cools down enough to warrant the oil burner to cycle on. So the boiler doesn't needlessly make more hot water than is needed. Sometimes the oil burner wont even have to turn on because there's enough hot water for the cycle of the circulator. The circulator for the heating zone for the house does cycle on and off more often to keep a more constant even air temp. in the house (68 degrees). With the new digital thermostat I'm experimenting with CPH (Cycles Per Hour). You can set the thermostat to make more short on/off cycles or longer on/off cycles by adjusting the CPH. This adjusts how often the circulator cycles on/off each hour. I started out with 5 CPH and now I'm trying out 4 CPH. The boiler will run hotter when making hot water of course (indirect fired maintaining 140 degrees with mixing valve set at 125 degrees). Domestic hot water always takes priority (or you can change that default setting). Even if the house is calling for heat and you need hot water for showers or laundry or dishwashing etc. The circulator for the house will stop and the circulator for the hot water will run until the hot water storage tank temp. is satisfied. Then the circulator for the house will continue until satisfied. I have the Logamatic on "Late" mode. Meaning the domestic hot water production stops at 11:30 PM every night. It resumes the next morning at 6:30 AM. The water storage tank (Buderus ST-150) loses very little heat standing by and there is plenty of hot water stored. So no real need to keep water at peek 140 degrees if it's not being used over night. The system goes into "Night" mode at 11:30 PM also. This turns down the "heating curve" for heating the house (lower operating temp.) The system goes into "Day" mode at 6:30 AM, where domestic hot water is priority and made first if needed and regular heating temps. are back up to normal for home heating. All these setting and times can be changed on the Logamatic to fit your homes lifestyle. It's pretty cool learning how this system works.

Well, there are two ways to go about this. One is what you have already done, which is to say this is what I want, what is going to cost. The other way is to say, Ok, this is what I have to work with, how much can I get done with it? Unfortunately, a strict budget lends itself better to the latter than the former. One way you can save money is acting as your own GC. First, I would open up those two rooms and put new flooring throughout to unify the spaces. See how much money you will have left once the rooms are opened up, and go from there. When doing a kitchen on a budget, and I have done basically what you are talking about with less money, I found it worked best to set a priority list of what NEEDED to be done first. Since opening the rooms requires new flooring to tie the spaces together, start there. It will also make the biggest difference in how you feel about the space. Then decide if your cabinets are in worse shape or the appliances. Can you save any appliances? Just saving a refrig., which is what I did, will save you 1500.00-2500.00+. Make a list of which appliances you really NEED to replace right from the beginning and the minimum you would settle for in those appliances. You might be able to upgrade later if you save money elsewhere or find good sales, etc. But start assuming you won't. If you won't settle for less than a miele DW or a thermadore range you are in trouble on that budget. Look at GE, Kitchenaide and Kenmore, determine what features you REALLY want and get an idea of what they would cost. Then see what you have left for cabinets, pumbing, electrial as well as organizational goodies and cosmetics. If you can't spend much on plumbing and electrical, plan to keep the sink where it is, also the stove if you have a gas range. You have more leeway moving the stove for less expense if the stove is electric. Make sure you have planned for adequate lighting. UC lighting can be added later although it is easier and less expensive to do it before new cabinets go up. If you want recessed ceiling lights you really should plan for that expense up front and do it first. If budget dictated it you could always add plug in UC lights that you attach to the cabinets yourself. Then look at cabinets and layout with reasonably priced lines. Try Ikea for the best budget friendly cabinets. Then find out what a carpenter will charge to install them if you can't. Make it clear you are only going to do what you decide you can afford in the budget and want seperate prices for just the wall work and just the cabinet work. That way, he is not figuring in a large amt of money to GC all the rest. It takes a lot more planning and work on your part to do it for almost half the cost, but if you really want to you CAN do it. For me, it WAS a load bearing wall I wanted to open up and my estimate involved installing an I beam to carry the weight because of that. I decided to put in a 6' wide opeining instead of removing the wall completely because that would have meant messing with a lot more electrical and opening the ceiling to rewire the ceiling fan/light, etc. With the I beam, doing that cost me about 3000.00. Yours certainly should not be more, and may be less because it is mostly demo and cosmetic work afterwards, but watch out for electrical issues and consider scaling down your plans if that would increase costs greatly. For floors, I wanted hardwood but couldn't afford to have it completely installed, so I did the install myself, and saved a couple thousand. Whatever you want, look in the phone book for flooring contractors and start getting estimates yourself, rather than letting another contracter or kitchen design place do it, because they need to increase the price to also make a profit and account for their time to arrange and oversee it. Get recommendations from friends and family who have had wood floors, tile work or whatever done and were happy with it. Any place that sells cabinets should be able to help you with a layout, measure for the cabinets, etc. Then post the layout and plans here and you will get a lot of great ideas, critiques and help for free to fine tune your plan before committing yourself to it. Sue

I'm sorry the owner is in the hospital, but that unfortunate circumstance shouldn't affect your decision on accepting/rejecting countertops that will be in your house for a good long time - 20 years? On the gap behind the sink run: If your planned backsplash tile will cover a 1/4" gap, that is fortunate, but be aware that the industry standard is half that - 1/8". Sink cut-out: just sloppy. When we were looking at stones, we went to a place with "examples" of finished pieces. Every sink cut out in the place (mostly bathroom sinks) was "off." The cut out wandered with respect to the sink edges. This is 3 years later and I still remember that irregularity with a cringe. It wasn't so bad that it's the first thing you noticed, but once having noticed, it was hard to ignore. We crossed that place off our list of possible companies based on those "who cares?" cuts. Cook-top cut out: Their bridging solution may be acceptable in some markets, but doesn't seem to be a first class solution to this common installation issue. The better way to do this is to embed rods in the uncut undersides of the bridge sections rather than cut and paste. I suspect that better fabricators install the rods and then make the cut most, but not all, of the way through the thickness of the stone at the shop, and then finish the cut on site. The issue is breakage in moving the stone. Here is another way of dealing with narrow pieces. The brace was just for moving purposes. (This is a sink cut out, not a cooktop, but the method is the same.) If I were you, I'd be inclined to reject the whole job considering how much it's costing you and how long you'll have to live with it. Here is a link that might be useful: Marble Institute of America installation standards

The light rail on the cabinets is now 17 1/2 over the counter top and the bottom of the MW is 15 1/2 over the grates on the range. That inch actually made a big difference. The company did correct the many mistakes that I pointed out. If I had said nothing, they wouldn't have either, even though it appears they knew about it. The contractor or owners never came here at the end of a day to see what the subs had done. I was never told that they saw something wasn't done right and they would fix it, it was always up to me to look at the job that was done while I was at work and to then tell them what I saw. Then they would fix it. They basically finished the job yesterday because I insisted that the kitchen be done for Thanksgiving. At the rate of work being done one day a week, it could have gone on until Christmas. BF and I just started doing the finish work ourselves. The gas line to the range still needs to be adjusted so the range can slide all the way in, the hood isn't venting through the roof, cabinet doors are unaligned, none of the handles were attached to the drawers, molding is missing, etc, etc. But it was the witching hour (4pm) and they had to leave. They'll be back in a couple of weeks to fix the bigger issues, we'll do the rest ourselves.