It appears that you only have one wall for your kitchen as the islands, due to your constraints (we all have them), can not be usefully incorporated into the kitchen That window wall then must have the fridge on it instead of across the kitchen. You use the fridge a whole heck of a lot more than your ovens. When you bake something it stays in the oven for anywhere from 30 mins to 2 hours. A fridge you are in and out, in and out, in and out. Walking across that kitchen to the fridge will get old fast. Put the fridge where you currently plan on putting the ovens. Put the ovens and the pull-out broom closet in the area where you plan on putting the fridge. You now have the ovens and pantry near one another. If you do a lot of baking, put a prep sink and trash pull-out at this end of the island by the range and this area becomes your baking center.. The broom closet does not need to be taking up valuable working triangle space. Your prep area will probably be between your fridge and sink. Left center your sink on that wall with the DW to the left of it, close to the dinette area for clean-up.

I got an update from the ex partner "C". He told me that "T" spent a couple nights living on the street, now is in a detox program at Kaiser. I don't know how he got into Kaiser. C has gotten T a place at the micro apartment halfway house place, for after he gets out of Kaiser. It is in downtown Portland, units are just 200 sq ft but they are private, there is some sort of supervision and support - I'm not sure about the details. I don't know if T still has his job, but I'd guess not. I'm not sure who is paying for the micro apartment or how long T can stay there. Poor C says he is done with T now; but I'd guess he has said that before in the past decade. Loyalty, and concern for their son, keeps him trying to help. Over the weekend, when C wasn't answering T's calls, T went to C's house and tried to get/break in, until the neighbors called the police. That really upset C. T used to live a pretty high life. They had a house in France and a big house in Portland. T always wore super fashionable clothes, had expensive tastes. Until recently he lived in a beautiful urban hip loft in downtown Portland. He's fallen a long way. I hope this was/is his rock bottom, but I'm not sure. And to add to the good start to 2015, one of my dear older friends, a remarkable gentleman of 84 y/o, has pancreatic cancer. He was diagnosed very late, just before Christmas. He and his wife delayed notifying friends until after the New Year, to avoid spoiling people's holidays. He's had chemo but it is useless, the cancer had already metastasized to his liver. SWMBO and I went to see them Monday night. He has deteriorated very quickly and is already bedridden, extremely thin, only eating cups of boullion, not receiving visitors. We sat with his wife and SWMBO is going over there during the days to be available for emergencies while the wife goes out for an hour or two to take care of stuff. In Oregon we have the "Death With Dignity" law which allows a terminally ill patient, after a 15 day waiting period, to get a lethal pill to be self administered at a time of his choosing. They have started that process. I am skeptical he will survive 15 more days. He has lived a long and excellent life, so his passing is not such a surprise or tragedy. His wife is 18 years younger, a lovely woman in good health (I think I've posted a dinner party picture with her, in the past) and he leaves her and his four children comfortably situated. He has done everything on this earth that a man should do, and I hope he can die without too much pain.

Let's divide and conquer, Ianbeatty. In order to save these plants you will first need to ensure that you can improve the current growing conditions, and sometimes even the most experienced of growers have problems providing the best of all the combination for healthy plants: 1) Light - How much light can you give your plants? I'm assuming they were kept indoors by a window without much sunlight, as you can see most of the plants are extremely etiolated. The last guy seem to be a Echeveria Black Prince, which will change its coloration into a deep maroon when exposed to prolonged long. Right now, yours is green, which means it very under nourished from proper light. Word of caution, I'm also not telling you throw your plants and bake them in the hot sun immediately, you would need to slowly introduce them to full sun in a couple of hours increment each day. Else they will get sunburnt, and it is permanent! 2) Soil/Water - I don't think I can explain much here. Refer to this diagram on why pots without drainage will eventually rot your plant's roots. Succulents are similar to cacti, they prefer dry soil for most of the time, but they also need the soil to be porous and arid. Mixing in lava stones will help, but I'll suggest you to start a new batch of sterile soil and perlite, and toss the existing soil. Judging from your last pic, you do not ever want is algae or moss mixed into your soil. 3) Once you figured out your new pot and soil, and ensure you can provide sufficient light, you remove all of the plant from the pot and clean the roots. Lay them out on a piece of paper towel and snap more pictures of the roots once its cleaned. We can give you better advise from there. Something more advance is that you should behead your Echeveria and re-root it like how Andy does his here, you will have a much healthier plant in the long term. Bernard

"people can't take advantage of you unless you let them:-uhu unless it's a system. will break 99% of people in no time. or unless there are many people. or they are many and they have guns. or you actually have no idea you're been taken advantage of. some people are masterful manipulators. or you were brought up in such a way it's really hard for you to distinguish where and when actually advantage happens. your sense of inner freedom is close to non-existant.or you choose it because the alternative is much worse. or.. many exclusions to that rule, I'd say:) anyway. I don't see the daughter as a witch. I don't want to analyze somebody i don't know at all; she does sound like somebody who's having many problems. I wouldn't know which. Marital ones? Mood ones? Some people can have many problems and still find within themselves to act for others. Some obviously can't. Don't possess strength at the moment. Or the will. Or something. I also am a bit sceptical about how one can help the mother feel positive right now. All things aside-she just lost her spouse. It's a huge blow. Probably another year or two before she starts feeling truly positive.. They shouldn't be in that arrangement probably nini, I wholeheartedly agree, now it's pretty obvious. But they were..which leads me to think they didn't know it until was too late(cancer etc). But nothing is black or white. It's great she was able to find her own space, more or less affordable. Has several kids worried about her (I think even including the daughter..right now the daughter avoids and runs away but that may change with time and as the things settle down). Has friends. Has to adjust to that new life of hers, figure it out-sometimes it makes things easier..you need to do something every day, helps you get through that day. "This is a family matter and hopefully the family will all come together to help mom become as self-sufficient as she can be and all pitch in to make her life easier. This situation will not improve with age. The sooner they learn to work together for the best solution, the better the outcomes will be for everyone. I wish them the best of luck."-I agree, rubyclaire. They'll figure it out. db654, it goes wihout saying I wish you the best of luck too and all the strength you need to continue to be there for your friend. And I feel a bit guilty jumping first into this thread..that's a conversation that's not easy, and I can see how you still wanted to take it somewhere outside far away from that family, that's very smart..again shows what a thoughtful friend you are. It's hard to overestimate that. We also choose our friends unlike family. You share her bad times with her now-I wish you and her for time soon to come to share joyful moments too.