For decades, I've started Holiday preparation the first or second week in October. Stuff that freezes well, Dressing/stuffing (I mix everything together & freeze raw) All cookies Quick breads Sweet potatoes (we like them slow roasted until caramalized & then mashed with a bit of butter & they freeze beautifully) Granola/trail mix (this is our favorite munchie to have out during the Holidays & I actually made this Monday & it's in the freezer now) Pie crust dough Fillings for fruit pies (I freeze the filling separately & assembly/bake the pies on the morning of the Holiday) Filling for pumpkin pies (frozen raw - it keeps beautifully...thaw & bake the morning of the Holiday) Gingerbread & Lemon Sauce (maybe a bit surprising but Lemon Sauce freezes just great) Plum Puddings (will be made next week...I shopped for ingredients last weekend) I order the meats the first couple weeks in October. By the time the Holidays arrive I've got most of the cooking already done. Things I also do well in advance are take the linens to the cleaners, polish silver, wash the china/crystal if it's not been used for awhile, check decorations to see if anything's self-destructed since last year & replace, if necessary (how does that happen anyway??), & I order my fresh floral decorations from the florist we've used for years very early...like around Halloween (then, I can just forget about it & they arrive right when I need them). There's lots of other stuff I do very early also but it's only 6:30 a.m. & I can't think yet! I'm limited physically & hurrying around last minute doesn't work for me. I also have my Holiday shopping done & wrapped before T-day. Components for business gifts are prepped early so all I have to do is assemble for DH the night before he delivers. We don't send out as many Holiday cards as we used to but there's still a couple hundred cards & I've been working on those since July. We start putting up the Christmas village the weekend after Halloween because it takes forever. I'd like to stop putting it up but the g-kids would freak. This year, we're serving dinner at the food bank on T-Day so much less cooking. I'm just going to make a roast chicken dinner for the 2 of us & include stuffing the Friday after T-Day...maybe one pie, probably pumpkin. Also, no business gifts this year. Instead, we are donating one turkey to the food bank in lieu of those gifts & just sending cards notifying people of the donation. Our food banks are in dire need of support this year. Actually, it's at critical mass levels. /tricia

I hear you. The DIY scene is no picnic. It's about planning, sweat, and dealing with the unforseen "things" that invariably pop up. We each worked 2 jobs for several years and worked to "build our estate" in our free time. We'd bust our asses to get all the prep. work done so that we could spend our vacation getting the most inconvenient projects finished. It wasn't easy, and we squabbled with each other, too. You will learn a lot in the "doing"; a lot about how to plan, how to execute a plan, and a lot about each other. But from my own perspective it was time well spent. And there were several very meaningful holidays involved. Keep your noses to the grindstone and keep your eyes on the final goal. Our best discovery was that the most effective tools in the arsenal were good senses of humor. Know what? we're still using certain key phrases coined under the most adverse conditions and we're still laughing about them, nearly 17 yrs. later. "The "frosting" on the cake of your effort is seeing the finished product in situ. For us it was a beautiful woodstove atop a raised hearth and in front of a finished interior chimney (that had been cinderblock for 12 years). Or watching beautiful gardens arise from gravel and backfill. Or buying the perfect screen door for the main entry. It's worth every minute of your time. Trust me on this count.

" is the breakfast room REALLY too small to eat in? " On the eating area ... check out the picture and the description for Rule #8 ... http://starcraftcustombuilders.com/kitchen.design.rules.htm Basically, Here are dining table clearance rules ... Allow 24" for a seated diner with no obstruction (wall, furniture, counter, etc) behind. Allow 32" from table edge to wall or obstruction for a seated diner with NO TRAFFIC passing behind diner. Allow minimum 36" to allow someone to slide behind / edge past a seated diner when traffic passes behind a seated diner between the table and an obstruction, Or, a minimum 42-44" to allow traffic to walk behind a seated diner. Allow 60" from table edge for a wheelchair to pass behind. To allow for a dining table right next to an island or peninsula with barstools, add approx 18", assuming a fairly modest sized barstool. So ... you would need minimum 42 + 18 = 60" between the edge of the dining table and the counter edge of the island or peninsula to allow traffic to walk in between (not "slide past"). Understand, these are minimums and depend on the size of the furniture, a couple more inches could feel more spacious. We have about 36" (maybe an inch or so more than that, no more than 38" for sure) between the table edge and the wall for a 13 foot long dining table that seats 14 (6 on each side and 1 on each end) and it is fairly comfortable even sliding past to get to the seats in the middle. Our chairs are normal size, not overly large and you don't have to "hug the wall" to get by. Also, be sure to use the measurements from the counter overhang edge (the cabinets may be 24", but have a 1-2" overhang) and know your table measurements. Our table is 40" wide, but tables can vary GREATLY from about 32" wide to about 48" wide. If you are unsure, try to plan for a wider width. These dimensions above are for regular chairs. Banquet seat dimensions would be a little different. On a round table, you can fudge the above numbers a little because the table curves away from you almost immediately. Not so much on an oval table. The curve on an oval is only on the corners, where there will already be plenty of space anyway. One thing that does help you is the doorway opening on 2 sides of the table which makes the traffic passing area feel more generous. There is no wall or obstruction behind the table there. WIDTH NEEDED for dining ... Ideally, you need 24-28" of width for each seated person at a dinner table or for bar seating. 30" would be Very graciously spacious. At a bare minimum, you need about 21" width for bar seating. KNEE SPACE: If putting stools or chairs on perpendicular sides of a table/island/peninsula, be sure the knee space is not shared by 2 seats. For 30" high tables (table height) you need 18" table overhang / knee space For 36" high counters (counter height) you need 15" counter overhang / knee space For 42" high counters (bar height) you need 12" counter overhang / knee space Some people do get by with less overhang at their bar or island. I actually have 18.5" wide for each of my 4 barstools, which are just round so not very large stools (Acme Furniture 07258). I would not do a dining table with personal space this narrow at 18-21", but you can get away with it a little more easily at a bar. We have 15" overhang on the long side of our counter height (36" tall) peninsula. When we are sitting at our peninsula, we normally pull one of the stools around to the end which has an 8" overhang. The 8" counter overhang is not ideal by any means, but it is workable for occasional use. This gives each of the 3 stools on the long side 24.5" wide per person . When it's kids sitting there, the decreased space works ok for them and they all 4 stay side by side with 18.5" each

Am 63, have a very similar kitchen design but without the islands. Just moved into the part-finished kitchen addition this month. We made the decision to include a second one-basin full-sized sink on the U opposite the wash-up sink--but our basement below is unfinished so the plumbing change is easier than yours. The prep sink has been installed but not plumbed and I sure wish it was--even though I am home alone this month! Generally DH and I are empty nesters but the kitchen will be used also during times of intense use when we have a party or when our chicks return as houseguests. I look at that sink longingly and dream of September when the water will flow. Meanwhile, since this is a working kitchen, it's more important than ever to keep dishes washed and stuff put away as I process garden veg and wash formerly stored kitchen gear. That second sink would be soooo helpful right now. If you are buying high-end faucets and sinks, that really pushes the costs up. Buy a reasonably priced pair of sinks and faucets and spend the rest on the plumber and a new ceiling in the basement room. Don't let the fashion fever of GW and the magazines skew your priorities. You are more likely to regret the absence of the second sink than the loss of some of the other glam stuff.