Sammie, You should be so proud of yourself. What an accomplishment for a college student! I am also a big fan of natives. My husband and I recently moved to the southern mountains in NC from suburban Chicago and couldn't be happier. We have quite a few native woodland plants and shrubs/trees. My project over the next few years is to educate myself on native savannah plants that would be appropriate for an easement on our property and work them into that area. Keep up the good work and keep educating people on the benefits of natives! You might want to either repost or direct the folks on the native board to your post here. John Blakeman has answered many many posts on the native board. I personally have learned a lot from his posts. Of course now, I have to relearn a lot as we went from the prairie of Illinois to the moutains of NC. Jeanne

The Fagor never made it onto my radar screen, but it looks like it might be the same as the Ariston, the one I wasn't able to see in person. Honestly, at the prices we are talking about, I cannot see spending so much money for a manual steamer wand machine when for a little more you can get the Miele with the automatic foam and hot milk system. But since you asked, after 6 months I am getting a little annoyed with the Miele. Though we love the beverages and the convenience, I am getting a nagging S2 fault intermittently that requires me to get up and cycle the front door interlock to get it to shut up. I called Miele and they will only send someone out to fix it on my dime. No warranty at all. Why? Because I bought the machine on ebay. The seller was a Miele dealer in New York, but Miele won't honor the new machine warranty. Personally, I think Miele, as a corporation, sucks. I will buy a set of service documents on the black market and fix it myself I guess. To answer mhjohnson, I don't think the problem is Arabica beans, but it may be the roast. A lot of these coffees are over roasted today, particularly from the influence of Starbucks, which really roasts with a heavy hand. I would look for a medium roast bean, set the coarseness of the grind to no more than halfway, and then start making experimental coffees, dialing up the water and down the amount of coffee until you hit his happy spot. One other trick is get a cup, dial up ONE shot of espresso, then use the hot water button and fill the cup with hot water. Stir it up and see if he likes it. Then adjust the coffee up and water down until you hit the right mixture. Once you get done with this, set up 2 profiles so that he can dial coffee his way and you the right way.

Commenting on the skills and tools to make frameless cabinets: Our local community college has the best furniture making/wood working program in the west, maybe more than that. They actually call it Cabinet and Furniture Technology. One of the things they offer is a certificate program in making cabinets. Framed and frameless cabinetry making are totally different classes with separate and unique building techniques. Each has some specialized tools for that type of cabinetry only. The head of the department has aggressively pursued state of the art for 20 or more years and is a kitchen cabinet maker himself. He got the European makers of the big machinery needed for frameless cabinetry to donate the pieces to the school so that there would be trained frameless cabinet makers out there, a win-win. I never took that class, but I saw the machinery being used - we're talking stuff that takes up a lot of floor space, significantly bigger than large stationary table saws. You know all those holes they put in for adjustable shelves? There's a machine that makes whole sets of those holes so they'll be perfectly spaced. You need to train on the machine to make it come out right. The guy beekeeperswife talked to has never trained in this technology and doesn't own these very expensive tools. I can see that he maybe wouldn't want to be totally up front about that. The rest of the world has gone to frameless because their native wood supplies are not what they once were. By using "furniture board" with the good stuff laminated onto the outside, less premium wood is needed. As consumers, we care more about look and function in our space, but it's good to see the bigger picture sometimes.

We are in the final stages of building our home. It has taken me two solid years of searching for the right person to do my cabinets. I've interviewed several, and I even wasted some money by starting to work with a couple who claimed they were on the same page as I was but who weren't......as by their push for what "they" liked and thought I should have. I stuck to my guns and kept searching. I do not like staggered cabinets but they were continually being pushed on me. They didn't know how to deal with a large vintage style sink I am using. They kept wanting to line all of them up like lawyer office cabinets, crowd my window trim, etc. I gave up and figured I would use metal cabinets and a couple of tables until I found the right person. Finally one Saturday my husband was doing a search to find Conestoga cabinets so we could purchase some and put them in ourselves. By then I had sketched out what I wanted, but still needed a skilled person to figure the dimensions, etc. Well, we found someone. A treasure of a husband and wife team who make custom cabinets. She has an art degree and has considerable experience in restoring vintage kitchens. She saw immediately what I wanted and we are like twins in our thinking. She made sure she understood how I cook. We now only have minor tweaking in a few details and we are ready to start work. The reason for my long winded story here is to encourage you to follow your heart no matter how long it takes to find the right person. Do not settle. It can be frustrating, time consuming, and very tiring, but it has been more than worth it. I will get up every day for the rest of my life loving this kitchen. Loving your kitchen will inspire you to cook wonderful things in it. Something you don't love will irritate you the rest of your life. Also, be wary of anyone wanting a chunk of money ahead of even talking to you and starting a design. You have no way of knowing if that person will listen to you and you can work together. It is fair for someone to not release a design you like without compensation, but we have lost several thousand dollars on people who claimed they would design something nice, knew what I wanted, but as soon as the check was cashed they could have cared less. The lady I am working with now never asked for a cent up front. Sandy