I was out of town when I made that first post, then checked with hubby at home. He actually used 1/2" mesh on the bottom, making it easy for the chickens to walk around on it. He built ours mostly for putting out in the pasture, so scratching dirt wouldn't apply. The grass will all pop up through the mesh for the chickens to eat. This mesh is pretty sturdy too.

Yes....you prune to a very low branch, or, bud, and then train the new, green wood along a heavy wire that runs parallel to the ground. Each year the new growth is pruned back hard to encourage budding. Then you select the buds you want, and where you want them. I believe ENCANTO FARMS has some photos of this method of training. Once the initial training is done, it just a matter of some yearly pruning to control the fig tree. You can grow and pick plenty of figs in a small amount of space. Hope this gives you some optional solutions. On the Figs4Fun web-site one member is training his fig tree that planted at the corner of his house, with branches at 90 degrees from each other, and trained along the two outer walls...semi espaliered style. As the twig is bent, so grows the tree. : ) Frank

Gary: I first saw Philippine violet in a neighbor's yard. It was blooming and one couldn't help but admire it. She promptly broke off a branch and handed it to me, saying it would root easily. Her yard looked tidy so I didn't investigate before planting it by the A.C. unit. I'm SO glad I didn't know that others, such as you, find it invasive because I wouldn't have risked planting it. In this case, ignorance was bliss because I find PV to be a wonderful plant with only a seedling here or there to pull out. For me it's far from invasive. Sometimes I wonder if I've bypassed other worthy plants because they've also been labeled invasive. Maybe, for me, they'd be relatively well behaved and a garden treasure to be enjoyed. - June

Ok, thanks very much all ... and in no particular order: 1. I don't have dimensions yet, but it is not quite that big. The fridge is 30 in. not 36, so that side is more like 8 ft I think. I will measure when I go back up this weekend. 2. Can't enlarge window. 3. Yes, this would include replacing the cabinets. The owner had a local cabinetmaker build the fridge panel, and he already has bid on cabinet replacement (which I haven't seen, but I doubt it addresses what I want to address. Don't know though). Most likely we will reuse the range and DW, as they are fairly new, but change counter, backsplash, sink, and faucet. I really don't want to spend a lot of money here -- it's a condo in the mountains, we don't really cook that much up there (although of course we end up doing Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for 10 in our tiny condo even when I have a perfectly wonderfully large and efficient kitchen at home that is much better suited for that! lol). 4. Love the induction idea. It's probably not in the budget right now (well, definitely not), but I will keep it in mind when rearranging things. And it's a good reason to hold off on gas. 5. I've been toying with the idea of replacing the table with a counter-height table and stools, and placing it crosswise short end against the wall, sort of like a peninsula, to increase work space. Then we could pull it out when we have to seat someone for a meal down there. Does this make any sense? Again, I'll have to measure things.