I don't like coffee; never did. I drink hot tea and ice tea, with sugar. Never did "like" water and drink very little of it. Used to be a Coca Cola drinker; some time ago I found Cheerwine, a cherry flavored soft drink, at Sharp Shopper. Much cheaper, and much like a cherry Coke. I converted, but now SS doesn't carry them any more because of the rise in prices. Most other chains have them though, and they are cheaper than Cokes, and I do buy them. I have to explain to a first-timer that it is not alcoholic, just like Mountain Dew is not Moonshine. Heard on the news yesterday that now caramel color is the culprit in soft drinks. Almost every afternoon I have a Carnation Essentials drink. They are good, and have a lot of what we need. My doctor says they are fine, keep drinking them. Anybody remember this little jingle: I like coffee, I like tea. I like the boys and the boys like me. Sue This post was edited by Sue-va on Fri, Jan 24, 14 at 20:41

I can understand the 200.00 down for a special order table. My husband and I had a shop before he got to ill to work in it, and at first, we didnt ask for a deposit, but, after a couple people ordered things, then never came to pick the item up after it was done, and we would have to put it out with the regular stuff to sell eventually, we started to charge the downpayment. It assured us that they would come to pick it up, and if they didnt, we werent out any money, until we sold it to someone else. Those materials cost a lot of money, and when you order something, the person making it, has no idea, if you will ever show up to pick that item up, or, if you will pick it up promptly. The deposit, takes care of the out of pocket cash that would have gone for the materials.

never_ending, yes, upper cabinets are easy to make. There are reasons for this. Several reasons that all combine to make it worthwhile. -- The thing you can have is 1 big box as an upper cabinet (therefore continuous, long, shelves inside the 1 cabinet). The front cover could be *either* 2 or 3 sets of panels that open with Blum Aventos HF hinges, *or* several narrow (vertical) doors that hinge on a front frame. In either case, you have continuous shelves. At first glance it looks like wall "cabinets" but, it's a single entity, not a series of boxes stuck together. So the shelves are uninterrupted by cabinet sides. When you open door 2, you can reach things in sections 1 or 3 as well. Storing things is easier too since your things don't bump up against barriers. -- 1 big box is easy. Here is one of the several reasons why wall cabinets are easier to make than floor cabinets. A wall thingie has to look good (straight and level), and be well screwed to studs. Looking good is less demanding than being truly level to a fine "tolerance". A run of floor-standing boxes has to be far better aligned: it supports a level countertop. So, a 1/8" misalignment becomes a serious problem, even if the floor is perfect, rigid, flat. A floor-standing box has to hold up to max. physical stress AND could have an unstable (squishy, spongy) floor under some of its legs. So, it can be a chore. Or more. But a wall thingie doesn't have to be square or level, to the Nth degree. Executive Summary: wall cabs are a few panels joined at 90 degree angle. They hang on the wall. The cabinetmaker doesn't need to work to the same degree of "perfection" as for the cabinets that stand on the floor and become a base for countertops. I second the notion that "you may be able to go IKEA bottoms and custom uppers without breaking the bank." -- Open shelving is not as easy to make as 1 big box. Because each shelf has to get its entire support from the wall studs. With 1 big box, shelves are supported by the two sides of the big box. (Between the two sides at the ends of the long shelves, the shelves do need some support too) ((and this is "easy" or easier to arrange than for individual open shelves)) -- "They are spacious and operate so smoothly with the soft close feature." sample budget: $1500 Ikea cabs (floor-standing) $2000 any "front" from Scherr's, ikea or anywhere $1000 installation DIY along with a handyman helper who has a level

Jenswrens, I hope you know that the meanness heaped on your previous plan was from us wanting you to have a really really great kitchen, not just a pretty one!! First impression, this is a much, much better plan, and should fine as is, though, as with most plans, some tweaking can probably improve it. I have been noodling around with your design and came up with nothing that worked. You've done a great job, and it's worth all your iterations and efforts. I love the way you've conserved your windows and gotten the wall space you needed for your tall units by reorienting. And I love your complex island. It's a little quirky, which makes the elegance of your design interesting. If you don't think you need two dishwashers, I don't think you do. The aisle size is fine for baby goats. I once did an analysis and decided that 40" bare minimum to not feel cramped and claustorphobic, and 54" the maximum not to be too wide. You're a couple of inches past that, but you have the "goats". It won't be bad. The biggest issue in that is landing space for the fridge, but that's something that can be worked with. Maybe a folding tea cart for the odd thing that's just too heavy to carry to the counter. Maybe just group effort. I think the hearth seating is going to be cozier than it looks in the drawing. Over and over I am reminded how seating doesn't look on paper like it takes up the amount of real room that it does in life. Plus, when you were drawing you left a nice, open passage between the hall and the porch. IRL, there will be a dog lying across that, at the very least. I really think by the time you're done decorating there will be plenty of cozy in the room, and you need the space that's currently empty. (Says the one with the big rooms--maybe it's just the big roomness that's making it feel uncozy. You want a big room. The agoraphobia will pass.) Why is mudroom junk visible? Can't you put in a door? Doors are really useful barriers to unwanted sights. The other thing you could do is just put a small partition wall inside of the doorway to block the sight through. Or if you're trying to let in light, make a textured glass partition there. That is, something sticking out of the South wall, about 3-4' wide, that people have to go around to get to the mudroom proper and blocks people seeing in. A partial vestibule, if you will. Or even a decorative, freestanding screen. I see the value of making the porch bigger though. Do you need a powder room there? Do you want people not crossing the hearthroom to to other powder room? Or do you want to move that (I forget). But, if you make the porch bigger, how do you enter the mudroom? I think you could design something like a potting bench on top and a pet station under counter height that would serve both purposes and make maximum use of your extra mudroom space. I don't imagine that one would usually want to be doing gardening tasks and feeding both at the same time, so sharing the space seems natural. Okay, my big question is about the wine room. A window? Really? The North wall helps, but I wouldn't even want the wine on an outside wall. You're going to need plenty of extra insulation there. AHA!!! If the powder room is in the mudroom, would that be okay for company to use? If so, you could remove the powder room as shown, move the wine room to the interior, and make part of the current wine room into your pantry. Pantries aren't fond on windows either, but most pantry foods don't mind small changes in temperature, whereas you should keep wines at even, nonfluctuating, temperatures. Light isn't great for either, but you can do a temporary solution for that, like blackout film, if you don't want to take out or board over the window altogether. The dishes don't go in those pretty glass fronts? and the drawers below them? The problem with dishes on the island shelves is enthusiastic tails and cat hair. You could add doors. As to the rest of the kitchen proper? Is that the two microwaves between the glass fronts? They're pretty there, but I usually use the microwave on stuff right out of the fridge or freezer. If you do too, that distance could be a bother. I don't think there's room for them on the other side though, and splitting up the MWs and the coolers, and putting one of each on each wall breaks up the pretty. When I first looked at the plan, I thought the appliances between the glass fronts were double ovens. If so, those are okay there. Most things that go in ovens start out as pots or trays on counters, and you have the single near the stove for moving between those. If the double are really the microwaves, I might trade the single oven with one of the microwaves. But that depends on how you cook and live. What's more important? An oven by the stove, or a microwave by the fridge? Maybe a little MW near the fridge for defrosting a bagel and melting butter, with a big one on the other side? I stand by the first thing I said, though. No matter what might not be perfect in this plan, I could live with it as is. Everything but the window in the wine room.