Tom If you're planning on leaving some cactus out all spring-summer-fall, here is my advice: use a potting mix that is particularly porous. Anything mixed with 60-80% perlite would be OK. This will work well during cool and wet conditions, since the mix will never be saturated. The downside to this mix is that when the hot weather kicks in during July + August, you may find yourself needing to water some plants daily. Even better, submerge those pots into the soil a few inches and let some roots escape - then you will really see good growth. In the fall just root-prune. This technique works nicely for medium to large plants. Small cactus in little pots seem lost when outdoors. I prefer to keep those guys sheltered under cover a greenhouse. The trickier period is early spring when the plants are not in growing mode yet. The potential for rotting is there. In the fall, even during cool weather, what happens is that the pots are full of healthy roots that readily absorb moisture and plants do not rot. As far as the "cut-off temp" - I think at least 65-70F in the day is enough to trigger growth in most succulents, summer or winter growers. As nights hit the 60's regularly, the summer growers take off. I like to get my plants outdoors much sooner, and expose them to fresh cool air and sun first. I find that taking them out when its warmer results in more sunburn. x

I laid 2" hex tile as my first tiling job - very easy. Comes in sheets, small tiles are easy to cut; there's less wastage and the layout isn't as finicky as it is with big tiles. Stacyneil has a post on this forum linked below, a very beautiful, traditional inspiration of a bath remodel, all DIY, and they did radiant floor heating, she explains how it's done. If you have any outside walls, now would be a good time to insulate them, ditto a cold ceiling or floor. You can put tile niches with shelves on either side of the shower plumbing. Your tub doesn't look as though it has a lip? flange? that goes up under the tile which might make water-proofing the walls for a shower tricky. That ex-window - you could build some decent storage there - can you take it all the way to the floor? A pedestal or console sink would look great with the limited floor space - a console giving more deck space and rails to hang towels on. And then you'd have exposed floor to be radiant. Is that off-white plastic grill next to the former window an exhaust fan? Here is a link that might be useful: Stacy's bath that I am in love with

Thanks guys, I actually really like the warmer tones as much (or more) as I liked the blues/grays. I think I started down a road and ran with it without thinking about the bigger picture. As far as pulls, I was thinking maybe just cup pulls, although I do like the ones that badgergirl posted too. We are straddling that budget so we'll have to see what is available with no charge. The bars were an upcharge so it was nice to make a choice that was less expensive for a change. I am hoping that the quarter sawn oak isn't too much of an upcharge, I went to look at just factory finish cabinets at Lowes today and do like the look of the grain. It is warm, but quiet enough. Sent my request to the cabinet guy so fingers crossed that all will come in on budget. Another question is do I paint the island a lighter color to decrease the darkness in the middle of the room or just keep consistent throughout. I am leaning toward the latter actually. Badgergal, I stole the lights from you! I loved it so much in your pics. And I saw the price, so it will be a splurge for me as well. They will be likely be a 2013 item, with a cheapo $20/per pendent fill in until my savings account replenishes. But I can live with that knowing what is in the future. As far as lighting, we have been pricing/thinking of this. Due to the dark color of the cabinets, this was a big concern of mine, lighting is everything! We currently have some recessed (6 of them) and an overhead over the sink. We are pricing the pendants over the island and lights in the glass front upper cabinets (total of 6). We cut the under cabinet lights in the interest of budget and in talking to people who said that they rarely use them. Maybe I should reconsider? How hard is that to add in after the fact if we decide that we need them later? We do have a window over the sink and then the bump out of the eat in area is virtually surrounded on three sides pretty much floor to ceiling with windows/doors, so it does get some natural light. Anyway, updated pic and I think it looks pretty good (although I am now thinking that the curve/bow pulls may be a better option seeing it in place - maybe less surface so less shine). Walls will need to be decided on, but that is an easy fix. Cookies will be forthcoming when I have a new oven that doesn't take the temp setting as a mere suggestion!

I'm sure it must depend on the stage of life one is currently in. I live in a 1200 square foot farmhouse with my husband and four small children. We have very large parties with three or four other families with small children several times a month. We host all the major holidays and have a growing extended family. I literally cannot fit all the people in my house. There is nowhere to sit. There are bottlenecks in the kitchen, bathroom, and entrance areas. Usually, the children and toddlers outnumber the adults 3 or 4 - 1, and they are so loud and so boisterous that the adults can have no peace unless the kids are all outside. Since we are in California, most of the time our parties spill out into the yard and that works great because the weather is usually beautiful. But Dec-Jan and July-Aug are tough. We are building a house on a 5 acre lot right in the middle of town, and it will have a large kitchen and several large rooms for entertaining. Sometimes I worry that it will be hard to take care of, because I am used to cleaning and caring for a 2bd 1bath tiny little house. But my kitchen right now is 10x10, and I have 48" of available countertop on one side, and 5' of countertop on the other. My husband cooks as much as I do, and he loves to get all the kids in there cooking and helping him. I have a hard time being in the kitchen when everyone else is in there too. It's just too crowded and loud and I like to have everything orderly and clean before I begin cooking. I am planning a large kitchen- 15x24 or so with a small eating area included- so my husband can have one side and I can cook on the other and we don't run into each other and I don't have to clean up his mess before I start cooking. I agree that large kitchens cause the cook to walk farther and, because of the space between stations, some efficiency is sacrificed. It is true that my tiny galley kitchen is very efficient, if by efficiency you mean not having to move much to reach everything. But in my current kitchen I trip over kids and my husband and the dog and the dishes and on and on every time I turn around. I'm thinking maybe inefficiency in the form of large aisles and lots of space would be heavenly. I plan to glass in one of the porches off the kitchen and make that into a pantry/summer kitchen where my husband can make his ginger beer and fermented stuff and I can do canning and vegetable washing and large crop/batch cooking and seed starting. My in-laws are in the downsizing phase and they warn me that the extra room I am planning in my new house will be an expensive, uneccesary burden. But again, how much of the "downsizing" craze is fueled by retired people with no children left in the home? My new house will be 1700 square feet of entertaining space on the main floor, with another 1000 square feet or so of covered porches. We will put all the bedrooms in the upstairs half-story. If we need additional kid space, I will have a daylight basement that can also be finished eventually. I did design a main floor study/bath combo that can be turned into a master suite should we ever need one on the main floor. Maybe I will get in my new house and realize that it is too big. But if so I can just not finish the basement or parts of the second floor. But it would be nice to have that problem as opposed to the space limitations that I have now.