We have algae growing in the standing water that covers the rotting lawn. Does that count as "greening-up"? About the only thing that ISN'T muddy is the furniture. The dogs and cats only go into the living room and dining room on Christmas. Otherwise that part of the home is closed off to them. We picked up the remains of what the doggies have been doing over the winter but was hidden by snow. Six chewed and destroyed bird feeders, two chewed and destroyed lawn sprinkler thingies, five partial remains ... (a stump attached to some roots that were yanked out of the ground and taken for a walk)... of trees or bushes we planted last fall including at least three Japanese Maples and one azalea. Don't know what the other plants are / were. There was a net I was using as a trellis for a Passion Flower Vines but ... well, gotta get a new trellis. Hope baby Roscoe doesn't get the gardening bug like our Daisy! Pets are relaxing. Pets are relaxing. Pets are relaxing ...!

An occasional poster but mostly lurker here to say I'm glad to see the OP has had some success blocking the ads. This has always been one of my favorite forums, for the warm and friendly tone of the exchanges as well as the subject matter, and I hope things pick up again soon. I've been shamefully absent lately, since in mid-October I "died and went to heaven" ... I started a job at a county park which is a 57-acre horticultural park dedicated to the home gardener. WooHoo! Such a beautiful site, in all weather conditions in all seasons, and, a former private residence, has an interesting history. Also still trying to finish the front yard makeover as well; with about a dozen or so plants to go (there were over 100 perennials and shrubs to be moved, and 6 cubic yards of mushroom compost to distribute and work in), there's not much time for the computer these days. It's warmed up to about 43 now, a few more degrees and I'll be back outside. Just want to let you all know you've been a source of inspiration and encouragement over the years and I hope this forum will continue to be so for others for years to come.

Got the quote for the mini-split system. I'd researched these quite a bit online, so thought I'd be prepared . . . The Electric Co-op wants about $10,000 to put in a system that will only provide AC and auxiliary heat for THREE rooms in the house! And they will knock off $1,000 if we do the hard work of installing the one unit that goes in the ceiling. I was hoping to get a bit of a discount on the materials through the Co-op -but instead it looks like they are trying to recoup the costs on the new facilities they are building. The estimator was a really nice guy, and loved my kitchen. He asked all kinds of quesitons and I had fun showing him all the neat parts (all ideas from GW) he even said it was a good thing his wife didn't come on estimates with him, or she'd be tearing out the kitchen the next day. Maybe with seeing the neat features, he figured we have lots of $$$ to spend. Right now we spend about $500 a winter to heat the house. We do have a wood stove, but don't use it regularly as we aren't home. This mini-split system would not work much below zero, and I live in SD were we get temps that low on a regular basis. It would work well for the AC needs, right now we use a window AC in the kitchen, and one in the bedroom. We only run them maybe 20-30 days a YEAR. I think if we had a quite system we might use it more often, but it's not needed. I did a little figuring, and even if this system saved us half on our heating/AC bills(which it would not come close to) it would take about 20 years to recoup the cost, and we don't plan on being in the house that long. Our house is old, but has all new windows, new inslutaion, exterior house wrap and interior vapor barrior. A lot of people in our area pay more a month for heating than we do all winter. On the good side, this means no crawling in the attic to put in supports and cutting holes in joists. Option two was to get a radiant ceiling cover heater for the kitchen (about $150 and we use the existing wires and thermostate). Then I can still have my window seat (and a lot more storage). We are going to look into getting a single mini-split system for the bedroom (ac only) that should run about $1,200 and it's about as simple an istallation as you can get. All in all, it's not a real bad thing - nothing like getting really mad to get a person motivated! I'm going to dig out the plans I did a while back for the window seat, and get to work.

Rhome, thanks so much for reviewing this. You've raised some points with which I've been hassling. So here are my arguments. Please rebut if you want. Re: pantry door Bifold doors take up too much side-opening space when open, and are a pain to close completely. Same for accordion-type. A curtain would be difficult to keep clean (think dirty hands and dirty/dusty clothing from the workshop), and also would get in the way of a step stool used for reaching the higher shelves. The solid door allows attachment of door shelves/racks (term?, the wire thing that screws into the door and holds foil, plastic wrap, and other skinny things). I need that door rack. But I'll try not using the one in the present pantry and see if I can get by without it. BTW, those wire slide-out thingies that slip onto fixed shelves would take up shelf space that, in my case, would be better used for foodstuffs. Re: snack bar sink I agree for the need for a sink, but don't want to give up counter space and under counter drawer space. For hand-washing, we can use the half-bath or the utility quasi-mud room (off the den. There's another entrance into the house from the deck.) For cleaning, I might use one shelf in a wall cab for a spray bottle and towels and keep a small canister on the counter for trash? Dirty glassware would just be left there until I get around to moving them to the sink. I don't want to extend the wall to the den so that a longer counter would fit. Making the wall longer would obstruct the view and screw up the den-living room symmetry. Extending the outside wall is not an option. I need to think about this. Re: oven I put the oven where I did so that I could watch what's going on in there while I'm cooking. The height is a compromise among bending over, microwave reach, and frig landing space. If the oven were placed at standard counter height, I may as well get a range instead of a wall oven. If the oven were placed at a higher height and along the long wall, the counter would be broken up, I couldn't watch what was burning, wouldn't have the counter space for making and rolling dough (for example), enough landing space for sorting groceries. The mixer is on that long wall and I want to leave it there instead of putting it away when I'm finished with it. BTW, a toaster oven is also on that long counter which I hope to retire if and when I get the single/double oven. The toaster oven has given me some insight into problems associated with having an oven on that counter/wall. As far as traffic pattern is concerned, there may be no good place for the oven? Ordinarily, there's not much traffic in the kitchen except for the dogs. Anyone I'm feeding would just have to wait until the oven door is closed to get by. Re: landing space The base cabinet is ~27" deep, or else 24" deep and pulled away from the wall so that the counter is ~28 1/2" deep. I need the 15" deep wall cab to house items that are, say, 13"-14" deep, and to hold the microwave (small countertop size). The ~12"high landing space is high enough for frig items. The 12"height takes into account the UCL rail/strip. The microwave is elevated to avoid hitting what's on the counter when the microwave door is open. Dunno. Another difficult choice I'm debating for the frig wall is cabinet depth. Use 24" deep cabs and pull them from the wall so that the frig looks built-in, or bite the cost bullet and use ~27" deep cabs and gain storage space. I'm leaning towards the latter. Please continue to make suggestions. If you want, I will provide vertical sketches for usage in the proposed layout.