Geez you guys are depressing me. The only reason I don't bake more is because most of what I want to bake is so fattening! ;) My kids made me choc-choc-caramel-chip cookies for my birthday. DH ate most of them, but better that all of them do the eating than me (the kids are massively energetic; I am not)! ;) I was amused that the kids haven't the experience/finesse to realize it is actually possible to put too much chocolate into a cookie. But I was proud of myself for staying so hands off. Turns out we "modern" parents really do have a problem with letting kids just have at it and even sink sometimes. It's hard when life is *so* busy that any given experience is so rare that its failure won't be the basis of repeated practice that will result in success, it'll just be ... failure. It is a wonder that humans remain human at all given the preponderance of the non-food they eat nowadays. But I'm with several above who love the concept of the hoosier and its at-ready flour bins, but are grossed out at the prospect of using them today. I agree the volume of most's cooking/baking just wouldn't make the tradeoff in bug habitation. I can go through a #25 sack of flour in a month if I'm on a roll (so to speak). But I bet the more typical throughput back in the day was a matter of days (though those bins only hold #5 or so). Things change; life changes. That "deskilling" disquisition is interesting, but these pressures on women and society in general are a constant force probably since the dawn of fire. I am as happy as the next to lay all blame at the doorstep of BigBizness, but the forces that have booted women from out of the kitchen are myriad and long-term. Not to mention that got them into it in the first place. In the meantime I have a cousin who owns -- and uses -- one of those hoosiers. I try to stay positive and not wonder too much about the makeup of protein she serves us. ;)

Hi Lady_West, I frequent other forums normally, but I noticed your post when signing onto gardenweb today. I wanted to tell you that I love your bungalow and, fwiw, add some suggestions/thoughts on choosing dining tables and chairs :-) Of the choices, I like the table in #4 best. It looks like Tell City furniture to me. My Mom has Tell City in a little different style and she always says the wood is called "hard rock" maple. It has mellowed to rich brown tones and I guess it just looks like home to me :-) Also, about the table in choice #4, the long sides look like they are drop leaf. The bench could go along the side with 2 chairs on the other side and one at each end. That is probably the length it will be, I doubt it has leafs. You will want to measure your dining space to be confident of the max size of extended table that will fit in your dining room. Consider getting around with the chairs in place as well as if there is room for a hutch buffet, if that is included. With a "real" wood dining table, the top is not Formica and will stain and ring (over time) from drink glasses and spills that are not immediately wiped up. Heated dishes can mar the finish as well. That is why most ladies of the "dining room" era would have used table pads under the table cloth, to protect the table surface. For daily use, a Formica top table, while not as pretty, is more scratch resistant, durable and practical for young active families. When viewing the chairs in person, test them for joint strength. Put one hand on the back and the other on the seat, using downward pressure wiggle the chair. You can tell very quickly if they are sturdy or worn out. Also, sit in them and if the back "gives" or makes a pop or crack noise, beware. Long tables, like the one in choice #5, tend to sag in the middle without support. Vintage 5 leg kitchen tables had the support for extra length. A 5 leg kitchen table is another style you might consider in your new home. Also, if the leaves of the table are stored in a closet or under a bed, they can become a different color hue from the unprotected everyday used table. Be sure to examine it all together in daylight, so you can see more clearly what you are getting. You might consider waiting to buy wood dining furniture set until you uncover and refinish your wood floors. If the wood furniture matches the floor too closely, they blend in and their beauty is lost. Congrats on beginning a new chapter in your life. Take your time, purchase what you love and it will feel comfortable and look like your home. Have fun, Deb

That's a tough one! Once we got started and picked our cabs, we wanted to find a granite that was beautiful in its own right, and complemented, but didn't detract from the wood grain on our cabs. Same thing when we looked for backsplash tiles--we didn't want ones that would steal the show from our granite or cabs. However, the initial things we built the kitchen around were gaining storage space, and gaining a bigger stove and a bigger fridge than we had in our old kitchen, while staying within the same sq. footage we had started out with (in the old kitchen). Doing that saved us a ton of money that would have gone towards building an addition. Also, the one thing I made sure we'd have, right from the early planning stages, was a feeding zone for our cats. Too many water dish spills made that an A-#1 priority in this house!

I imagine you are paying for the cabinets yes? If so then you have every right to a an explnation that you can understand and makes sense to you regardless of your level of expertise. Based on what I have seen a huge % of problems experienced in relation to renos are the result of inadequate communication between the homeowner and the contractor (communication: that's receiving and sending). Your guy sounds good, he is taking you to see his work and showing you whay he means. Don't back off because if you don't understand what you are getting and don't like it you will be unhappy and that isn't good for him. Most of the major hardware lines make side mount drawer hardware - it isn't as pretty but who really cares? My guess is that id does require that the drawer boxes be narrower so you are losing some space - probably not enough to worry about. Description of joints: Mitered Joint Mitred doors and drawers have a frame that is joined by a mitre joint at the corners. A mitre joint is a 45° cut on both the stile and the rail. This joint runs diagonally from the inside corner of the frame to the outside corner. Mitre cut doors are used on doors that have a fancy detail on the stile and rail that would be difficult to form with a Cope & Pattern joint (see below). Miter joints are also used on inexpensive doors because this type of joint is easy to make. Tenon & Mortise Joint A traditional tenon and mortise joint (similar to tongue and groove) is the most common, and provides strength to the joint. Each end of the rail has a tenon (extension), which fits into a pocket (mortise) cut into the side of the stile. Cope & Pattern Joint This type of joint is often seen on furniture grade cabinetry. Cutting tools are used to cut the rails (horizontal) and stiles (vertical) which result in two pieces, each a mirror image of the other. In addition, a slot is cut into the rail and stile for the center door panel. The shape of the cut allows for a greater glue area, resulting in a stronger joint. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here is a link that might be useful: good cabinetry overview