my house has a 2 car garage with each having an individual door. the garage is maybe 24' wide with 2 ~8' doors. i park my Ram 1500 4x4 on one side, my wife parks her impala on the other. no problems anywhere, other than it can get tight trying to get out of my truck on the passenger side. we can open our doors fully and neither vehicle hit the other. if you have to turn into your garage you need a wide door. if you drive straight in/out like we do, a narrower door is fine. our doors to our service bay at work are 12' wide by 14' tall. we pull big rigs in with out a problem. my stepdad though cannot back his Avalanche in without getting all cockeyed. soem people jsut cannot drive! i mean him by that, not any poster here.

Hope you have resolved your issues with your countertop. Just a note about my experience with my white macaubus quartzite. I had it sealed on installation with StoneTech Bulletproof sealer. The first weekend, my husband sat a buttery spatula on the countertop. I estimate it sat on the countertop an hour and it left a large grease stain. I was quite surprised (LOL flipped out) that my $10K countertops were marred in the first few days. The stone company came out and applied a poultice made by StoneTech and it took about 4 days to pull the grease out of the stone. We then had it re-sealed. My husband is enthusiastic about cooking, but has made numerous oil stains in the past few months, so I purchased the product line and have used the poultice several times with good results. I maintain it with their cleaning product which also applies a small amount of sealer regularly. My research shows that most of the sealers won't protect against oil. The stone does darken with water left on the surface, but that dries out.

Nicole, Our babies will be really close in ages, how cool. I would share my baby clothes if I could but we are a bit too far away:) I have kept both the girls clothes, we went through them yesterday and I have 3 20 gallon totes full of 24 month clothes. I also kept all my maternity clothes so I am ready to go. I didn't plan on this one, but my I have 5 siblings that will be having babies to pass the clothes along. I passed on Haydens clothes to my sis in law, and she never used one of the outfits, so I am going to keep all the rest of the sizes claiming I might need them for the next baby. Stacie

You guys make me laugh! I've missed a lot while I've been gone today. :o) OK, here's the latest, and I hope - greatest. - Freezer in pantry. Still plenty 'o room in there. I'm really liking the idea of having it there now that I have an alternative for ice. It makes sense. Oh, and remember that our spare, very large, only 5-year-old current fridge will go in store room in the basement near the spare w/d set. We won't leave it plugged in all the time, but around the holidays, it will be nice to have. - Pocket door to close off laundry area, straight shot into room with freezer relocated - Longer cooktop wall (my piece de resistance!) - ice maker and small bar sink at end of snack center - second dishwasher, if I can convince hubby. We run ours after lunch and dinner and have gotten quite accustomed to that. I almost never empty it because that's a chore that rotates through the kids. There's 42-56 inches around the island, with the 42 being the distance from the sink wall to the island. I can monkey around with moving it a tad toward the cooktop. I think it would be nice to have it a tiny bit closer, and I actually think that if there's less space there, the kids will be less apt to traipse through there all the time. Really, that circle through the laundry room and in front of the fridge is where I anticipate all the traffic will be. Water and snacks! So Rhome - since you homeschool, you may appreciate that my inner island cabinet might become home to special school-time only stuff for my littles. We've used the office for this purpose up until now, but I think they'll enjoy sitting there and playing, doing "art" projects at the island, having snacks, etc. What curriculum (if any) do you use, if you don't mind my asking? OK, any ideas for getting one more stool at the bar? I'm going with small, backless ones that can slide underneath the 12" when not in use, and I'd *really* like to be able to get a 4th on in there. Is a 12" overhang enough? And what the heck can I top that island with that isn't going to set me back thousands? My honed carrara quotes have been in the $4000 range. Can't be done, says my budget. :o( Butcher block? Stainless? Just stick with soapstone? Thanksgiving is going to be my breeziest one ever! I've got turkey duty, mashed potatoes/gravy, 2 pies, snacks, sweet potatoes (brown sugar pecan casserole and an Ethiopian version), and stuffing. Guests are bringing oodles of pies, rolls, and other side dishes, and my kids all love to help cook. This is the last time I get to cook a big meal for a while, so I'm looking forward to it! Christmas dinner will be whatever I can whip up with the microwave, crock pot and hot plate. ;o) OK, I'll leave this for y'all to go over with a fine-toothed comb. ;o) From Last Import