NEVER freeze the sausage casings! This will have the effect of breaking them down when rehydrated and then they fall apart. Mine sit in a container with about half a cup of Kosher salt mixed in, and around them. They don't need a FS storeage. Its stored in the fridge at all times, when you're not using some. I pull out the tangled wad of casings from the container and seperate out what I need, the rest get put back in the container. Yes, a little bit of water can be added, but not to soak the casings, but to allow the salt to stick to everything, kind of like a slush. If I have too much casing that is soaking prior to stuffing, I just pass it through my fingers to remove the excess water and put the rest back into the container with a little added kosher salt. Some of my cases were as old as 6+ years before being used up, and I saw no difference in these compared to some I just bought. The FS isn't needed for the casings as the small amount of water and all that salt will help to preserve them. You can use the FS for both fresh or smoked sausages of all kinds. I made some pepperoni last year using the long dry process curing. It requires the other type of nitrate, and the sausages were just stuffed and dried in air for about a month. I prefer to buy whole spices and grind them when needed. That means whole peppercorns, coriander, mustard seed, etc. The reason I use dried onions and garlic along with fresh is because the dried don't add any water to the meats. I also use dried green and red pepper flakes as they are quite cheap and work just as good as fresh, again without added water. When storing the whole spices, pour them in pint or quart Ball jars and use a lid, along with the adaptor that comes with teh FS. This adaptor can allow you to pull a vacuum on the jar and seal it under vacuum all in one step. Avoid light when storing herbs and spices. Even for that, if its an herb (leaf based), most will lose flavor very fast, so buy fresh dried herbs when making the sausages. One kind I plan to make is a beef, with dried tomato powder and lots of basil. I might add garlic too. Some spices and herbs can keep a little longer well if stored in FS bags and frozen or refrigerated. Here, I don't bother, as I make so much, I usually run out of the spices before I run out of sausage that I make.

try hard, i think you should not forgo your breakfast bar or your ability to use it comfortably. if i understand the way you describe it, the 12 inch overhang will only protrude into the doorway, not the actual room, and then only by 3 inches. it really sounds fine to me. unused, sitting there with stools tucked, i think it will be seen as the kitchen. whether you use the 9 or the 12, your actual bodies or backs of stools will probably graze the family room but so what? counters and bars are often transitional spaces to the next room anyway, and i think that either way it will be fine and you will enjoy it so go for the 12! by the way, former owners of my house made the counter bar extend 11 inches which we find comfortable for knees. however, they removed the wall between kitchen and dining room and the entire counter protrudes the 11 inches into our small dining room which completely throws off the center of the room and makes the stools way too close to the dining table. i can't gut the whole space, so i live with it and really love using the counter bar. your situation is far far better and i bet it will look fantastic. good luck and let us know what you decided.

It's the glued crossply over large areas, hardwood or soft, that's the problem, and the best glue in the world won't compensate for it. It might be possible in flooring (where my expertise falls away) but then flooring is attatched to big, honking joists to keep everything flat. With furniture the members are more delicate, so it's more important that the structure be balanced, without a lot of internal stresses. For supporting the counter and whatever's put on it, I do think the '3/4" X ?' supports would be adequate, even at spacing wider than 8" OC. With that underlying frame constructued, I'd be inclined to just nail on the flooring as you would ordinarily, except I'd predrill the nail holes to avoid splitting. Gluing those 3/4" members into dados will make the joint stronger, but also builds in the same sorts of stresses; still a bad idea. The principles of good structural design with wood all revolve around the fact that wood shrinks and expands considerably across its width, but hardly at all along it's length. Therefore you can build a rectangular frame and expect it to stay pretty much the same size, but a single wide board or several boards edge-glued into a unit will change size considerably as the humidity fluxuates. It's futile to try to prevent this movement; the idea is to design a structure that allows the parts to move without causing damage. For a breakfast bar I would want to avoid having cracks open between the flooring boards during dry seasons, so I'd be inclined to glue the flooring boards together. However, since the frame (or plywood, though I like the frame idea better) beneath will be dimensionally stable, I would look for a way to allow some give and take between the surface piece and the supporting piece. In other words, no glue between those two parts. The nails are probably a soft enough connection that they'd allow sufficient movement. There are also special-purpose metal table top fasteners with slots through which the attatching screws are driven. The slots allow the moving surface to be attatched, yet shrink without pulling itself apart and expand without pushing the frame apart. There are other ways to tackle it, but the point is that you want to have the stable supporting frame hold firmly, but not rigidly, onto that moving surface -- no death grips.

OK...here's the thing. For counter-height seating, you need a 15" overhang. Even if you scrimp on overhang people will still take up the same amount of space so trying to shave off a few inches of the overhang doesn't really help. With the smaller overhang, people just don't sit as close to the counter edge OR they sit sideways (not comfortable for any length of time). Then you need approx 5' from the edge of that 15" overhang to the table. Even then it'd be a tight squeeze to get by if people are seated in both places. [BTW...your children may be small now, but they will grow rapidly! So, if you're thinking a smaller than recommended overhang will work b/c they're small...don't. Always plan for teens/adults when planning something as permanent as a peninsula.] Has the design already been finalized? Or can changes still be made? If so, to the exterior as well? I'm asking b/c if you could move the front door down so the "Covered Porch" is flush w/the garage you could gain 4 feet. I would then move everything on that side of the house from the stairs to the front door, down that same amount. That would give you another 4' for the Kitchen + Table area. You would then have just enough space for an overhang. This would have the added advantage of adding more space to the MBR and/or Laundry & WIC. One of things I regret not doing when we built 14 years ago is making our porch flush w/the garage. We could have either had a deeper porch (8' now) or added 4' to the depth of the house...more useful. Another idea is to switch the FR & DR. You might be able to expand the kitchen into the table area and use the DR for all meals since it will be a lot closer to the kitchen. You could then have an island for casual/social seating. The DR would also be a little longer so you could fit a table in there more easily than the current location (that's a pretty small DR). Sample dimensions could be DR: 16'2" x 12'8" & FR: 16'2" x 17' (In the FR, put the FP & windows on the right wall...) ++++++++++++++++ Oh, and I agree with PeytonRoad, the MBA door swing should be against the shower, not the sinks. To avoid it altogether, consider making the door a pocket door, sliding from the sink side of the MBA. This will mean no recessed medicine cabinet in that wall, but I think it's a good compromise. We have a similar MBA...but our tub & shower are switched. The door swings against the tub. We're now thinking about remodeling our MBA and one of the first changes we plan is to get rid of the recessed medicine cabinet and install a pocket door. I think it will make a big difference in the "feel" of our narrow bathroom. What we don't have is the nice corner for a tub...there's a bedroom on the other side of our bathroom wall. Have you thought about putting in another window by the tub...a window on the right wall so you get a "corner window" effect?