I'm with you guys - I don't want anyone near me in my kitchen when I'm cooking or actively baking. (While something is in the oven and I'm not working they can come in). My only pets are tropical fish, but that's just because I'm allergic to cats. I enjoy both cooking and baking, but I always like to have baked goods around so I might prefer baking. However, I kind of like to experiment with my baked goods. That isn't always such a good idea - last time I made bread it overflowed and ended up all over the counter! The final product was good, though. I can vouch for the Marsala Tiramisu recipe attached to that article. I suppose it combines both cooking and baking for me, and it's fun to make. I make it for my husband's birthday every year (the first time was when it showed up in my Mom's Bon Appetit magazine back in the mid 90's - he was my boyfriend then). I always bake something to use in lieu of the store bought champagne biscuits. One year I made homemade lady fingers, which was quite the chore. Now that I have a decent mixer and Silpats, I might try again. I usually end up making a sponge cake and set it up in a springform pan, which makes the tiramisu sliceable like a cake. It is a very yummy recipe, and very good with lots of bittersweet chocolate shavings on top in lieu of the cocoa powder.

Nancy -- our before pictures look like mirror-image twins! Your makeover is gorgeous! Great job. I love the picture frame molding in the last few pics (and DH says he'll help me do it) -- agree that with the gallery photos it's too much, so I'm thinking I'll aim for something like Nancy's artwork. Squirrel - why do you say you're fired? I think they look terrific and like the border/stencil option -- would be a way to tie together the light and dark woods if I end up staining the treads. LOVE your portrait, it's true you have super powers! You asked about the tile -- I am pretty sure it's original to the house (late 60s). Thank you all for your help!!! I will post after pics (but it will take me a long time to get to it!) First step is to fix the wobbly banister, because I don't want someone messing up my paint/staining when they come in to fix it.

natal, can you post a photo or link of your foot-operated trash/recycle cabs, muspic, can I see your cork floor? We're doing cork as well. The telling sign for me was when I went into a "wood flooring" showroom. When I asked where their cork display was (the whole floor was covered in the different wood flooring), I expected them to say they didn't have one (like most stores). Instead, they took me to the area where the employees stood all day. All cork. No wood. Enough said. Alabamamommy, our current house has white Corian counters. They were here when we bought the house and were afraid of them at first, but now we love them. I cook every day and never had any problem getting anything off them, including red white and tumeric. I spilled about 4 t. of tumeric on the counter when I was making keema yesterday. I got most of it right away. After I was done cooking, I saw that I missed a spot. I sprayed the spot with 409, let it sit a few minutes while I cleaned up then came back and it came right off. We've also had success with set stains using Soft Scrub, and even a baking soda paste. For the kitchen in the house we're building, my must haves were: * cork floors (I need the sound proofing for living with a brain injury and active boy!) * walk in pantry (that it is 9'x9'11" is a bonus) * all base drawers * wide aisles * pulls instead of knobs * dropped baking center so I don't have to stand on my tippy toes while kneading bread, and open on two sides so my son can help. * foot pulls for trash * hands free water faucet * island (I ended up with two. WIth my TBI, I can't go out to socialize much, so two islands give me a "little kitchen" where I can focus and not be distracted (aka, burn the house down). The second island allows others to be "in the kitchen" to help prep, socialize, clean up, etc. without being in my space. I can't wait! *desk area for printing recipes, menu planning, etc. * side by side frig. It just works best for the way we live. Funny story, when we bought our current frig, the deciding factor was the one that fix a pizza box. In the last four years, there have been less than 5 pizza boxes in there! We cut out most processed foods. So we love the side-by-side because when I cook dinner, I always make larger portions so we can get 2-4 leftovers out of it. There are packaged in lunch size containers in frozen. Everything is easy to see in the morning, when DH grabs his lunch. * Full size freezer in pantry. We currently have a chest freezer, but we'd like to be able to buy a part of a cow from a local farm, so we're getting a side by side freezer to store our meat and extra bulk goods. DH's must have, beyond what's above: * deep single sink for washing pans (Usually I clean up as I go, but often I run out of steam by the time dinner is done, so he'll do clean up. I figured if I give him the sink he wants, he'll do it even more!) * energy star appliances * water sense sinks * Sharp microwave...

I had my decision made to go with Shiloh Hickory cabinets in beaded inset and Richmond door. The cost for my large amount of cabinets was reasonible. I must now change wood as I spent 2 hours at a granite yard today and could only find almost black granites that look ok with the hickory cabinet door. I have to start over with another wood . I am disappointed. I will probably go with Maple now as I took a few maple doors with me and found a granite that look absolutely beautiful with the Maple The maple stain is gunstock and the granite was Alaskan White. I feel like the granite with probably be out of my price range when they give me the final figures. I do think it pays to shop around. I went to Reisterstown Lumber and found their prices to be competitive on Medallion and Swartz to be competitive on Shiloh. J&S lumber in Landisville is good for Showplace. I do think that lumber yards and independent shops do better with design help and pricing. Don't overspend and take your time shopping around. Give the cabinet places a chance to make things work well for you. I have had poor design help form some and very good from others. Some gave me a bunch of small cabinets which cost more than one large cabinet. Some accessories are no more expensive when purchased with the cabinets. Molding costs as much as taller cabinets. Drawers are sometimes less expensive than pull out trays. Not all designers try to work these things out. i have had to ask for drawers instead of pull outs for pantry cabinets and they priced out 30% less. I want a corner sink cabinet and the cost for one line was more than twice of another, so I had the designer use a diagonal sink from and return fillers and the cost was less. Reading this board has definitely helped with knowing what will help bring costs down and what is worth paying for to have a more functional space.