1) do my posts appeal to your (or conversely--repel you) I found your top posts, about the new line and English puns and sinks more interesting than the more reporterly one about the people in Wisconsin (or whatever--I wasn't into it). I also liked Dave's H hinges and Orien's kid's day at work. The personal style works better in a blog than reportage. 2) do you feel my content contribution is relevant to the company I am blogging for? I think by broadening the message to TKO concerns in general, and especially some of these arcane details about sinks, is right on target. I don't know anyone who is going to follow a blog that's exclusively about knobs without context. I do think that the Fun With Anglophilia was perhaps a little overdone, but this is a blog post, not an article, with all the lack of editing that implies. If someone doesn't care for the quantity of joking around, he can just skip down to the next paragraph. 3) do you feel you could develop a relationship with the blog/be a potential reader? I don't follow blogs in general. I sort of just hit them when I'm in the mood. I do think that from what I've seen from all of you that this looks like a fun blog to check into. In a content related blog, I really don't want to know about the writer's ingrown toenails and vacation to Tahiti. This blog seems to be light and fun, with mostly content, which is right on target. 4) what kind of material do you wish was covered or that you expected to see? I liked that one of the posts was sneakily about manufacturing the product, and also that your post talked about what's new at the company. I did expect to see more about the hardware, but I like that it isn't forced. I expect to see, in the future, more from you specifically about the new line. 5))whatever else you want to tell me Other than tightening up a little on the side chatter, which I already mentioned, I think you're doing great. I like your personal blog too. You have the touch. Many of my art colleagues blog, and their posts are pretty deadly. Being a bloggist, the new version of diarist, is a particular skill. Anyone can do it, not many can do it well. You're one of the few. Keep it up. :)

Rococogirl--I do plan to figure out the hood height and oven top alignment to see if it makes sense to do something with that line. I'm not sure I understand what a utensil rail is. Lavender--Thanks for that photo. I never took a good look at the fabrics there before. Jilly--that space has bugged me for a long time. It's a 3/4" thick end cabinet panel so my options are somewhat limited. There will only be crown molding at the top. That's it. It needs something there. I'm planning to hang 2 pendants over the 50" long, 44" wide peninsula in front of the wall. That'll cover part of the blankness. I need the counterspace too much on the peninsula for buffet service to wrap the cabinets from the dining room around on that wall. Some shelves might work there, depending on the pendants I choose. I don't want the area to be too busy. Here's the view of the peninsula and DR cabs from the DR. The artwork on the DR wall is just simulated for rendering purposes. I don't have anything planned to go on that wall yet. The counterspace under that wall is about 13.5" deep so I can't put anything with too much depth on the wall or it'll hit people in the head. The counterspace on the left with the uppers above is about 26" deep and will be used as the beverage area during parties. Does that help answer your question? Have any ideas for that space?

I've seen that house -- and its similar first cousins. It looks like a simple, economical house. It's not a luxurious place, but it should function well. My thoughts: I agree that I'd lose one bath. In an 1800 sf house, two bathrooms are enough. I'd scootch things around a bit in the girls' bedroom wing like this: Two equal bedrooms ... a simple hall bath convenient to the bedrooms, but also accessible to guests ... and a long shared closet (be sure it's wide enough to support hanging clothes on one side, shelves on the other side -- the girls'd love their secret tunnel connection, and it'd be convenient for you to save hand-me-downs for the youngest in a shared closet). Be sure to insulate the wall between the great room and the front bedroom; otherwise, that child will be able to hear the TV after bedtime. I have had a greatroom with this very same layout. We always kept our sofa parallel to the fireplace, so it sort of formed an entry and worked well. If space by the front door allows, I'd do a full wall of bookshelves on the wall to the left of the front door -- it'd look great and would provide so much storage. With five acres, I would not worry about privacy or breastfeeding in the living room. The UPS man and Girl Scout troops don't come by houses on acreage all that often. Definitely go with a door that includes some glass -- it'll get you some light in what could become a dark corner. Your eating area is not spacious, and it's bisected by the only door to the back yard. I'd definitely go with a built-in banquette to save space. I'd investigate the possibility of a sliding glass door, which wouldn't require an inswing. I don't particularly like that you must walk through the screened porch, then turn to reach the back yard. I'd lean towards making the whole thing one big covered porch ... and forget the screen. This, of course, is highly dependent upon your landscape. Your laundry room is pretty generous. I think I'd move the garage door so that you'd funnel family traffic through that room. Bring the coat closet into this room so that it becomes a laundry /mudroom ... and that'll keep your "coming home mess" in that space instead of in the hallway. Bonus: This would eliminate the problem of the basement door and the garage door hitting one another. Bonus #2: With the garage door out of the hallway, you could move the basement door/stairs farther right, meaning your steps could be less steep -- not that I know they're too steep now, but it's a common issue. The garage is okay, but it'd be nicer with just a few more feet of width -- 20x24 would be great without making the garage look "too forward" -- and it wouldn't affect the overall roof. I don't have much love for the master suite. The bedroom is interrupted by three doors, all far apart, which will limit furniture placement. The closets are too narrow to allow clothing on both sides, and the overly-complicated bathroom doesn't look like it'll function well at all. I'd say simplify the master bath. Something like this: Completely different thought: If you could flip the bathroom and bedroom, you'd have windows on two sides of your bedroom.

I'm reading it, kats! I'm embarking on a two-pronged window project at my 108-year-old house. One part is restoring and repairing the remaining original windows. Most of them are in perfectly good condition, but entombed in paint and caulk and missing their cords. Nothing we can't fix. A couple are rotten beyond repair, but our local wood window guy can replicate them. The other (and very expensive) part is is replacing the horrible vinyl replacement windows with proper wood windows (by the same guy - his workshop's whole business is building old style wood windows for historic/old buildings). Oh, and then the side project is commissioning a stained glass guy to make us new transom panes and landing window, as all the stained glass was stripped from this house long ago. That'll be once I've saved for a decade or won the lottery. I hope to have window and interior trim restoration done before we start a family, but I bought myself a very nice respirator. I'll say this about old windows - there are few things more satisfying than opening a giant and heavy yet perfectly balanced hung window sash with a single finger. It is the most epic manifestation of man's mastery of the concept leverage and the invention of the pulley. You can't do that with vinyl replacements. maifleur01 , it's important to know that the buyers of old houses (specifically those who buy old houses BECAUSE they are old houses) have different standards and "checklists" from typical buyers. Things that are attractive (or non-issues) in a typical contemporary house become massive detractors in an old house. Modern replacement windows are a big one, also updated layouts (especially newfangled open ones), new (replacement) finishes, carpet, "updated" forced air heating systems (forced air is LESS EFFICIENT than hot water radiators, did you know?), addition of anachronistic details like can lights and other silliness, etc. I see updated modern kitchens and bathrooms in old houses as a neutral, because while it's nice to have a decent kitchen and bathroom in the meantime, I'm going to tear them out anyway and redo them to match the house better (out of all the Victorians and Craftsmans we looked at, I did not see a single kitchen, newly done or falling apart, that I liked or felt was appropriate for the house. If you're a seller, you might as well spare yourself the cash and headache. There are a bunch of dumb shoddy things the previous owner of my house did to put it on the market, like paint the rooms dumb trendy colors, that we are systematically undoing. Luckily she didn't do anything beyond superficial "improvements". At the end of the day, less is better. Us old house buyers tend to be fixer upper types, so I'd rather fix an old house in an unadulterated state than fix an old house that's been remuddled and mucked up, because after I rip out all the dumb changes put in to make the house "more appealing" on the market, then I still have to fix an old house anyway.