Postum, I'll bet it won't take much persuading. Its an opportunity for free advertising, press releases and a target audience for them. I learned of this in the newspaper, not the library. Josh, wonderful suggestion about the historical society. We have a very active one here and I'm sure they can point me in the right direction, at least to an honest dealer. I'm not looking for profit but, as I said, someone who will appreciate it. Liz, Plow and Minnie the only pieces not packed away are ones we enjoy using, mostly in the china cabinet for holidays, so it's not really intrusive. I have no intentions of passing anything down to my daughters. One has no room or interest and the other cherishes anything "family" so much her house already overflows with things I absolutely refused to take (still packed up). I'm going to get rid of this excess without even mentioning it. Except for the player piano in the basement. She wants that too, and think she'd notice it was gone. But I also have the general clutter we all have to deal with which is why I'm looking forward to this program. Its not till mid Feb. but I'll let you know what I learn. Frankly, I think this forum might be more helpful but I can hope. Sandy

If you are using a custom cabinet designer, then (I think) you may want to use a drawing program that is not limited to stock sizes/designs. I don't know how the IKEA application works. I use Google Sketchup, which is very flexible but has a learning curve.

When I was working on the design for my kitchen, I drew it up on good-old-fashioned graph paper and then took a picture of it with my digital camera. We didn't have a scanner at the time so this was the fastest way for me to do it. What I do now when I work on other people's layouts is to work in Microsoft's PowerPoint. I downloaded free graph paper off the web, copied it to a PPT presentation, and then created appliances, cabinets, fixtures, etc. to a scale of one box = 6"x6". Then, when I work on a layout, I make a copy of this "master", work up a layout on a slide, save the slide as a "JPEG" (.jpg) file, upload it to Photobucket, and post it here. So, there are several ways you can do it! Good luck! BTW...think "work zones" instead of "work triangles". Here is a link that might be useful: Thread discussing Work Zones & Triangles

hahaha mushcreek. I can relate as I used to do paper sculpture. I suppose I could do a scaled model of my house. Hmm, maybe I should? Nah! Lindsy, I did use my computer program (photoshop) to sketch up what I wanted at first. I didn't work with an architect which is probably why it took me so long. I worked with a draftsman. Big Mistake! If I had it to do over, I would have brought my ideas to an architect. This is the very first sketch I brought the draftsman. Notice I didn't really concern myself with actual sizes etc but only with an overall general feel of which rooms I wanted where. For example, I knew the garage had to be where it was and I was required to have the front door on the other street (it's a corner lot). I also knew I wanted a "courtyard feel to my back yard and I wanted my kitchen near my garage. I also knew I wanted the master, DH's study (labeled den) and the great room to open to the yard. The problem was as some here alluded to, was that he then got stuck on the idea of the stairway where I had it, etc. He couldn't visualize anything on his own. I have a design background, so wound up designing it completely by myself WITH the help of the folks and especially with the help of the architects on this forum. And this is what we wound up with: