LOVED this thread, if it wasn'tfor the fact my parents are dead, I wold have thought it was them writing it, my mum used to put all types of "waste" into stock and I do the same, I hate reading receipy that call on you to use the "good stuff", then discard it such as a lot of stock/soup receipy have! I am in family of 4 and we rarely buy the cooked chilcken in store, but we do buy raw, Sunday roasted, I remove the legs as none of us like them, giblets on to boil with carrot and onion peel (sometimes I save the livers by freezing until I have enough for pate) after it is cooked me take the fleshy part and give to our cats. I use the gilbet juice and chicken juice to make gravy. whilst the chicken is cooking I put on my slow cooker and toss in the chicken legs, with storks of brocoli, carrot & onion peel outer leaves from cauli or cabbage. after the meal chicken striped and bones added to slow cooker. Sunday tea is chicken sandwiches, toms and chips. monday is Monday pie! this is not really a pie it just the chicken in white sauce and left over veg. also sandwiches for hubby tuesday is another roast this time just sliced meat reheated in gravey in the oven (stove) VEG GALORE! MORE SANDWICHES FOR HUBBY! Wednesday, maybe enough for sandwiches, but the soup phase arrives! from the freezer! IT IS SO EASY! I am not as you can tell vegaterian, and never will be, but I can not tell you how much it annoys me to waste meat! so I am frugal with it and I let my children know! I cried the day they opened the fridge just as we where going out last summer as meat was ruined, it wasn't the cost, it was the fact, that I try to get them to understand, an animal died so you can eat don't waste it, don't increas the numbers! I worked on farms and have seen slaughter, I have killed a chicken and a rabbit, not put me off eating them but made me look very hard at my useage of them. My boys are 4 ane my hubby get upset when they ask whats this and I say "its a pig/chicken/cow/lamb" ect but honesty is the best policy I think and if they want to be vegaterian I will support them whole heartedly, but I personal like meat, but will never waste it if I can help it.

at the risk of being pretty unpopular, i'd like to post this response. for those concerned about using actual dishware vs. paper...actual resources go into heating the water in the dishwasher (coal, electricity, etc), rinsing your dishes, and not to mention the expense of keeping fats, oils, and grease (FOG) out of your sewage treatment plant (STP). just like your food does not come from the 'grocery store', nor does your water. we're all probably drinking water that's been 'recycled', that is...it's already been in and come out of someone else. (gross way to put it). most likely your STP is in need of an upgrade and would appreciate not having as much water to treat, especially before a big rain. you know, there is (and always will be) a finite amount of usable drinking water on this planet. on the other hand, use of paper products supports the paper industry, puts bleach and other chemicals into water (but then so does our dishwater), cuts down trees, fills up the landfills (into future compostable product i might add). so there are two sides to every story. choose whichever is right for you and your situation, try to minimize your impact when you can, and have fun while you're doing it. same argument with new moms using disposible diapers vs. washable. no disrespect intended, just that there are different sides to every dilemma.

OK - not to hijack this thread - but I just have to say that my experience so far with Lowe's and Kraftmaid has been GREAT. Affer I placed my order at Lowe's I read a thread on here that had me scared to death I had made a terrible decision. I actually haven't read much positive feedback on Kraftmaid here so I wanted to put in my two cents. I had gone through several KD's, then basically took the design I liked best to Lowe's and had them order the cabinets according to the design I brought. It was a very large order as we will have a pretty big kitchen when this is all done. (combining 2 rooms) Anyway, we are smack in the middle of our remodel now. Our Lowe's kitchen cabinet guy warned me that it was more likely than not that some cabinets would arrive damaged, but that he could get a replacement within 2 weeks, so not to panic. I level set my expectations to expect this. All of the base cabinets have been installed, and they all look great! We had a few small problems - a few drawer fronts had the wrong style front on them, and some trim that wasn't finished right. But no scratches, dents, or anything like that. I am guessing that all Lowe's are not like this - but the cabninet guy has come to my house several times to "check on the installation" (even though our installer is not affilated with Lowe's at all) - and when he saw the small problems he immediately went back and ordered replacements, no questions asked, I don't even have to send back the wrong fronts, or take picures, or anything. And he has the Kraftmaid rep coming to my house next week to look at the problems with the trim to see if he can finish it on site - but the Lowe's guy went ahead and ordered replacements to be on the safe side. So, so far so good for Kraftmaid. I haven't seen the uppers yet, they are stacked in my garage in a way that I can't really get to them until they take them out to install them. But I'm less worried about those, at least by that point I will have the granite in and can get my kitchen in "working" order.

I know I'm in the minority here, but I wouldn't invest so much into a piece of furniture designed to house a TV. The more I see TVs mounted on the wall the more I am getting accustomed to them, and as the technology progresses they will become slimmer and slimmer, which will make cabinets to house them less desirable, and less necessary. TVs are part of our lives, and a nice wall mount where the cord is not visible under the TV looks good just about anywhere. A big entertainment unit takes up a LOT of space, and a lot of air, and kind of takes over your room. And, in the end, when you close the doors, the doors are so enormous that is looks kind of odd, and you're not kidding anyone; everyone knows that there is a TV inside! Smaller TVs, on the other hand, can hide in armoires and cabinets more successfully since the size of the furniture piece is more typical and the doors will be smaller. We debated over this for quite awhile, and are very happy we wall mounted the TV, placed a great looking buffet under it, (which could be used in any number of places in the house in the future) and just enjoy watching it. You can get the remotes now that go through the wooden doors; so that opens up lots of possibilities for furniture to house your DVD player, etc. Take a look at Craigs List sometime and do a search on Entertainment Centers. You'll likely see several that can't be adapted to today's TVs and are being sold for pennies on the dollar. I think you could always be vulnerable to that in the future if you buy something primarily because it works for the TV you want now. Good luck with your decision, this is just my two cents, and I'm sure you know best what will work for you.