Thank you Ohiorganic! I've read about the subscription system but it never occured to me the practical side of working it. I always thought CSAs/subscriptions as a large all or nothing monster. Thanks for bringing me back to earth. This way I could email what I have and see what takers there are as different crops are ready. Even better yet, I won't have to pick til I have an order. I could email what I will have available beforehand and bring/pick only what was needed. Please help me with my thought process. Email and get orders back, pick that evening, then deliver the next day. Wash, package and store everything in a cooler until pickup. This would also allow me to make deliveries in the near vicinity. From email sales to securing standing orders in season. Continue to get emails and word of mouth. Then work my way up to a market stall. One additional question, whats the best way to keep produce cool in the back of a truck for a few hours. I've read several people here putting a damp cool towel over the veggies. But not using freezer packs directly on the produce. Will this work?

HOLLY: How was I putting him on the spot? I was asking his professional opinion about some work done by someone else--work that was *clearly* inferior. (I will be happy to send you a photo if you would like.) I wasn't demanding that he answer. He could have dodged my inquiry quite diplomatically. I've seen doctors dodge quite diplomatically--and I think there's more of a code of ethics among docs than contractors. PLUS, this question was in the context of "now, if I should hire you for this job, how will we resolve things if I see YOU doing work that looks sloppy to me?" And you said after all, "...focus on the negative...rather than focus on the person in front of you and their work and references. " How, after all, can I get some kind of objective idea of his work and references? What contractor is gonna give a potential customer negative references, or say anything bad about himself? Isn't it very naive to expect that a contractor, hoping to sell his services, will give a prospect ANYTHING of a negative nature?

I'm no design person, but I'm not sure about the door style planned for above the MW. It doesn't look as nice as the elongated glass one below it, so if its on a short upper cabinet, I think I would choose to go with the door of the base cabinets above the mw rather than have something compete with the glass doors that really should be the the focus. I think I prefer the chestnut color to tone down the orange undertone that seems more prominent in the pecan. I think the mixed color floor will be nicer with your perimeter cabinet choice whereas the gorgeous grey slate will be very cool toned against the warmth of the wood tone. With that floor, I would then go with the sea grass or harbor mist island (see grass seems best, but I would hesitate to commit to green, but since you love it....). But again I will reiterate that my preferences are based on my instinct rather than on any design expertise. It's a nice space. Good Luck!

I think, after talking to the granite people.. I am going to take a piece of your advice, Rachel. We cannot do laminate. The house would lose value in the final appraisal and that would mean less budget (has to appraise high or we end up having to put a larger down payment which defeats the purpose). But.. I spoke with my wife and looked at a lot of the choices online at the granite place that will be doing the counters. Instead of upgrading the backsplash to mosaic.. we will pick a backsplash tile that is a subway til and as close to what we like. There is not markup costs for that. Then, look at ALL the choices of granite inside out budget and spend a little extra getting a leather texture. The honed is going to rack up the price so.. we will hold off on that and merely try to avoid the glare of the polished for now. That would be a minor upgrade. We can keep that for a few years and save up the money to get the granite we really like how we like it. Who knows, maybe we will grow to like what we get now... but the important part is the cabinets and we add our budget increases into that. There is no way we could do the floors right now as it would cost 2-3 times the amount of the kitchen modifications. To swap carpeted area to tile or laminate is like $5 per sq ft and almost the entire downstairs was carpeted before so.. that is totally out of the budget so we are staying with the stained concrete for now. It is a LOT cheaper to do that after the fact than right now. Thanks for the ideas! Russ