Don't mean to butt in but I was just lurking around and reading this because we (North Texas) had pretty cold weather this weekend too. And I read kentstar's comment about being discouraged and I just had to share this story. The very first flowers I planted on my apartment patio were two pink gerber daisies that I loving picked out, having had my heart set on them months in advance. I took them home, put them in their little planter, and they looked so cute! I loved them and nurtured them. And then almost all at once every single one of the five total blooms completely shriveled up, turned brown, and died. I was SO devastated, and pretty mad frankly, so I turned my attention to my new Hydrangea which is my baby. And then one of the clusters up and died the day after I brought that home! I will tell you, I literally cried. I remember wailing to my husband, "I HAVE A BLACK THUMB! I'LL NEVER GARDEN AGAIN!" I couldn't understand how I could pour so much love into something only to have it inexplicably die. Then almost on the same day, something wonderful happened! I was looking at my flower-less daisies, looking more like heads of lettuce than anything and LO AND BEHOLD there were new, beautiful looking leaves growing! And the next day, BUDS! Not to mention there's a whole new shoot coming out of my hydrangeas! Now the buds on the daisies are growing stems, the green hydrangeas are blooming a beautiful pink, and here is the miracle of all miracles: after trying twice to sprout strawberries unsucessfully, I was just about to give up when I went to mist the little guys and BAM. The tiniest little sprout you will ever see. And then another! I was elated. SO I guess what I'm trying to say is yes, other gardeners get discouraged. Very much so. To the point of tears! But I think the rewards are well worth the risks :)

We have our house listed with a real estate and we are also advertising it on Craig's list ourselves. We have an agreement with our realtor that we can sell it ourselves without paying a commission. We have had no one look from the real estate (listed for one month - but not the best time during the holidays) and 6 people who qualify and are seriously interested from Craig's list, ... but all 6 have to sell their homes - one would qualify without selling but they don't want to carry two mortgages even though they have just rented their other home. So there are people looking and if they do sell their homes, we are hoping they will remember our home if it is still available. We had a couple of companies contact us and didn't email them back except one which sounded ligitimate - they were an investment group, we gave them the particulars about our property, but not our financial picture or any personal information and no last name, not what we owed etc. I told them we didn't have to sell but if they were seriously interested to make us a reasonable offer, we never heard back from them. I think more buyers are looking at Craig's list and more sellers are putting their homes there. Definitely put your home on Craig's list and be sure to post the best 4 photos you have of the home, also use flickr or photobucket and have a link to more photos of your home and put the link in the ad. We are looking at Craig's list for when we sell our home and we only look at the ads with photos of the home. Make sure your home stays near the top of the list on craig's list, don't let it go to the next page, most folks don't look any further than the first page of ads. Just cancel the ad and re-up it - but no sooner than every two days. A little house and lots of land, right up my alley, but not in your state - too cold. In 1993 we couldn't seem to sell our home through a real estate (we lived in Arkansas then). We finally decided to sell it ourselves, put an ad in a newspaper of the next closest city to us and sold it. All the real estate agents said we would never sell it (for the price we wanted). We also had a relative set up a website for the home the same week, but when it hit the search engines we had already sold it - one guy called us from the website and was really mad it was already sold - saying "but it just came up on the computer". Thank goodness we were persistent or we'd still be there. You never know who's looking to move where. Good luck.

Thanks, gang. I sent the cabinet maker a deposit today (along with a huge packet of notes and pictures. Poor man. I've worked with two cabinetmakers in the past on various projects. One of them didn't understand a thing I wanted even when I drew it out on Google Sketchup and this one seems to know what I'm talking about even when I talk in circles (which is almost all the time). ERF, I'm 99% sure we're going to do quartz, but I'm going to look at Corian too. I understand it has changed quite a bit since my last experience with it (I worked on a boat with charcoal Corian everywhere, including the bathroom floors, and it scratched like crazy, but apparently it's not like that anymore. We put quartz on our vanity in our bathroom and couldn't be happier with it but if Corian is equally durable (which it sounds like it is) I'm good with whatever looks best for the money. I never really thought about how putting heavy stone on our existing bases would work. Good thing we're replacing them! :) I can't really thank you all enough for taking the time to reply. My kitchen does not meet the requirements a lot of people on the Kitchen forum like to see (for instance ... I just realized today that there is only 30 inches between our island and the counters on either side when apparently you're supposed to have at least 36--oh well works for us!) and sometimes the real question gets bogged down in some of the details. That's not to say it's not a very helpful forum--it definitely is-- it just sometimes takes a little longer to describe the challenges of a small kitchen.

I never had a warming drawer before. The 30" slide in Bosch range I purchased came with one, so now I have one. In the few weeks since we have installed the range I have used it several times. Here's how it has helped me out: I love it for pancakes, and waffles in the morning. I don't think I would use it for eggs, but we are a household of very fussy egg eaters(we won't eat them if they aren't from our hens). My oven has a proof function, but if the oven is occupied I can proof in the warming drawer. I just took muffins out of the oven and my kids are out playing in the snow. Stuck the muffins in the warming drawer and they will be even more appreciated when every one comes back in, wet and cold. Keeps the mashed potatoes perfect while I get the rest of the meal finished or just keeps the meal perfect while I relax with my husband and a glass of wine before dinner. Come lacrosse and football season, it will keep dinner warm whoever's practice or game goes late. And, like another responder my DH sometimes comes home pretty late, particularly if he is arriving from another city. It is nice to let him know I saved him a plate and that it is warm- otherwise he sometimes just doesn't bother with dinner and makes do with bananas(not that there is anything wrong with that!) Would I buy a specific warming drawer and let it take up cabinet space, probably not. If I ever need a new range would I look for one with a warming drawer instead of a storage drawer- yes.