If it's heat you want, just come to Sacramento in the summer! We readily get over 95-100 degrees, disproving the "it's not the heat, it's the humidity" theory - if the temps are triple digit, it's HOT. It was 91 degrees during our Open Garden, but things have cooled off, prolonging our bloom just as Paula described. I was afraid that a week away from the cemetery and my home garden would mean that I'd miss a significant amount of the spring flush, but things are still looking wonderful. I'm so glad that Carol and George (and Luanne and Norm?) made it to the cemetery. Sorry that Kathryn, Barbara and I were still down in Cambria, and missed you. The New Zealanders visited the cemetery yesterday - Jocelen took a lot of photos, as did Joanne. They were cold, too. Visitors just don't expect California to be anything but warm! I have a photo of my Ohioan brother and SIL standing in front of the Golden Gate Bridge one cold August day, wearing shorts and T-shirts, and amazingly blue skin. So - everybody who comes here - be prepared to dress in layers - but we'd love to have you, one and all! Anita

Every morning for the past 2 weeks since our quartz install (Silestone Zirconium and Lyra), the first thing I do is visit my countertops that I wiped down the night before. I didn't expect to like them THIS much! They are everything I chose them for and more: a breeze to clean, able to handle my mishaps (I spilled about a 1/4 cup of lemon juice on them yesterday & dried black grout came right out this morning); smooth, shinny and 'hefty'/substantive in thickness & weight, uniform in color allowing other kitchen design features to dance too. You are going to LOVE your choices! :)

We painted our old 1975 oak cupboards to a warm white. I like them. But because they are "painted cabinets" I am having some guilt over spending a big chunk of money for a new counter top, vs a cheap option. But, I want to be happy with it, we plan to live here forever! Yep, been talking to the Stone Studio, they are fantastic. Very happy with them so far. On a side note, our daughter was about to start competitive gymnastics a year ago, the night I wrote the big fat check, she told us she really doesn't want to compete. So, she is just tumbling now. Otherwise, I would have had ample places to go see counter tops, traveling to meets!

Like you, CarrieB, I started out without a clue how much it would cost to do my kitchen as I wanted (I didn't really know just exactly what I wanted to do, either, before I spent time here and on Ikeafans other than knowing that I would not do any structural changes beyond removing soffits and a nonfunctional cold air return) and restoring a window) and like you, I started out at the big box stores to get initial planning and costs. I probably would have bought the cabinets from one of them if I hadn't read more, learned about Ikea, and realized that I wanted to have frameless cabinets, I talked to 3 different independent contractors who all quoted $10k more than I was prepared to spend. I thought that I would have to either postpone the project, or just settle for repairing a few things, improving the lighting, and maybe refacing the cabs (this was before I learned of Ikea). After learning about and seeing the Ikea kitchens, I started to think I could pull it off if I could find a contractor to install, or at least do all the work except install the cabinets which I would attempt myself. I made one last stop at another local "general store" that sells kitchens. There I got a quote that priced out installation separately --which seemed very reasonable --and gave the name of the contractor who would install and who I ended up using, although I didn't buy the cabs from that store (at that time they didn't carry frameless) I am so glad that I did an internet search and found my cabinet maker. By this time, after spending a lot of time here, I had a plan, could detail exactly what I wanted done, and so was able to go to that contractor with a detailed list of what he would need to do -- and got an affordable price. I bought the cabinets, granite, sink, fixtures, and flooring, the light fixtures and paint -- he supplied the rest. I did the painting. I only had 4 cost overruns as I recall: I paid the wall guy to finish removing the wallpaper (my arthritic fingers couldn't do any more!); I ended up refinishing the floor instead of installing the engineered hardwood that I had bought; I went for more expensive granite counters; and I replaced all of the appliances instead of just the dishwasher. That came to about $2.5k more than originally planned. The contractor did not knock down the price for not having to install the engineered hardwood, but he also did not charge me additionally for adding a light, adding a water line for the fridge icemaker, and moving the telephone jack ( not thought about in the original plan). I also was stuck with the engineered hardwood -- tried to sell it on Craigslist, but it was such a small quantity (150 sq.ft) no one ever wanted it. Fortunately that was a small loss -- I had gotten it at a killer clearance price. I ended up donating it to HFH.