We are experiencing something similar. My husband retired from the military 18 months ago. We had enough equity from the sale of our last home to finance this build. The builder appeared to be very professional and claimed to be in good financial shape. The house was started last March, and still not completed. Due to the economy the builder started borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. He has a couple of unsold, unfinished spec houses as no one is buying at this time. (We suspect he used our first 3 draws to finance these 2 houses). Since July we've had to take over the payments to the subs, after we'd already paid him $140k plus! The subs show up only when they feel like it. The builder has not shown up since August, does not return phone calls or emails. The building supervisor, DH and myself are trying to get our house finished. It has been a painful, expensive experience. If your builder is avoiding you now, and hasn't been upfront with you, what will it be like once you start building? Your husband may like this builder but this is not the military where personal accountability is front and foremost! Have a good think about things, interview a couple of other builders, ask friends and acquaintances for references and take it from there. As nice as it would be to have a new home ready by July, I'd try hoping for the end of the year!

Holligator DH loves the whole look but is still leaning toward the custom panel. Somehow he doesn't go for the beadboard when we see it IRL. Thanks again for the pic. Cheril I love the kitchen in the link you posted. How cool is that. We had a kitchen with the same look but it was the real thing, barn wood, very worn, different colors of paint. It was in a log cabin on a lake. The cabin was moved log by log from another county. It was the greatest place to live with the exception of the gargantuan bugs. You are right about the width of the cabinet to the left of the dw. It is 29" and the dw is 24". I really need symmetry so that is something I will have to mull over a bit. Your suggestion of the bank of drawers sounds very interesting. Do you think 5" will make it look really asymmetrical? Live wire I did check with the cabinet company and they told me they can retrofit a panel (whatever configuration I want) on the dw and it should be flush with the cabinets on either side. I understand what you are saying about the glass doors and I really wanted that as we were designing the kitchen. However since our kitchen is not that big I needed the cabinet space for dishes, etc. I couldn't justify giving up the storage space for the display shelving. I suppose I could have gone for some opaque glass but I didn't think of that at the time. I don't want to change the upper doors now due to cost and the extra storage we have there. So I have to work around that. I agree that we need symmetry and that is what I am trying to achieve with the dw panel. As someone else said, it seems disjointed to me with the ss dw. I find it extremely interesting that you suggested a different countertop in this area. Because again that was my original intention. We actually had the soapstone cut right at the exact place to remove that section and replace it with a slab of carrera (sorry if I spelled that incorrectly) marble. I posted here (Cabinet Tweakorama) to get opinions and almost every response was not to replace the soapstone with the marble. But it is still an option for us as we did not bond the seam in the soapstone there just in case we changed our minds. Of course the marble was another additional expense but I agree with your observation that a break in the counter would further delineate the "hutch" area. I was thinking that the backsplash panel and corbels would make a strong enough connection between the upper and lower cabinets. Thanks for the thoughtful response. Sdionnemoore Wow another good idea. I had not considered the option of another cabinet under there at all. I think that would look awesome. Would I lose most of the countertop space there? afr The cabinet company makes custom panels so they assured us it would look integrated. I was also concerned about that.

I have John Clare and Charlotte, both grafted. Charlotte is well established, JC is one yr old. My Charlottes are reliably hardy. They are close to 4' tall, tidy growth with good foliage. I lose only a few inches of cane per winter. They have no protection, live near the edge of the road so are subjected to snow plow abuse and road salt. So for a rose that can stand up to that, they deserve a place, otoh, they are kind of boring - average and well behaved, no drama. First flush is perfectly adequate, color is a nice light yellow that doesn't turn pink and fades only slightly. the blooms have nice form and keep their shape for a reasonable time. Rain and sun tolerance is good. Repeat is about average, scattered flushes. I got John Clare because it's often praised as Austin's best bloomer. I can't argue with that. Constant color, but not my favorite color, and a bit of a plain looking bloom. I think I'm going to move them and contrast them with white. I was pleasantly surprised by the growth, which was vigorous. Mine hit almost 5', with long upright branches, bushy and even, not the well known unbalanced octopus growth. This winter was mild, and they have very little damage.

Hi Julie, both sketches look lovely and would depend on where the preference is on flow of traffic from house, outdoor furniture arrangement, do you want to swim laps, etc. Which side has the preferred view? Do you want sun or shade at certain times of the day in summer? I'm also a first time pool owner and you asked about our "mistakes". Well, I planned a simple rectangle pool (no spa) and the large ledge w steps is in one corner. Everyone assured me I would "see" the steps. I've only been swimming a few times and have already stubbed my toe badly 3 times! When you're walking around a pool and talking you're not looking down to see where your feet hit as you take a step. Makes me long for the old days when the ladder was clearly visible and off the floor!