Welcome to alliums! It's all very exciting. Let me try thes in order: 1 - You'll get some different view points as to exactly when to pick, but you are on the right track with watching the garlic leaves. I like to harvest when about 50% of the leaves are brown. Also, when you are getting close, withhold water. This let's the clove wrappers begin to dry and prevents you harvesting wet bulbs. I also use a garden fork put in several inches from the garlic and pried up, before pulling the bulbs. Not always necessary, just my preference. 2 - Not sure when you planted the sets (as they are called), but this is a bit early to think about picking them. Make sure they are well watered and well fed. Also, be very diligent about weeding because onions don't like the competition. Also, there is nothing wrong with 'stealing' a few onions at this stage to use as green onions. Even with smnall bulbs you can still steal some for fresh onions if you'd like. I usually plant mine 1/2 as close as recommended, and thin by pulling and using every other one throughout the early summer. 3 - I'm sure mushroom compost would be a fine start. Compost and other organic matter would be fine also. Someone here will (hopefully) chime in with a good ratio of bone meal and blood meal to incorporate for garlic. You may want to plan to save leaves and at least some grass clippings for mulching the garlic when planted this fall. 4 - I think we hit watering in #1 for garlic and #2 for onions. Good Luck!

But lirio, you didn't answer number 9 ... nobody likes me? ; ) *wink* We're a family of just two as well. AND we eat out or to go orders almost every meal (except cereal). Talk about a fish out of water planning a kitchen !! But thanks for the kudos. Maybe I did learn a little something in all these years. By popular request, here is what we have for the plan for the rest of that floor so far. Nothing special, a couple bedrooms, 2 baths, 1/2 bath, and an elevator (a "must have" as it's 25 steps just from ground level up to the first floor!!) . . . Next floor up has 4 bedrooms, small office, 4 baths, a 1/2 bath, laundry, and a 2nd small living area (basically a sofa facing tv - a great area we will have set up for kids to hang out and play XBox). The office and the 2nd living area have Murphy beds so they can do double duty at night. Top floor is lookout/3rd living area, and 12x18 deck opening to roof (8x18 covered porch with table/chairs and 4x18 open deck). Please note, per local Bldg Code, the footprint of this home cannot be changed or increased even one inch. LWO, I also thought the island looked kinda spindly and top heavy. That was one of the things that I was feeling a bit concerned with. The wings on the working sides remind me of the Flying Nun. It might be hard to make a beverage bar work at the end of the dining table as we have 5'4" between table edge and stairs on left side at the half bath and as you can see above, that will be a thoroughfare. Plus, this area needs to be clear for times when the tables have to be split, also wide enough for a wheelchair to pass (house is not 100% ADA, but it is wheelchair friendly). As far as cooking goes, when it is just us the answer is "no!", there are way too many great restaurants to explore there. Other families do to varying degrees, there are even some families that eat pretty much every meal at the house. Yes, there will also be a great grilling/tiki bar/picnic area on the ground floor (code is no grills on decks). I really appreciae hearing from those of you who do rent places at the beach and how they work (or don't work) for your family. Control, where do you guys vacation ? Most of the time when people say Outer Banks, they are referring to somewhere between Kitty Hawk/Nags Head/Hatteras area. You should give the southern beaches a try ! Our water temp is 10 degrees warmer than Hatteras, wide easy sloping beach with gentle waves and no drop offs, public beach access every 500ft, very family oriented beach (almost all houses, a few 2 story condos, and only one high rise all the way at the end), easy ~20 minutes to North Myrtle tourist mecca if you want a day trip, but lots to do nearby if you want to stay local. In our other house, we have 14 at dining table, 4 at bar, and 6 at patio table right outside the door next to the dining table. So 24 all right together (plus 2 picnic tables under the house). This house will have enough dining if you count the additional dining on the other levels, but definitely a shortage on this level ! Ideas to gain aisle space between stove & island: shorten depth of island cabinet to 22" instead of 24" (wasted space behind back side of drawers anyway), shorten overhang to 13" instead of 15", overhang on front edge of cabinets 1.5" instead of 2" = 47" aisle counter to counter Ideas to gain aisle space in 2 aisles from sink to fridges: can elevator shaft be narrowed any?, fold-down or pullout overhangs. One of those slap forehead, duh why didn't I think of that moments. (note to email plllog, anyone else have fold-downs in their kitchen?) = 46" aisle on each end NKBA suggests 48" aisles for multiple cooks. Can we get away with any less ? Group of moms: I am imagining people lined around the wall - 1 on left of big sink, 1 on right sharing water, 1 at stove, 1 at prep, possibly even 1 to right of prep = 5 workers and nobody has to work butt-to-butt. How much is minimum space we could get away with and still feel comfortable "enough" with a person working at a counter and allowing enough room for another to walk past behind them ? I found on BH&G ... "A 42-inch-wide aisle between opposite countertops is fine, but 48 inches is best where appliances compete, two people work back-to-back, or stools pull out. More than 48 inches is overkill." Noted 3 votes for moving prep sink to island. Where is best place for prep sink and pros/cons ? My original thinking was right of range to avoid butt-to-butt at range and prep in island, but I am open for changes ! Thoughts ? Bigger window at cleanup sink = Yes ! How about 44" wide and coming all the way down to the countertop, with granite going into the window sill ? The house is oceanfront, which is why almost the entire living and dining wall is all windows. I agree the window at the prep sink looks a little out of place. I am open to removing that. I had put it in because this is the view out the prep window . . . Appliances: I am pretty sure that range has 5 burners. I really do think 2 fridges are needed. It can be 90-100 degrees in high summer, which means it takes a lot of space for sodas, milk, juice, water, beer for 20+ people. We usually use one fridge for food stuff and the other whole fridge for beverages. Complete with magnet labels that say "Food" and "Drinks", so you don't have to open both to find what you are looking for. By my measurements, DW open does go into the person at the range's space, but very little, like 1 inch (so range person has 24x29 personal space instead of 24x30). Not sure if the ice maker is crucial ??? What do you guys think ? I wonder if the 2 freezer ice makers can keep up ? Also, would there be enough room if part of the freezer space has to be for store bought ice ? Small Appliances/Pantry: Pantry is planned to be the space for all of the small appliances on the 14" deep shelves to side, a little locked area for us to use as pantry & liquor when we have to leave for a week for an incoming guest (not carry everything all back home, only to carry it back the next weekend), recycling bin, and for pantry space for guests. I have seen groups of guests in the grocery store walking out with 4 gallons of milk, 6 loaves of bread, and etc, so "enough" pantry is important. It doesn't have to be this layout. My concerns/questions: - the look of the island (too small, tall & spindly, top heavy) - DW's/sink/trash layout - sink, then DW, then trash? or sink, then trash, then DW? but need space on right side of DW to unload into uppers - ice maker - yes/no ? - where to locate prep sink - where to throw trash at prep sink - window at prep sink ? - which way to hinge pantry door - aisles width - dining shortage ACK !! I tried to keep this short & concise. Ha. My husband says I talk too much. (and my friends laugh because they all tell me in private they think he talks more than ME!)

As you can tell from the previous posts, there's more than one way to plan your attack. I prefer to have everything selected in advance but it didn't work out that way this time. I think the floor selection should be decided early on. I prefer the floor to go down before the cabs are installed (have done both ways). I went with the cork flooring; despite the zillions of stain choices, we came up with our own color and to be honest, it's dark, you can only tell its cork when looking closely. The cork works for our old bones; my neighbor with toddlers also interested in product. I got the soapstone countertops I wanted, but the color wasn't exactly as I had envisioned. I really liked the soapstone that caught my eye, so I'm re-thinking other previous decisions (backsplash tile, etc). Maybe I'm the only one who has a hard time making 'permanent' decisions and changing my mind is common. ;-). Treb's advice sounds so logical, I just couldn't get it to work in my project ;-). For example, wall paint color sounds like a great idea to hold off till near the end. Unfortunately my contractor painted fairly early on in his process (before cab install). Lighting is critical and should be considered for nearly every item going into kitchen. Once the lighting changes were made during early structural stage, I bought several bulbs with diff color tones to see which worked best with the limited natural light, etc. etc. Everything I viewed for the kitchen was done under the lighting tones. I guess I'm just trying to say, whichever early decisions you make, be open to changes of other decisions down the road. Being flexible is key. You're at an exciting stage right now...enjoy it all. Good luck.

"kats meow, I completely missed that bit of info about your husband using the dining room as the office." Well, actually I think you have it. I met today with a designer to discuss all the potential remodeling of the house. We had a lengthy discussion about the kitchen. Of course, we talked about opening the kitchen to the family room entirely or greatly expanding the pass through. The problem (even though all of that seemed awesome) is that it ate up the budget and I still have a master bath that needs to be redone (separate thread on that one). I wanted to preserve as much of the kitchen footprint as I could while improving storage and workspace. Having a more open kitchen was basically more of a want than a need. That is, I don't really need a fully open kitchen although I might like how that looks. So, what was proposed is something that I think I can make work with my budget and will meet my real needs. The first idea is, yes, to move the dining table and chairs to the formal dining room. Yes, DH has his office there. Basically, the suggestion is that we use the family room as an office. Make the formal living room the main living area for guests and use the family room mostly as an office with a sofa in there for talking/TV. DH would move to my current office and I would move to the family room. Probably put in French doors between the breakfast room and the family room. The pantry would be moved to the bottom left hand corner of the breakfast room and would go from the corner to the window. New cabinets/counters in the kitchen. The new cabinets with adjustable shelves and drawers on the bottom would improve storage. For my workspace, basically extend the countertop that the cooktop is on make it deeper. it would go into what is now the breakfast room and could have countertop seating there. The counter and cabinets would extend to where the pantry is now giving me more counter and storage space. An alternative that I would like to find a way to work would be to move the refrigerator down to that area (probably to where the breakfast room opening starts) and then extend the counter/cabinets to where the refrigerator is now. The issue there would be to have enough clearance between the refrigerator and the peninsula with the cooktop since it would now be much larger and deeper. It might be better to leave the refrigerator where it is. There would be no table in the breakfast room but there would be counter seating at the peninsula. What I like about this idea is that it greatly increases my storage space and workspace. It also doesn't move around a lot of stuff in the kitchen. My house is on a slab so moving stuff around like water lines or vents can be expensive. This doesn't move around a lot of expensive stuff. We discussed the possibility of a range or moving the cooktop but those involve having to deal with venting. Of course, this means using the family room as an office. That is fine as I never felt we needed two living areas. And we move the dining to the dining room next to the kitchen. That looks better for people coming in than having people see DH's office. No one would really be going to the family room/office unless they were specifically being asked to go there.