soonermagic, I feel your pain! We have something like 68 windows, most of which I have no intention of "treating", because they face the back of the house which is our acreage, and it's all woods. But there are 18 windows I feel need to be dealt with right away, like guest room and bath, and kids bedrooms, master bath and closets and master. So I had a blind guy (not a man who cannot see) come out to measure and show me some plantation shutters (gorgeous), then he sent me a quote. It was $7,000.00. OMG! Not that they aren't beautiful, but no way could I get that expenditure past DH at this point in our build when we are practically hemorrhaging money. So... I asked him (after having two more estimates from two other companies, products weren't as high quality as his and even more money) what we could do to lower that. The solution we came up with was keeping the plantation shutters on the first floor (including the master) and putting wood blinds upstairs. Still expensive, but much more pallatable. Good luck, I know it's an expensive proposition. I have a friend up the street who did a few plantation shutters at a time, but I'm not that patient. Amy

We might be misjudging oceangirl67. I just went back and looked at some of her old posts, and they're mostly pretty normal. I think sometimes she's trying to be humorously sarcastic (sardonic?), and the tone doesn't come across right in print. In any case, I did enjoy this thread immensely. I think linelle's idea of having the paper-covered counter do double duty as an exam table is great! When you're not actually using the stirrups, you could hang your dishtowels in them.

...anything else I've not thought of? Don't forget about ventilation for your new range. In your inspiration pics (I'll direct link below) I notice they have a nice hood, and no OTR microwave. The MW is located on the shelf elsewhere, that's good. There are lots of posts about ventilation/exhaust on the Appliances forum. Here are some basics: - rough rule of thumb is 10 cfms per 1000 btu's. E.g., if you have 4 burners with each one at 15,000 btu's = 60K. You should have a 600 cfm hood. - ideally, the hood should be 6" wider than the range (i.e. 3" wider on each side). Many people can't fit this "ideal", so a hood the same width as your range is fine. - Try if you can to get a hood that is 24" deep front to back (many are 22" deep). Like my previous point, this would be the ideal. If a 24" deep hood does not fit the budget, the 22" depth is fine. - baffle filters are better than mesh filters, because mesh will clog quickly with grease and lose efficiency. - when installing ductwork for the hood, make sure it is 8" or 10" in diameter. Most hoods require at least 8". There are some hoods that are OK with 6" diameter duct, but they're harder to find. If your duct is too small for your hood, you will get increased noise and decreased efficiency. Regarding your sink, many people here have the apron front sink without the backsplash. Would look awesome in front of a window. There are so many threads about the apron front sink, I'll Link one below. The apron front sink comes in fireclay, stainless steel, and cast iron (the Kohler Dickinson sink). There have been some threads recently about problems with fireclay apron front sinks, though many adore theirs. Fireclay and cast iron will be more expensive (the Dickinson sink runs $1600), though Ikea has the Domsjo sink reasonably priced. Stainless apron front sink can be had for $350 and they're easier/cheaper to install. Introvert's Inspiration Pic Thread Farmhouse Sinks

Scootermom - Our kitchen is not huge, but they traffic flow is not through my work space, so it functions so much better than anything i've ever had! The kitchen footprint is about 10'-4" deep by 14'-10" long (these are the wall to wall dimensions inside the opening separating the kitchen from dining, which includes all the cabinetry). My clear workspace between range counter and island is 4 foot, all other clearances are 3 feet. My island is 3'-7" x 4'-9". You can see where I house my dishes and glasses below. On the bottom, the spice pullout is immediately to the right of the range. To the right of that is my baking cabinet and flatware drawer. To the left of the range are all my pots, pans and lids and the cooking/baking utensil drawer. My island holds 2 cabinet boxes, one 39" base that we swapped one drawer for the sink and a 18" cabinet base we converted to a double trash bin pullout. The junk drawer is over the trash bins and the knife/gadget drawer is in the middle. The drawer face at the sink flips out to house srubbies. (Excuse the dishes in sink...) BlackChamois - I like the idea of the vapor bar stools (and the Ghost Stools too), but have been nixed by the husband... He fears they will get scratched, thus ruined, from pocket items, buttons, kids, etc. We both agree we need backs on the stools for comfort and our small children. And we agree the stools should not be black... Here's a close up of our cabinet doors and hardware: see link below for hardware! I bought them in HD at special order desk so I could use my 10 or 20 percent off coupon. The shipping was free, so it was a win/win! white doors SW "rainwashed" doors. this is a very hard color to accurately photograph! It is soft, subtle and changes greatly throughout the day with the different lighting conditions, natural and artificial. *will post another post with Knob link... can't figure out how to do 2 in one post OR do i have the time to figure out the html code Here is a link that might be useful: MSL Pulls