I live just north of Concord. Last year we moved only a few miles from a little hill surrounded by mostly beech. I think we were the last the get a frost etc while friends in other parts of town in low lying areas get hit at the slightest frost. We are now living in a low lying area. Cold air settles. Our garden will be more susceptible to frosts here. I hope you are planning a visit to Mt Uncanoonuc Perennials while you are visiting! Broom is one of the shrubs that does poorly for me. I'm hoping that my new sunnier location will help buddelia survive. I would be careful about the amount of sun she gets. If she loses it by 2pm, she might also not be getting it as early as she thinks. Due to the trees surrounding my yard at the old house we got down to only 4 hours of sun in most locations. The south foundation got the most but still not much more than 4 hours. Even a lilac was unhappy there but it might have been due to poor soil.

If you do a search on homeadvisor dot com, you will find ratings for cabinet makers in your area. I was greatly disappointed by our contractor who made us go to some warehouse in Anaheim, and got bulldozed into picking the best of bad stock cabinets with granite countertops. I stopped the process this morning. After sleepless nights, knowing I got bulldozed, I crashed! Freaked is a better word! My husband wants to save money, so I say "I'm willing to live with the horrible cabinets that are there rather than sell my soul for cheap stock cabinets!" So he says "fine!" Get bids!! HomeAdvisor dot com had a lot of options and I read the reviews. Like you, I am in Southern California. We purchased a short sale home, and it's a hot mess! $$$ everywhere!! I found a cabinet maker that actually spoke to me for a long time, and he is coming to give us a bid on resurfacing what is there and rebuilding to fit the new appliances. He had six reviews. All 5 star! I'm not a salesperson, and will not post his site, but you can find him or someone else like him if you search. Color me happy! Suzi

Hi Megma, Chris Russell made cabinets for my neighbor's kitchen. We were going to use him to put in new cabinets in our own kitchen. Instead we decided to keep the cabs we have. The reason I know he is so easy going is she raves about Chris Russell. My neighbor's kitchen is amazing. There is a curved counter, detailed drawers, doors, molding... Not sure if there is a website or not. I do have a cell phone number on his card. (978) 337-2902 And another kitchen GC closer to where I live Christopher Cahill (603) 465-7124 I think they work together on large projects. Not sure. I do not know Chris Cahill but have heard good things. And a third company but this one is NH 603)525-6687 D. Huntington I believe they work on the coastal towns like New Castle, Rye and the Lakes Region too. I have no idea what they are like but I have heard they create kitchens for the wealthy & famous... Sununu, Steven Tyler, Umma Thurman, woodwork in the State Capital of NH, Adam Sandler,... I think Chris Russell is probably the best best. I hope it works out. ~boxerpups

We are using a custom cabinet maker here in WA - they're in Monroe. Their designer had great ideas for our MW (not over the stove - rah!); our designer from Lowes didn't seem to know where to put it. We're getting exactly what we wanted, which we wouldn't have from Lowes...and their prices are excellent. Of course, we won't *see* the finished cabinets for another month or so; I suppose things could not turn out well after all. But so far I've been very impressed, and the local press about them has been very positive. I should add that originally we didn't think we could afford a custom cabinet maker, which is why we got estimates from the big box stores. But now I'm thinking that we couldn't afford the big box places - and the quality at this custom place appears to be excellent. This post was edited by gladys1924 on Wed, Oct 2, 13 at 15:26