Good morning, all. Cheery photo for such a cold day. It is exceptionally cold here. Poor DH is out in the cold wind wrapping pipes and putting the Christmas lights back out to warm the plants. The large yellow noid is about to bloom inside, I will definitely show that when (if) it happens.

Welcome! We need more nurses, there aint' many of us. We actually don't garden year round, don't let them lie to you. We have 2 long growing seasons interrupted by H#e@A%T! lOTS AND LOTS OF HEAT!! But no snow days! I moved here from Kansas as a child, still remember walking to school in snow higher than my head. It snowed here a couple of years ago on Christmas. Everyone stayed up all night! Except me, I turned on the heater & wouldn't go out except to pull bromeliads in the house. When ya'll get settled come on down to the island, Mardi gras is in January this year, Dickens on the Strand is the first weekend in December, San Antonio is breathtaking at Christmas, there are lots of fairs, rodeos, festivals, etc. fixin to start. TallyHO!

Thank you all so much for participating in DD's survey. I still remember the first time I checked out the group of lake cottages my family and I were going to rent for our week-long reunions. One cottage was decorated totally with clown art. IMO, it was a nightmare! My one sis and her family, who aren't clown-haters take that cottage every year. Many of the rest of us dislike even being in there! Another sis (I have 4), who also takes after our mom, inherited our grandparent's large, old Murano glass clown. She keeps it on her guest room dresser . . . until we come to visit. I won't sleep with that in our room and put it face down under her bed, far away from me while we're there. My3dogs: what a great piece of info. DD says "thank you!!!" for that. Kelly: ROFLMAO . . . I'm afraid to ask about that one! Lynn

Have you considered doors for at least some of the cabinets? I worry about the visual clutter of having everything sitting out there, especially when kids are doing much of the putting-away. I'm less worried about the crowded feeling by the door than many of the others, but I also live in a smallish house where space by the doors is at a premium. I thought you might find these photos helpful. They're of a small cabinet by our back door. The door is hemmed in by a wall on one side and this cabinet to the other. The cabinet is about 7.25 inches deep from the front of the doors to the back of the cabinet that runs into the dishwasher, providing an interior space that's about 5.25 inches deep. We live not far from you and share your weather, and this tiny cupboard is a lifesaver because it provides a space for wet shoes, bird seed, and assorted other things we use outside.You have a significantly deeper space, so it will be even more functional. It also doesn't feel claustrophobic or too tight to us, and the small loss of space by the door is far outweighed by not having things pile up on the counter and floor there! Here's the doorway with cabinet: Here's the interior, showing how shallow it is, but how much stuff we store there. It regularly gets crammed with much more stuff (all the more reason to have doors!), but I'd just cleaned it out when I snapped this photo. Please ignore the cardboard dividers in the cabinet--I didn't want to have permanent dividers put in, and I've been playing around with spacing before buying or making something for the space. As for the bench issue, I think that its utility may somewhat depend on if you're shoes-off or shoes-on people. If you leave shoes by the door, then it's helpful to have a place for the kids to sit down to put them on. I think you'll love having some sort of built-in cabinet there. It will make that space much more functional.