He is so very distinctive and pretty. I hope he will survive to pass his genes to other green frogs. I had a huge frog in my 300 gal. water trough pond and he has been MIA for the past 2 days and the fishies are very skittish so I think someone had frog for a snack. There is a smaller green frog in there now. I wasn't happy to have the big one so only miss him a little bit. I sat by the pond trying to get the babies to come up and eat and enjoyed the little frog, 2 dragonflies, a blue tailed skink and 2 hummingbirds. Ponds are great to attract wildlife.

You did it!!! You did it!!! Oh, Caroline, I am so happy for you. And tremendously impressed too, not only by the physical difficulty of the trip, but by your dedication to a good cause. What an amazing thing you did. I can hardly wait to see your photos. Welcome back! Now you can sit back and watch the Giro d'Italia starting on Saturday. (Universal Sports, on TV & online) You'll have new appreciation for the pros putting in over a hundred miles a day in mountainous terrain LOL! Wow, you are one tough cookie...

If you go to this link in Home Dec, you'll see I asked trailrunner to post her laundry area for you. A color called Belgian Waffle that I kept going back to, didn't go with, and after seeing on her walls wish I had. If you hop over to the Home Dec Gallery, in favorite Yellows/golds thread, scroll down and you'll see SW Jersey Cream in my unfinished at that time family room. Within the first year it morphed a bit, the yellow toned down a tad and tan undertone amped up a tad. Like it even better now. (Note my room is very low light, use mirrors to bounce light around. J-Cream in a very high light room can tend to wash out.)

My DH must be wavering because his priorities are shifting. NOW he says he's concerned that it will look too busy (range on perimeter), I'm thinking it's OK but Buehls ideas are so much more interesting. Originally I wanted the window to be the focal point of the room, but I've shifted. Being the windows would be a west facing, I would have to pull down window coverings which would ultimately get filthy from all the splashing, rinsing etc. from the sink. Add in the window coverings would have to be simple, there would be no "fun" in the room. Enough about my thoughts, because I'm totally on board. Lascatx. after Steph2000 asked me about my actual storage needs, I realized after all the calculations we had enough. I want drawers throughout this new kitchen for precisely the reason of not having to bend down and under to get at things. Buehl, my DH and I have already had MANY discussions about how we use the kitchen for various things done in the kitchen. He sees at least that he doesn't use the stovetop as much as he thought he did. He can't seem to separate cooking and prep from one another though. He admits that he is only thinking about the main course for dinner and not the salads, vegetables, sandwiches, etc. Not only this he barbecues out more things then not (main reason how he became the primary cook). Buehl I'll also point out to him that we don't need to make the island nearly as deep as we had before (no grease splatters). We were tight on space before. We can now entertain the extra deep countertops and uppers. Even though were on the shorter stature, doesn't pulling both the bottom and uppers balance it out fairly equal? Option G will not work since the wall is 15 1/4' before a ton of new windows start. Option F already has 14.5' of cabinets. Actually I'm not going to calculate it out, but being the limitations of the cabinet sizes, we may actually have more cabinet space with the range on the perimeter instead of the island. Option F is wonderful!!! I must ask, what kind of design software you use? Lavendar, we have only ideas floating around and nothing as concrete as a range. We are going modern but still haven't decided on the cabinet fronts. Mostly we're looking at blackish cabinets, but then I sometimes dream about a medium wood. We are BIG on windows!!! The only reason we thought Buehls idea would work is because we still kept the same amount of window view. My DH is more concerned about making it too busy instead of making it more impressive. All in all, I think I'm going to have to be patient with him coming around. It's not that he is against Plan F as much as he's struggling with how much he loved our previous house kitchen remodel with the island cooktop. We dealt with the dripping veetables etc, etc because we loved prepping in the open space on the island. Now that we have can "have it all", I want it. Thanks again for everyone's help! This kitchen is going to cost a LOT more then orignally planned but I'm always about value. This new kitchen is of IMMENSE value to me.