Wondering why you're thinking of reinforcing copper with rebar? Plain copper pipe seems cheaper than the copper tubing & is inherently strong. The tubing can be used for decorative elements or circling a pipe structure to tie it togeher - not really structural support. With the corrosion copper causes to baser metals like rebar, believe you're talking galvanic action & are right not to combine the two. If you slip plastic tubing over the rebar to isolate the surface from contacting the copper, you may be able to avoid the situation. Might be worth researching if you prefer that construction technique. Have seen hoses & plastic tubing threaded over rebar arches before installing to give a less rustic appearance & protect from rust. They can be sealed at the bottom & slipped into anchor holes. But the rebar & the tubing must be bone dry & done on a low humidity day to guard against sealing moisture in. If you're thinking of using the rebar just to help shape the copper & not for any structural reason, don't see why its eventual flaking to nothing inside the copper would matter. Farmers here use locust posts for fencing & char the bases that go below ground to preserve them. Enlarging a garden bed here, found a charred 10" diameter tree trunk buried a foot below ground. Took most of a day to dig & pull it out. Heard some of the trees here that were cleared off when this house was built were burned on site. It's against code to bury such partially burned wood, since it doesn't decompose. At any rate, that trunk looked as if it was petrified. Couldn't even get a chainsaw through it! So there's tradition behind this method. Only a couple wooden garden structures over the years, since I worried about upkeep & rot. Did erect a plain untreated tall 6x6 post for a condo birdhouse 20+ years ago. Triple-coated it on all surfaces with Thompson's stain & then mounted it on a metal fence post anchor. The birdhouse fell apart many years ago, but the post still stands. We had cedar outdoor furniture for years that we oiled annually to maintain. Without that protection, it would become rough & crack - not great for comfort. Still use the Thompson's tinted stain on the few wooden elements outside - the mailbox post, the finial for the copper ogee trellis, the handle of an iron hose reel - giving them another coat after washing down maybe every 7-10 years. It's certainly preserved them. Like the dark gray called Colonial Blue - can't see the "blue" in it, but it gives depth to the gray - because it fits in well with natural garden colors. Figure a copper cap on an upright post treated with the Thompson's tinted stain would last many years if installed with a fence anchor. (Use copper nails or screws to prevent that galvanic action.) We've used the tapered as well as the corkscrew types & they've remained sturdy. Last time we put up a bird feeder post mounted with an anchor, my husband put one of those vinyl sleeves over it & that's lasted nicely 15 years. Bears come by & shimmy the post to remove the feeder & it stays straight. I hose it down once a year & it still looks new. Two hefty wrought-iron arches put in 16 years ago lost their original powdercoat just last year. I preferred to just oil them (oil rubbed with a rag), but my DH decided to spray them with heavy-duty Rustoleum. We'll see how that stands up. Wrought iron garden furniture needs a wire brush & repaint every 4-5 years. I may just strip & oil them next time that job comes up. Two heavy 3-fold (that store flat & pull out to form 3 sides) 5' iron trellises that came oiled still look great 10 years later with no further treatment. My favorite for install & forget is the copper pipe. The verdigris that forms protects the metal. An identical circumference steel pipe marked for the depth desired, pounded in to create the holes with a level & pulled straight out allows the copper pipes to be slipped in firm footing. They're pricey to buy, but not difficult to make. Junk yards can be sources of used copper & other materials. Bought a bunch of those cheaply made painted metal tube arches that come in pieces for assembly with screws when found on clearance for $5 a pop. Wanted to play with arches set in a circle & figured that was a cheap way to get a 3-D model before laying out for a copper one. Left two up a couple years now & surprised they still look good apart from the screws starting to rust. Maybe I'll put them all back up, plant them & then replace them one at a time with copper while the climbing roses grow their roots. Really liked the fairy ring look. Hope this longwinded response helps you with the construction phase of your new garden! Here is a link that might be useful: Fence Anchors This post was edited by vasue on Tue, Mar 18, 14 at 15:09

Florantha, I have orange walls. We were criticizing the colors not because of what's stylish but because of the exact shades used. That particular yellow is very aggressive and the orange stripes going in two directions are a bit day glo. I think the orange fabric could be made to work with the right yellow on the wall. As it is, I find the combination, at least as it shows in the picture, to be painful (As in, ouch! my eyes!). They also don't go with the counter or the floor. The paint and homemade curtains both look fresh and clean, leading to the assumption that the current residents put them in, so the choice of them leads us back to the discussion about what it takes to design a kitchen. And I contend, as I have through this all, that it's little touches like choosing the right paint color, not granite counters. MV, It's interesting about the "other" kitchens you mention. I have my own big stack of (pre-GW/FKB) kitchen magazines. And while I can't live on a steady diet of Architectural Digest, I pick it up every now and then. I love looking at home and kitchen design, and am as likely to look at it in the background of a personality profile as in a house photo, because then you see real people houses. But I wouldn't want to live in most of them! I love thinking about how life would be in an MCM masterpiece, or the arboreal house with the canopy style copper roof. I love looking at them and thinking about how the way the house works will interact with the way the people live their lives. But I'm honest with myself and know that I want more function than one of those shiny Italian curvopoli where it's more important that the ladle and can opener match the kitchen design than work well, and that I'm too prone to clutter to do justice to an MCM. Kmsparty, I can definitely attest to the more cooking in a more convenient kitchen thing. I cooked less and less in the old kitchen because it was so awful. Now cooking is so convenient and pleasant in my not-quite-finished new kitchen that I'm actually cooking too much!

Thanks, marthavila, I sometimes have to look at it through someone else's eyes to appreciate it. We bought our house 11 years ago and it was badly in need of renovation THEN. Well, time went by, we had 4 kids, dh went through 3 internet start-ups, and the renovations never got done. Lauraella, there were times when I begged dh to sell our house and move us into a 1980's tract house - anything that was functional , warm in the winter and cool in the summer (lack of AC has been one of our biggest issues; we are taking care of that with the renovation as well.) Now, we are finally doing the renovation, but living through it (we can't afford to rent) has proved to be the biggest challenge yet. The GC had to build us a temporary kitchen and a new bathroom in the basement because they tore off our kitchen and 1 1/2 baths during the gut. The only way to access the basement is to go out onto the framing and down a set of temporary stairs. For about a week, the only way down was to go out the front door, around the back of the house and down the outside cellar stairs. IT WILL ALL BE WORTH IT. That is my mantra.

I had to come out of lurkdom on this forum to comment on your new kitchen! I looked twice to be certain this was the NEW kitchen because it so perfectly suits the age and style of your home that I thought it might be the original kitchen. Love the stove, lighting, eating area for humans and pets, the shoe rack, and the warmth and evidence of family living that happens in this room. You've achieved a timeless kitchen which is marvelously integrated with your bungalow.