Well now, these two weeks later, what I need up there is rain! Had a nice all-day half-incher or so here but 60 miles north, it petered out to nothing. So there's 6000 baby trees that have had only one little rain since being planted, and now some actual warmth to help dry things out. Dern it, can't win with weather. Looked very briefly at my seedlings yesterday. Was up there for other purposes and had to hurry. Now with the pine and spruce, there is of course no apparent foliar damage from that cold night back when this thread started. Some of the larch-sure enough they look toasted. But a whole bunch more look okay, albeit dry like the rest. Funny thing is, it's the ones at the top of the slope that look like they got frost damaged whereas the ones down yonder on the low end of that slope look good. But the main point of all this? These trees are on their own! Whatever happens happens at this point. +oM PS....it's not really dry up there-the forest is as moist as can be. But these seedlings were planted up in an open field and hence much more subject to drying out. Rain is forecast to become widespread by tomorrow night/Monday. Sure hope so!

I live very close to this schoolhouse and have not heard about his project. I know money was donated to plant a rain garden there. I haven't even heard of this boy's project. It might be a good idea if he could look for donations from people in town with old gardens, like me. I'm sure the woman in charge of the schoolhouse has millions of plants. I'll check with her, but I have old-fashioned plants I could share.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I've been lurking on these boards for months and this is my first post so all comments are appreciated. I will try to post the layout as we envision it as soon as I figure out how to do so. To answer the questions raised so far: @Angie DIY - we believe there is room in the bump-out for the water supply/drainage. @Katesouros - unfortunately we can't put the DW across from the sink - we're really limited in terms of usable space and have some constraints we just can't move such as a center stairwell that makes up on wall of the kitchen - that would be a great idea though! @Mbarstow - we are thinking of a corner sink as well - any other configurations really limit our counter space which is one of the biggest issues with the current layout - the corner where the sink will be is on one side of the bump-out and the DW would be on the other side.

What is on the other end of the kitchen -- opposite the eating area? Are you set on keeping the island in the kitchen or would you consider an alternative? If you are replacing cabinets and countertops, why not consider a better layout for everything?If you are set on keeping island and pretty much keeping layout except for cooktop, it might make more sense to move the dishwasher to the right side of the sink and put the cooktop on the left side of the sink where you would have more counter space on either side of cooktop (or am I fooled by the angle of the photo and both sides are the same?). If you replaced the sink with a slightly smaller one bowl sink, you'd gain a little more counter top too. Consider changing the lower cabinets to drawers, including in the island, and get rid of the desk area.