Yeah I think that member was from Sweden. The photos are under orchid growing areas in the Gallery section and they are the last set on the first page, a set of four terrariums side by side. The enclosures are not very large once you know the scale although some members have huge orchidariums. I just can't believe how professional the cylinder type terrariums came out and from such simple materials anyone can get at a Home Depot! I am going to leave this project for the fall or winter but I am seriously considering building something that can be automated with misters etc. for times when I am away, mounted plants don't like vacations. :( If you build it yourself it costs much less, had a medium sized one years ago but did not keep it when I moved because it was built too heavy and bulky and was not properly sealed to be water tight. Mike

OK, the 2nd try at our kitchen started last Tuesday. I'm so burnt out I don't know how much energy I have to write it up, so I'll gloss over some details. The new guy and his boss showed up and again expressed amazement at how bad the first try was. I was very reassured about their take on what needed to be done about it but it was also clear that not all the damage could be corrected. The original face frames were gouged and or cracked in places, riddled with screw holes where he'd retried door positions a few too many times, etc. The first few days went OK, tho there were a few small things I had to point out he took it well and fixed them. No fighting or attitude issues! I was very worried that he hadn't removed all of the old glue down to the bare wood, but he seems to have made that work OK. On Friday I could tell he was getting tired and frustrated though. He put up some crown and it really looked like amateur hour. Then he tried to fix it with filler and I had to push for it to get redone right. It still isn't as good as it should be. He came on Saturday to get the job done and again did some crown that just wasn't good enough - had to have him redo that too. Still not as good as I'd do myself. I've been appreciative all week that he's trying to fix a big mess and can't do magic. But when he declared it done yesterday and asked me to check it and 'sign off' I was not ready to do so. There were still a few things to tweak and fix as well as the damage done by the first guy. I was NOT ready to call it good. He was telling me if I don't sign off at the end of the job then he doesn't get paid. Fine I said, come back another day and fix a few more things. But I could tell that wasn't really an option for him. There seems to be a very unfair structure to how they handle their subs. Give them a tight deadline to complete, no option to run over and either get sign off on the last day or don't get paid. That's just unfair to both the sub and the customer. Plus, an hour or less of looking over the job isn't enough to decide whether it's good or not. As we cleaned up and moved stuff back in today we started seeing all kinds of little things that needed fixing but hadn't noticed yesterday. Door and drawer alignment, odd choices in how to handle shoe and corner molding, etc. So now I have to call them tomorrow and work out those details. Very irritating and stressful! - D P.S. I think it's hilarious that Home Depot has a little 'sponsored by' logo on this thread. Not exactly a flattering write up!

Thank you for the very many helpful comments so far. Since we've not gone down this road before, it's great to get an idea of other's experiences and what a reasonable starting point will be. I don't mind the couple of comments about our budget being insufficient: I am trying to determine what does or doesn't fit in that budget. So pushback is good. If too little fits in it, then maybe we need to table the project for a few months or year until we have some additional cash on the table. We have one quote, that is in line with the previous comment. The GC we talked to didn't seem phased by our budget (and we cited a smaller number back then, as we've saved more in the intervening months). However, when he drew up recommendations, the number *did* come in higher. The plumbing, electrical, and ceiling work were estimated at about 2500 each. The estimate for cabinets, counters, modifying the drywall, etc was about 21,500. So, $28,500 was the quote for all the essential stuff. This left me puzzling over the following problem: wait, save, and come back with more than $28,500 (the 10,000 mentioned would probably be ideal), or try to figure out if we could scale the concept back to bring that figure at least somewhat closer to budget. Our next step may be to play with the Ikea planner. Perhaps what I can do from there is check with one of the big boxes or else (this might be smarter) just get cabinet quotes from a vendor, and then pay one of the contractors who works our neighborhood and knows rowhouses to help us evaluate the cost of everything else. That way we'll know what we can aim at and how close we are. Thanks again, this is all very helpful.

Salonva, we have Coretec for a year now in our Florida home. You clean it with water and vinegar. For the most part I spray with just water. We have a dog. No scratches from him, pulling chairs on, dropping something hard etc. It never looks dirty because of the grading, knots etc. I think I look at things a bit differently. Does mine look the same as hard wood that I have up north? No. But it looks nice! Yes there are some fake looking products, but I don’t believe Coretec falls into that category. We chose a beachy/ driftwood look. We were lucky to see this is someone’s home. We were going in a whole other direction! In the kitchen.