I don't mind if people want to "help" by bringing things into the kitchen from the dining room, but that's as far as I want to go. I don't put my good china or crystal in the DW and would rather set it aside to do later or in the morning. I will reluctantly let guests help put leftovers away, clear the dining room or prepare it for coffee and dessert -- but please don't try to help me clean up my kitchen! In fact, the few times I've agreed to letting guests have it their way and let them help clear up and do the dishes -- has resulted in broken china and delaying the evening. It seems like I'm always glad to see those people on the other side of the door! This makes me sound like a shrew for sure! But I've enjoyed a reputation as a good hostess, and people forcing themselves into my kitchen and into my way of doing things sets me back a little. I accommodate them to placate them, but it's MY house, after all! My sister is the best! She will always say -- "I need a job or something to do." I always say "you're on vacation" and then she says, "I know your at your best when everyone's out of your kitchen". Annie'71 (signing my name here because I don't want to confuse this response with OOAnnie, who I'm sure is not as anal about this and old Annie'71)

hee hee - must be a big change from the frenzied maniac of last night! They'll be here in less than an hour and the wellingtons are put together ready for oven so are the mushrooms, cheese nips...I stil lhave to do hollandaise and cook asparagus. Fruit and stuff is cut up for the fondue - and kids pizzas are prebaked - just need warming up. Oh and soup is done - cheese is grated for tops, and bread is toasted. Here I am feeling quite proud - watch - I'll self destruct - lol. Only thing to do is fix ME up. good lord, if i answered the door like this they'd wonder what the "real" theme is... Stacy

Thank you! We are booked and I am so excited! St Petersburg for 6 days in a big house with my sailing friends and their families and then 6 days on Anna Maria island with just my immediate family. I would have reserved the Manasota Key one, I really liked it, but the rental agent was a bad communicator. On a funny note, we have decided to bring our cat. He is so tragically sad when we are away overnight that it would be comic, if it weren't so very tragically sad. He's not destructive or mad, just goes off his food and is lethargic and sometimes wails til he is hoarse. So we are driving 16 hours to Florida with our kitty in the car. When he's with us he's a perfectly content little guy. But we are going to start taking practice drives in the car. It was surprisingly easy to find a rental that would permit him.

So, I, too, would choose not to have the 2-island design--I think the island-galley with the hidden pantry is lovely. If I had all the room in the world, I'd still choose to have 1 aisle for the main cooking area--but I like the island on the 2nd wall. And then on the other wall (if there was one) away from the island, a wall of fairly shallow storage, or storage w/ display shelves or something like that... The house: OK, for me, the difference between the 2 pictures you show isn't just about "big"--it's about more integration with the landscape, too. The house in the overhead view seems surrounded by only grass with a couple shrubs or small trees. Is that all you have to work with? No mature trees? Honestly, at that point, I'd differentiate myself by NOT going all-grass, but putting $$ into landscaping instead of house-size. Integrate your design with the landscape--you could have, say, the front you're showing to the street & a huge deck with lake views off the back, gardens flowing down to a dock with boats (it is a real lake? Not a man-made pond?). You'd still be smaller than the neighbors, but so different (at least from that 1 pic!) that it'd be likely valuable to someone. Maybe I'm alone in this, but I don't want a huge-huge house--all that space to care for, to put furniture in, to keep picked up (presuming that someone else does the vacuuming & scrubbing!), to maintain (whether you are paying a contractor or DIY, it still takes time!). And if you like Cape/Colonial, then go for it! Use the saved $$ to add in all the rich details--trim, built-ins, real wood, the stuff Susan Susanka talks about in the not-so-big house books...