If you do drive up, you can go to Ikea on your return trip! Yes, because I may be missing Sweden already! Pesky, the fly and drive hotel option is what I was thinking of doing, and still might. Bumblebeez, I read Bryson's In a Sunburned Country before DH and I went to Australia, and loved it! I will have to get his Europe book on my Kindle. This isn't my first time flying solo to Europe, but the first time that I'll have to change planes there. I flew over to Germany a few years ago when my son was studying there, but it was non-stop and he met me a the airport. I will be landing a few hours ahead of my son this time, so I'll have to wait for him.

I don't pre-wash. I like the differential shrinkage I get when I wash the completed quilt. I used to pre-wash, but when this group here donated so many blocks for the Quilts of Valor (127), I realized I needed to complete the quilts with what was sent. Some had used washed fabric, some had not. With all the reds, whites and blues, not one fabric bled. I did use color-catchers in the wash (Quilts of Valor requires the finished quilt to be washed), but it was a rare color catcher that came out anything other than a very pale pink.

Rosie, I think you have graduated from KD 101; now it's time to take it to the next level by being willing to abandon the strictly balanced symmetry of your layout in order to max the out the functional benefits of your space. (Don't worry about the visual "cost" of losing the balance, getting that right in the end is the final step and it can be done in other ways than a book-matched design.) Anyhoo, the idea of having different-sized counter runs (and cabs) on either side of the sink and range is the next stage. Off the top of my head I usually would say give more space between the fridge and range (for the main Prep Zone in a plan like yours)than between the range and wall, except that if you do a lot of grain milling then you may need to give more space to the baking side to accomodate the grain mill and other major baking appliances. However, you did say you grow vegetables so perhaps you also can. That would mean that the "prep" side would get an enormous work out assembling and filling the jars before moving them on to the canner. (Cold pack stuff would come from the sink/island prep zone; hot pack stuff would come from range to can-filling area and then back to the range for processing.) Then you need to think of where to put the hot jars after processing and that cannot be on a stone counter, only wood or formica works there because of the risk of thermal shock. I don't know about you but I rarely do just one processing at a time so I accumulate a lot of filled and cooling jars before I'm done canning for the day. And I want to have them wind up in place where they can sit and cool down without being in my way during the clean up and rest of the day's kitchen work. But maybe you freeze instead, which would move the packing more to the island after prepping in the Prep Zone/blanching/shocking/spinning dry to the packaging steps, which might happen on the island? Do you use a FoodSaver - where would it live? Just think through how you do this..... The excellent suggestions of other posters should lead you to play around with the layout along the counters to find the most useful spacing for your personal counter top usage. Right now you have 54" on the left of the range and 60" on the right. Is that the best config? I'd try a lot of variations for regular meal prep, dedicated baking and food preservation pprojects. Don't worry, for now, about the cab sizes, just think about the work surface patterns. Since you do more home food preservation than many typical kitchen users, you have to think those additional processes through with the space needed kept in mind. For instance, I sometimes use a DW as a holding area for clean and hot jars if I am doing a hot pack, so I would want to think about its placement not only for day to day convenience, but also for how efficient it woud be for snagging jars amidst the hustle of getting a whole batch of jars filled and into the canner. This is just an example of the extra considerations needed in a preservation kitch. One suggestion I would make is to consider having an extra-deep counter, 30" would be great, but even 27" is an improvement over the standard one. This would allow your fridge to assume an even more "built-in" appearance, but most importantly, those extra inches allow appliances to stay on counters and not compromise the functionality as much. If you any extra inches to spare in your design I'd "spend" them on a deeper range wall countertop rather than in extra aisle width or island space. I hope you won't feel bummed, or discouraged, by our additional suggestions. Extra time spent now working out the variations will pay off in the long run. I made drawing after drawing and then drew lines to track how I move through my most common meal preps and preservation projects. I took pics and even made drawings of my counters during canning, freezing, dehydrating and baking projects so I could see what I actually had out, and how I had it arranged, while actually doing the tasks. This was enormously helpful to me. You have obviously put considerable thought into your current plan and drawing. And you're more than ready to take on the next level of analysis. Welcome to grad school! HTH, L

I am so, SO thankful, so blessed that I had all of you to turn to. I just re-read all the replies again and I'm smiling from ear to ear (and to be perfectly honest...my eyes got a bit teary) and I am about to start RE-decorating the tree....for the second time; thanks to all of you. To read some of your stories....terribly sad yes....those memories. But then I read how someday I can look back at this and laugh and I'm hoping all of you who've had the fallen tree mishap are able to do that also. To all of you: If any of you ever need a shoulder, or need to vent, I'll be here for you just as you were for me-I sincerely mean that. Just holler! (or, at least email through GW and I'll be there for ya...any of ya!) My Dad is doing much better....thank you so much for asking. It was sure scary the night I called 911. The fact that he is diabetic didn't help matters. E.R. Dx'd as severe food poisoning but because his sugar was through the roof and white count was so high they decided to keep him. On day three they were still insisting it was food poisoning. Took matters into my own hands and got a second opinion. Five tests later...... Severely Gangrene Gall Bladder, infection throughout bloodstream, etc. etc. Emergency surgery at 9 that night. Today, Dad is going to the bathroom without me helping him get up and walk there and without me standing outside the bathroom door waiting for him to finish. Thus....I'm redecorating my tree today! LOL My son? My voice of reason and comic relief. I will be showing him this printed thread. Thank you all so much. As for mice, rats and Sterilite....here's some pics I took really early this morning. This is one of the last two Sterilite tubs that we didn't get broken down in time for the curb/trash pick-up. Until now I thought those cute little round mouse holes in cartoons were just that....round mouse holes in cartoons. Nope, those critters really DO make almost perfect holes to get at what they want! And yes, thank you for that tip.....I just finished printing out this topic, all the replies. I want to put it with the pics I took of the mouse holes....so I can hopefully laugh about it some day. If you are squeemish about 'rat and mice stuff', don't scroll down to the pics below.....stop right here *smile* But I did put pieces of bubble wrap behind the holes to keep you from seeing the 'stuff' inside. Considerate of me, no? *grin* ------------------- ------------------- ------------------ ----------------- ------------------