hinge on left is a "face frame cup hinge"- other names exist hinge on right is "euro hinge" other names exist In both cases there are at least 6 mfgs who have up to dozens of variations of swing, cabinet clip, attachment... What do you really need to know? Soft close hinges- newest and most common the soft close is built into the hinge. Older ones had a piston mounted in the cabinet for the door to hit on closing. You might be able to clean them- carefully- no solvents, no WD40 (which is a solvent) but unlikely. On newer glides the soft close mechanisms is integral and can't really be repaired. The older (over 5 years) could be replaced if they were blum. Note that dust can be the death of undermount glides. Sawdust from install not cleaned or worse, granite dust and often the glides will have to be replaced. Keep after your installers.

Johnliu, that was a great write-up, very educational. Count me as someone OCD about my knives. I also want to emphasize that one's "taste" in knives is very individual. So, for me, regarding ceramic knives - I know they are really sharp, and maintain their sharpness much longer than steel knives, and are easier to care for (as long as you don't drop them). Having said that, I cannot stand the hard sound they make when chopping - that sound and how they feel as they strike the cutting board gives me the shivers. Obviously, this is a very personal thing! One more thing that John briefly mentioned that I want to expand on a bit is the type of cutting board. If you care about your knives, or care about the investment of $$ you've made in your knives, you should not use a plastic cutting board. They will dull your knives in just a few uses. You should use wood cutting boards. No one knows where the idea came from that plastic boards are safer - researchers at the University of Wisconsin have studied this perception that plastic cutting boards are better, and were unable to ascertain why people think this. Their findings were that wooden boards are safer. "The [University of Wisconsin] researchers purposely contaminated wood and plastic boards with bacteria and then tried to recover those bacteria alive from the boards. They also tested boards made from seven different species of trees and four types if plastic. They incubated contaminated boards overnight at refrigerator and room temperatures and at high and typical humidity levels. They tested several bacteria, Q Salmonella, Listeria and enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli Q known to produce food poisoning. The results consistently favored the wooden boards, often by a large margin over plastic boards. The scientists found that three minutes after contaminating a board that 99.9 percent of the bacteria on wooden boards had died, while none of the bacteria died on plastic. Bacterial numbers actually increased on plastic cutting boards held overnight at room temperature, but the scientists could not recover any bacteria from wooden boards treated the same way. A major question is why wood is so inhospitable to bacteria. The researchers have tried unsuccessfully to recover the compound in wood that inhibits bacteria, and is continuing the research."

My favorite spring/summer wreath is made of grapevine and entwined with ivy and other greenery and white daisies with yellow centers. It looks fresh against my red-painted door, and since I live on Daisy Lane, it's even more appropriate. :-)

There's also the "crate" or "cargo" style furniture that was very common in the late 70s and 80s but has never really gone away - This End Up, Cargo, etc. The dorms at one college I attended were all furnished with This End Up because the stuff was practically bulletproof. TEU is still going (it went out of business for a while in 2000 but was revived) but I see it and its clones come up on Craigslist pretty regularly. Without more explanation it's hard to know exactly what the OP means. (Thanks for the nitpick, bronwynsmom, that's a little pet peeve of mine too since I'm a MUCH greater fan of English A&C than I am of Mission. Although the vast majority of the American manufacturers, including eventually Gustav Stickley, threw the whole "handmade" aspect out the window and built their Mission-style furniture and other decor items in factories; in the UK it remained more artisanal and thus rather expensive, while in the US A&C had more of an "everyman" approach and became quite cheap.)