Well, if you're looking in Mecklenburg county, look at Matthews. There you have the Little League,the Farmers Market,local businesses,access to I485,strong town leadership,a town green where they hold spring/summer/fall concerts/arts and crafts shows/childrens carnival. Matthews is very independent of Charlotte. They even repave their own roads. Taxes are cheaper than Charlotte and the town has plenty of corporate and manufacturing tax support. Good banks..BB@T is the strongest most solid bank in North Carolina (no TARP funds needed). Local theater for plays. Lots of church variety to choose from. One church has its own K-12 school (Covanent). Matthews School (elementary) is still excellent. There are actually multiple elementary schools,middle school and high school although assignment is determined by your location and schools are part of Mecklenburg County public school system. Big, new, town library. Presbyterian/Matthews Hospital. Marios Pizza, Carrabas and tons of other good eateries. Siskey YMCA (huge indoor outdoor facilities) The weather is a micro climate in most parts of Matthews. It can be a touch cooler/colder than Charlotte and Pineville but in 20 years and one hurricane (Hugo) I found the worst of the weather skips west of Matthews. Water quality is good, better than what we have in Union County (different source). Of the Mecklenburg towns, including Charlotte, I'd say Matthews has best adapted itself to accommadating northern transplants while retaining the Southern flavor and hospitality.

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I don't have very good light in my kitchen at all. I have a very small window over the sink which faces west but barely gets sun because the house next door is very close to the lot line and shadows mine. That window was that way when I took the house and I really didn't have the extra money to make it larger. It was either that or remove the other small window which faced south, and add a sliding door. I chose the door. However, even with adding the slider, it still doesn't brighten up the room substantially since the sun doesn't hit that side of the house - it hits the detached garage wall instead most of the day. I only get sun early in the morning there, and in the small window, late in the day but it's too small to make an impact. Having said all that - I wanted dark cabinets because my home was built in 1915, and is for the most part Craftsman and has all of it's original woodwork - which had never been painted. All of it is very dark wood. I wanted to make the kitchen feel as much like the rest of the house as possible. Anything other than a dark wood seemed inauthentic to me. So, I went with Quartersawn Oak in an espresso stain (I think that's what it is, I forget already - it's been well over a year plus since it was all installed, going on 2). I added all new overhead lighting to compensate along with undercabinet lights of course. When the overheads first came on I hated them. It felt like the sun exploded in the room lol. Now, I'm used to it and it is fine. I do wish I had not "cheaped out" in some ways on the under cabinet lights, but I had already spent something like $20K on lighting and was so angry at my electrician I just wanted to get it over already. Maybe one day I'll be able to fix what I don't like about that aspect of it - but overall, it certainly is way bright enough and I've never gotten the feeling the room is too dark. BTW, the small window? When we began demolition we discovered it originally had been an enormous almost to the floor window that had been bricked up! And there had been another one on the same wall! These old homes when first built had big windows in them to bring in as much light as possible because electricity stunk back then :) Unfortunately, I couldn't have made it work even if I wanted to bring it back to it's original state. That, would have been one heck of an expensive window and I would have lost precious cabinet and counter space to boot.

I have an thick end-grain square butcherblock that sits next to the sink and is the non-meat cutting/chopping worksurface we use on an almost daily basis. It gets wiped off several times and then gets a more vigorous cleaning at the end. I have another thinner board I use for cutting meat that is easier to scrub clean in the sink. When I first got the block I drenched it in pure tung oil thinned with citrus solvent. Let it soak in. Put more on. Repeat, repeat. Let it dry until it didn't smell. What happens over time is that the center area where I work the most starts to look "dry" like untreated wood. There's enough tung oil in it that I don't worry about it drying out or splitting but aesthetically it looks like a well-used block. Maybe twice a year I apply a coat of thinned tung oil over the whole thing to keep it sealed. I much prefer the soaked-in protection that the tung oil gives than the surface protection that frequently-applied mineral oil does. So to me there are two considerations: how well sealed is it to protect it from splitting and how does it look. The tung oil will give the best long-term protection but if you use it it will look used. If you want it to look "wet", then mineral oil and/or wax will give that look on the surface.