'White Jacques Cartier' is available in Europe; a friend has it. I HAD it; a tiny plant he propagated that didn't make it through a tough spot and a bad summer. Odinthor's hints sound intriguing. 'Blanc de Vibert' came up recently on the Italian forum I frequent, and no one who spoke up in the thread had a satisfactory experience with it. My own plant is several years old, stout and healthy, but hardly blooms at all. It is however in a lot of shade. I ought to try again to root it and see whether I can't get babies started in better spots. I'll keep the iron in mind, though plants in my garden rarely suffer from chlorosis. I first saw 'St. Nicholas' years ago at Cavriglia and lusted after it immediately: it is a very charming rose. My plant has struggled along for years, barely alive; and I may have to get it again and do a better job with it the next time. 'Hebe's Lip' I have discovered grows easily from cuttings, I got them a few years ago in a swap, and now I have three plants spread around in the garden. I like this one too. I got 'Pergolese' a year ago and it's been sitting quietly since. I like both the Damasks and the Damask Perpetuals a lot, but I have a great deal to learn about growing them well. Melissa

You don't mention where you will be building but in some places you can actually hire a company to provide expert advice as well as give you lists of pre-vetted sub-contractors if you decide to be your own builder. In Texas where I live, there are at least three such companies that I know about. Owner Builder Network UBuildIt Texas HelpUBuild Each of the above companies differs slightly in the exact services they offer but, in general, they act as guides/mentors/expert advisors to folks who choose to build their own homes and they help you to find/hire good subs who will treat your job as if you were a volume builder because the subs want to stay in good with the mentoring company. I'm not really sure what UBuiltIt or HelpUBuild charge for their services but Owner-Builder Network's bases their fee on the square footage of your house. In my neighborhood which consists of about 135 two to ten acre lots with about 100 custom or semi-custom homes built over the past 12 years, 5 homes currently in the process of being built, and about 30 lots still vacant, there are 8 couples that I know of who used one or the other of the above companies and built their own homes. We have regular neighborhood parties to whom everyone who owns a lot in the neighborhood is invited. At these gatherings, homebuilding/remodeling is often a topic of conversation - especially whenever someone who just finished their build or who is still in the process of building attends. And I would say that ALL of the people who built their own homes with the help of one of the above companies seem to be quite happy with their building experience and they regularly say that they got their money's worth and would do it again. Meanwhile, among those of us who hired professional builders, I would say at least 50% now loudly curse our builder's name and feel that, one way or another, we got thoroughly ripped off. I hired a builder and wound up having to fire him midway thru the build due to his shoddy workmanship coupled with suddenly finding myself having to pay off $60K in liens filed by subs that my builder hadn't paid even tho he had been given the money to pay them. He was broke because he'd spent our money to pay off subs he still owed from previous jobs. Classic "robbing Peter to pay Paul" and due to the imploding economy, we were his last suckers. After we found out about the liens, he admitted he was broke and then had the gall to ask us to advance him MORE money so that he could purchase the materials he needed to compete our house! Yeah right. Just how stupid do I look??? After firing him, and hiring a lawyer to try and get some of our money back and make him release a residual lien he still held against our property, we took over and finished the build ourselves. But by that point we were so broke we no longer felt we could afford even the very reasonable Owner-Builder Network fees... so we had to proceed without expert guidance. Fortunately neighbors who had built their own homes freely shared with us the knowledge they'd gained in the process and the names of the subs they had used. So in a way, I'll admit, I got a lot trickle-down benefit from all three of the above companies. Even if you're not in Texas, you might check out the above websites and see if there are similar companies operating in your area. If I had it all to do over again, I'd definitely GC my own build with the assistance of one of the above companies.

Thank you again for all of the responses. I am glad this has generated some honest discussion and that people have been willing to share their experiences. Palimpset, thank you for your input. I know I haven't decided how much I want to spend and that's a problem. It would not be totally unreasonable to spend a lot on this kitchen, especially if I went with the 10-20% of home value 'guideline'. I can swing spending that much if I chose. The kitchen is old and ready to be torn out, and I have very specific tastes so I am ready to do it and not unwilling to spend the money. I do not want to 'waste' money on something either, so I struggle with spending the money on cabs, mostly because the countertops and range are the things that I really care about. :) I already chose a yellow berta. How sharp would that be against a lovely misty grey? I have to decide if I think it's worth another __k to get the pale grey that I :really: want or would I be just as happy to have gloss white and roll that money into the divine glass tiles in the bathroom. I am also going to look into getting custom doors for Ikea cabs, although from the sounds of it, a lot of the cost was in the hand painted laquer. I fully appreciate the work involved, and have no problem paying for work where it's deserved.....I guess I just have to decide if I think it's worth it for this project. . Oh, and as an aside, I have been very specific when I have gone to the shops. Exactly how many ft of cabinets, lowers only, all drawers, gloss finish, flat front doors, metal drawer boxes.... I haven't just said I have a kitchen that might be 10ft of cabinets and I'm not sure what type of finish I want. I am going to keep looking for local shops, unfortunately I live in a place that has had a VERY good economy until very recently, so most kitchens around here were 100k plus jobs that no one batted an eye at. I think everyone's a little slow to catch up that things aren't quite what they were. I am encouraged to beat the bushes. Thank you!! It seems like there are plenty of places that will do wood cabs, I wish I wanted those and not gloss!!!

This won't be any different than any other loan. Contact your Farm Credit lender and arrange a meeting. They can explain the process. It's always a good idea to have a lender in the wings while you start your land search.