I wouldn't like that either. Who knows what happened all those months ago. "Get over it" seems wrong to say. How about "Come to terms with it" or "Make the best of it" or "put it in perspective." It cannot be changed now, anyway. Maybe they can at least refund what you paid for the yearbook, as a gesture of regret for the mistake. If this is the worst thing that happened to your son's senior year, you are a lucky family. You have the nice pictures from the photographer, those are the ones you'll treasure for yourself, as a mother, more than the yearbook, anyway. I mean, those will be in the frame on the mantle or wherever every day for years. The yearbook picture will be looked a lot for now, but eventually almost never. We have so many pictures of our children/ourselves growing up, the value of the yearbook is the memories of people and times that it brings back later for the student. That won't change despite this error.

Hi, hobokenkitchen Guidelines are just guidelines, and my husband and I never have felt crowded with the aisle and dimensions that we have in our kitchen -- true we each have a body mass index under 25! But things feel efficient in there: we can easily turn from one line of counters or from the range to the island without taking more than a couple of steps, and the 24" square island utility sink is easily accessible from both sides of the narrow island, from the prep counter against the windows and from the range on the interior wall. The refrigerator/freezer doors are not 36" wide, either, so it doesn't swing too much into the space, and even when the dishwasher door is fully open (on the window side, to the left of the island utility sink) it is possible to sidle around it. I think my only concern having lived with this arrangement for over a year is: it will be interesting to see how well the cork floor holds up over the years, because we really do cover the same territory on that floor over and over. So far no sign of extra wear. But I have extra cork tiles saved! Good luck to you, and thanks to CoCo for supplying those links. lynn

DH and I bought a 1960's fixer-upper. The money we saved on the home's purchase price (compared to homes in the area in better condition) went into improvements, including the kitchen. But we were on a tight budget with the kitchen, and I watched every penny, and tried not to get carried away with all the stuff available out there (reading this forum makes that hard!). We also stayed within the original kitchen's footprint, since moving walls, plumbing and electrical really add enormously to a renovation's cost. Neither my DH nor I are any good at DIY stuff, so we did pay for outside contractors for the work. But I purchased almost all items myself from appliances to granite to sink and so on down to even the xenon undercabinet light bulbs. Although I did not put in actual labor, I put in plenty o'sweat equity in the form of hours spent on the internet looking for deals. As others have said, when you shop via the 'net, you save the tax, and usually get free shipping (if a website did not offer free shipping, I usually moved on to the next one). But it was hours of my time, plus the time spent tracking everything once ordered, awaiting deliveries, and inspecting everything upon arrival. So I saved dollars by not having the contractor do that, but used up a lot of my time. I did have the contractor purchase all building materials like drywall and the like cause that is beyond what I could do. I also saved money in small ways, like I chose almost all white appliances, saving with each one a couple of hundred dollars over stainless steel. I sold my old appliances on Craig's List, and maybe made a few hundred there, but hey, it all adds up. Without all the work I put in, we couldn't have managed it without going into debt. And we did not want to go into debt.

Hi, To start with the soapstone- we have had it in for about a month now and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I cannot get enough of the charcoaly black color and feel of it--like a baby's skin. It is from Brazil so is the very soft version of it. It definitely dings and scratches easily. The scratches disappear with an oiling and the dings blend in with oiling. I plan to try and sand them soon so I will let you know how that goes. I am not sure where you are located but we are in PA and got it from Bucks County Soapstone. We paid a tiny bit more to go with them (maybe $5/sq ft more) but I cannot say enough about how wonderful this company is. It was so worth it. It is the best company I have every dealt with--with regards to anything I have ever purchased. They are just wonderful! Maybe I should do an add for them;o). With regards to your island--I LOVE the wood. We had butcher block in our old house and I just loved it. We thought of it for here too but I didn't feel it fit with the style of this more traditional house. (I like a much more funky house with more character but this made more sense to be in a neighborhood with lots of kids). I think a soapstone perimeter will look gorgeous. My aunt has a different kind of soapstone--little more greenish to it and it is much harder. It is equally beautiful and is what made us think of soapstone originally. As far as the posts go, how big are your cabinets (total overall dimensions of it)? When we were working on ours--they suggested a minimum of an 11" overhang on the sides with the larger counter stools. They actually suggested it on any overhang side but we didn't have enough room on the stove side and we knew we would just have a small stool there so it didn't bother us. We did a bit more on the fridge side than the 11" as we had the space. I would say that once the counter is installed, try to put a piece of wood or baseball bat or fed ex shipping tube... to mimic the post in the place you want it by the kitchen table to see if it bothers you. That is what we did with the extra overhang on the island on the stove side as one of the handymen we got a quote from said it might feel too cramped. It didn't bother me. What I would say about the posts is they don't make it feel closed at all. It still feels as open as when I just had the counter without posts. You could also do slightly smaller posts. IMHO I really love the posts. It used to bother me before we replaced the counters and expanded the island that the counter was just floating there with no support--but that is just me. I know many like it the other way better and I think it just comes down to personal preference. I am by no means any good at designing though--I am very mathematical and love symmetry:o) so hopefully someone else who is more artistic or with design experience can weigh in. Good luck. Keep me updated and let know about the dimensions of the cab to see if you can do the posts! Also, LOVE how your kitchen is turning out!