Hi, Mikie. Thanks. I guess I will look for a 1.5TB drive (unless I don't find any with very good reviews - I know I've seen some 1 TB drives that get great reviews for around $100). I know I have one open sata port (I did have my computer open last week to take my Tivo original hard drive and copy it to a new 1TB hard drive - with all the snafus this 1- 1/2 hr. project took 8 hours on Saturday - and on and off all Sunday to complete). There is definitely a bay for a second hard drive. I had 2 sata ports but just added an esata cable so I'm using one of those now. I definitely don't have such huge files (maybe 10-15GB at most for a long high-def movie), so I'll look into partitioning the drive (which is an intimidating idea now, but I'll work up to it). I'm not sure what you mean by break-away covers. But this computer comes with an empty slot in front where a firewire port can be. I think this is what you mean by does the faceplate have provisions for it. I've looked through Dell forums. I'm copying the link here: http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/18748278.aspx?c=us&l=en&cs=04&s=bsd&PageIndex=1 It's amazing that for over a year folks have been trying to add this front firewire port after the face - and most of them cannot get a straight answer from Dell. The variety of responses - including it can't be done, it can only be added to the rear, a suggestion of different needed parts - and then perhaps one answer that seems right - but they got the part number wrong and it took the woman 30 minutes to find the information out. Anyway, I've read through it several times bc. it all seems to unclear. I wish I could have read that several people did the same thing and it worked. But people had different solutions. I think I'll call Dell parts and ask about this one: Part #J4975 ($32.99): * IEEE 1394 PCI Card (all internal cables included) for Dell Inspiron 530 Desktop * One end has FireWire port that will be accessible on front of computer (i.e., via the existing slot) * The other end is the PCI Card (which connects to the motherboard) and also has three additional FireWire ports accessible on back of computer. * Internal cables (included with purchase) connect the two ends. * All four FireWire ports have 6-pin heads. But even that part number is wrong - it's supposed to be Y4975. It sounds like the right thing to me. Then I can just plug in my Lego parts. Dell support is just so uninformed. Back to the hard drive, do I need to get cables as well as the drive? I'm sure I need 1 or 2 cables to connect the drive to my computer - and I'm asking in case that answer is more clear. Thanks. Lynn. PS - I'm not mechanical - but I'm determined to learn.

Make the wall cabinets 3" smaller and it should be fine. As to BTU, you can still get a sear on steaks, but you will probably need to do them one at a time using something like a cast iron pan that has a lot of thermal mass to keep the heat drop from being so precipitous. As to what is "enough", it depends. Many people find themselves cooking more in their new kitchens. It's always easier to turn a burner down than to wish you had more power that isn't there. You should take a trip to a local appliance showroom that has a few ranges set up to be able to test drive. See what you think you need, based on what you cook now. Then, go one step up in power if you can afford it. The BTU power game costs money to play. So, if you rarely do stir frys or sear a steak on top of the stove, you can probably adapt to doing it in smaller batches. If either of those things is a frequent activity, you should really put some testers through their paces before making a decision. But, also remember that more BTU's means more CFM's needed for venting. And that can trigger makeup air needs. A lot of people do a lot of their high heat cooking on an exterior grill because it's easier to get the results that they want without having to deal with the smoke and grease in their kitchens. If you go "good enough" for inside the house, you might want a good grill for the patio next to the kitchen so you can have the best of both worlds accessible to you.

Bullnose - also for any outside corners! I have an outside corner on my backsplash - there's a concrete post in the corner that we had to tile around. I totally forgot about it when I was ordering tile (which is funny, because I was obsessed about my outside corners in the bathroom). Well, the tiler asks what I want to do with the corner... he's got these vinyl strips he likes to use for corners. I had already nixed the vinyl strips in the bathroom - I think they look cheesy. I asked if he could miter the corners (cut the edge of the tile in a diagonal so the two corners line up). Well, the corner is exactly the same size as the tile so there isn't enough overlap to miter them. Fortunately, they were rectified porcelain tiles with a nice factory edge, so he was able to just line up the edges. Doesn't look bad. Sorry for the long story, but the upshot is - don't forget the bullnose! ;-)

I would certainly not describe myself as someone who is sure of herself regarding design (I just got my living and dining rooms painted after about five years of paint samples taped to the walls) but this is what I did (I did not have a KD, for what that's worth): I spent a long time years  tearing pictures out of magazines (now I also save copies of pictures with elements I like from websites I browse). I saved the pictures (along with pictures I tagged in books) and when it came time to do the kitchen I went through them all and narrowed the stack down to ones I really liked. In some cases, it was a whole look or feeling and in other cases it was some specific thing, tile or a wood color or some other design feature. My husband and I also went on our local American Institute of Architects home tour every year (it also helped that for 10 years I was the editor of an architecture magazine but I'm a writer not, as I said, a designer. But that job did teach me to read plans and gave me an ability to visualize those two-dimensional drawings as three-dimensional spaces. So that was definitely a plus). In my case, I ended up with image after image of stained wood, Shaker-style doors, green tile (and more and more and more green tile), and dark counters. We knew we wanted matte black counters (although we were thinking honed black granite until I found GW; we ended up with soapstone). Oh and we love metal: galvanized, stainless, natural steel. So we wanted some of that. So those were our starting points. And that's pretty much what we ended up with: natural white oak Shaker cabinets, brushed nickel hardware, soapstone, butcher block, a black steel counter, and some other steel accents, stainless appliances. Oh and a green tile backsplash. I have a cart that slides into a spot under the counter, an idea I'd torn out of a magazine, and a bookcase built of steel uprights and butcher block, from another picture I'd saved and gave to our carpenter. I can't say I never lay awake worrying about how it was going to look. I did. Many nights. And every time a new element went into place I thought maybe I'd messed the whole thing up. But lots of time thinking about what we wanted before we started, lots of poring over magazines and books and websites, made me pretty sure of what I liked and of what elements it would take to create the kitchen I wanted. Sorry for going on so long. I have no idea if any of it's helpful. I came to GW after many of our decisions were made but I think there's much to be said for the Sweeby test: how do you want your kitchen to feel, how are the various elements contributing to that feel. The idea of writing a mission statement for your kitchen seems like a good one and I guess that's basically what I did with all my pictures. There must be many ways that people end up with the beautiful kitchens I see here on GW (certainly much more refined kitchens than mine) but our process worked for us and we ended up with a kitchen that, two years later, I still marvel over and love.