I tend to think that many people believe they can "recycle" better than large corporations. IOW, just bury newspapers and cardboard boxes, turn it into compost and skip the middle man, since you are using it as decomposing material. You are saving energy, recycling, saving the landfills, and promoting an Organic garden with natural materials. I don't believe it for a second, now. As a teen I worked at a warehouse and we stacked broken down cardboard boxes outside the doors. After a rain, especially multiple rains this gooey slime would drip down the sides of the freight dock. It was nasty and sticky that never seemed to go away after the cardboard was picked up. Then years later using cardboard in my garden, thinking the way most do, I found cardboard two years later in the ground and even detected the gooey slime. That caused me to do some research and I found out that I was very far from Organic. I would have been more organic using Miracle-Gro. Here is what I found: Cardboard in cardboard boxes: Semi-Chem (semi-chemical fluting medium) is applied to stretch" the fibers, making it stronger and stiffer. Where the corrugated short fiber paper are usually used for peaks and valleys of each flute, then glued using starch adhesives. While these adhesives sound innocent enough since they are called, "starch adhesives" (usually shipped to the cardboard manufacturer as a powder) they are seldom made up of Tapioca dextrin, the adhesive used for postage stamps. They most likely will be incorporated with 5 to 15% resins, such as urea formaldehyde, and especially used for cartons where water resistance is helpful. Most dextrin combinations are heated upward of 600 degrees to create a stronger bonding agent. If the paper lacks the amount of wax necessary for good fluting, wax bars are introduced in the process. Newspaper ink: Since 2004, 95% of American newspaper ink is now soy based, as opposed to petroleum based. To make soy ink, soybean oil is slightly refined and then blended with pigment, resins, and waxes. Even though soybean oil is an edible vegetable oil, soy ink is not edible or 100% biodegradable because the pigments and other additives that are mixed with the oil are the same as those used in petroleum-based inks. However it does degrade four times as completely as standard petroleum inks. The fact that this newer ink has rave reviews how it can be "recycled" easier, doesn't mean it is safe for consumption. It only means the soy ink can be removed more easily than regular ink from recycled newspaper during the de-inking process. Maybe less of a concern, but still a concern is that 92% of soybean acreage in the US is planted with genetically-modified soybeans, which some believe can pose environmental and human health risks. I just don't think working so hard on my garden to get it right, I want to introduce consumer products into the soil if it's not necessary. The only motivation that I can see is that it makes you feel like you are recycling on the most basic level and saving a tiny bit of money. My cardboard and newspaper needs to go to a recycling plant or landfill and let dirt in my garden do the rest.

Livebetter - I am sure you will be thrilled w/your new Miele's at least I hope so. So far I am thrilled w/my Bosch set. If I could have stacked the Miele's, I probably would have gone that route, however, I could not manage the price plus redoing a just done laundry to make them fit. It's interesting between the different appliance people and what they think of Samsung. My guy wants to dump them as soon as the contract is up do to the many, many repair calls. Yours recommended them. I find that interesting. Also, the delivery personal we had did an excellent job. One of them also owns the Bosch Vision series and he loves his as well. So that's 2 people from the same store both raving about what I just bought. I'm not overly concerned that Bosch is getting out of the 27" laundry set. Did concern me for a minute, however, my 7 yo dishwasher model I don't think is produced anymore, but they continue to use basically the same parts and well, it just hasn't needed serviced. I'm hoping I find the same for my washer. I love having the bigger drum. I believe mine is 4.3, coming from my approx 1.6 euro style Danby, it's like a cavern. I have yet to over fill it, but it's cut my laundry time in approx 1/2. I hope to see my water bill go down as well. I can't tell you the difference in how much each is using. Bosch claims 13 gals for an entire load, not sure what the Danby used, it doesn't say in the book, but if I've got to run 3 loads in there compared to 1 in the Bosch, I have to be saving something. All that said, I think you will find the 4.0 to be a good size. I have not tried my Q comforter yet, so I will let you know when I do. As for the steam in the dryer. I can't see myself using it very much. As I said, most items come up virtually wrinkle free to start with. We don't wear many dress shirts here, so I won't need it for that either. I will do some sweaters, but the heat it uses worries me for some things. I guess what I will have to do, is let a load dry, let it sit so it will wrinkle and then try the steam function to see if I can get it back to just been dried. So I would not worry about not having it.

lowspark--OT, but can you tell me what your counters are? They're lovely. Thanks! Sorry I'm just now answering this! But thank you!! They are Paradiso granite. I love them! A question for those of you who constructed a sleeve of wood around the perimeter of the box for the Lee Valley channels to attach to -- is that sleeve made of the same 1/4" lathe material? How did you make it come together, just glue it at the ends? It doesn't need to be held together. Everything just slips into the drawer and interconnects and fits. It's just a frame made from the wood strips. The LV brackets are pounded into those strips just the same as they are pounded into the divider strips in the middle of the drawer. As long as you measure and cut everything to fit, you don't need glue or any other kind of attachment. Did you make it or did your cabinet guy. Does this have a bottom or only the sides? I made it all. And I'm generally NOT handy. No bottom, just sides. So, what I did was put all my utensils in the drawer as I wanted them to be laid out. Then I measured everything and drew myself a picture. Measure the inside perimiter of the drawer. Measure how long each divider should be. Then I diagram this on paper, noting the length of each divider and the location of each bracket on the diagram. Note when measuring: keep in mind that the bracket itself has some thickness. So if you are going to nail a bracket into one strip of wood and the opposite strip, and slip the third strip into those brackets, if the strips of wood are say, 5" apart, your connecting strip is not going to be 5". It'll be something more like 5-7/8". I don't remember exactly. So do an experiment with your first cut before doing all the permanent cuts. Measure, cut, then see how far apart the border strips are compared to how long the connecting strip is. That'll tell you how much shorter to make the strips than the actual width. Then I count up what to cut. Make a list: 2 14", 2 12", 6 5.5", etc. Like that. Then I cut. Then I sand. Then I lay all the strips in the drawer just to make sure they were cut right. It's sort of a manual process: hold this strip here and this strip there and make sure the third strip fits where it's supposed to. It's a confirmation I cut everything right before going on to the next step. Then I stain & lacqueur. Staining and lacqueuring is extra and optional but I wanted to give it all a finished look. Then I go back to my diagram and see where each bracket needs to be on each piece of wood and measure and mark the wood with pencil. Then I pound in each bracket using a rubber mallet. Then I begin placing each strip of wood in the drawer. Start with the frame which, if you measured and cut correctly, will slip right into the drawer, meeting at the corners. Then the strips which connect to the frame go in by just slipping them into the divider channels. Then the strips that go into those strips, etc. Till all the strips of wood are in, all the brackets are occupied. So for me, the process takes a couple of hours of work on the first day to measure, cut and sand. Then I lay out all the strips and do the staining and lacqueuring which spans over 4 days as I do side one, let it dry, then do the flip side each for stain and lacqueur. Once everything is dry on the fifth day, I put it together inside the drawer as described above. Like I said, I'm not generally handy. This was somewhat labor intensive by MY standards but not really hard. The hardest part was measuring and remeasuring to make sure everything was cut right. I used a jigsaw to cut the wood strips because they are thin and don't need a heavy duty saw. I did them over time. For each drawer, I set aside a day of a weekend for the main work then did the wet stuff over the week and installed on the following weekend. Took me about two months before all the drawers were done since I didn't do them all at the same time or even on consecutive weekends. I will say that I'm thrilled with the results and it was worth the effort! The whole frame lifts up and can be removed for easy cleaning Yes, and if at some point in the future, I decide to reconfigure it, the drawer itself is intact with no holes or damage. That was important to me so the frame was a requirement. I was not going to pound a bunch of holes into these drawers I'd just gotten through shelling out thousands of dollars for! LOL

It reminds me of my midcentury home, but I have walls of glass. My home is shaped like an L around a pool. The inside of the L are the great rooms, the outside of the L are the bedrooms. If you like this style, I’d get an arcthitect and have him design a custom home which shares some of these features. It definitely needs more glass. ALso the master closet looks small. Lastly, on 40 acres, I think you could do better.