Hi kissthecook! Thanks for joining in the revelry! :) I am thoroughly intrigued by the open house idea and for the past 2 years, I have been trying to work up the guts to try it out! With a current guest list of over 100 (probably only 75 will show), the idea of staggering arrival times seems ideal. How much time do you allow for people to visit? Do you say something like 4pm-8pm, come when you like? Or do you "assign" arrival times to make sure the house isn't stuffed to the gills? I haven't done our invitations yet, but they will go out the same time as yours, so there's still an opportunity to change things up. I get the feeling, though, that "open houses" are much less common in SoCal, but I could be wrong. The only downside I can see is that we are planning on serving dinner-type food, not heavy hors d'oeuvres. The hot food items will be in chafing dishes, however, so do you think that could work? What is on everyone's menu? I am so loving your hot cocoa/chocolate giveaways. That's another thing I need to try--gifts in a jar: hot cocoa, brownie mix, cookie mixes, etc. One day I'll get to do these things! I would defnitely try out Alton's recipe before giving away, but I'm sure it's good. Here's another giveaway that's really a nice souvenir of the evening: I once went to a party where the host took a snapshot of everyone as they arrived. Sometime during the party, she (or her husband--I never figured it out) printed out these little pictures and put them in 2" x 2" frames. Then all of the sudden, they magically appeared on a tabletop tree! Each set of guests got to take theirs home with them when they left. Probably too much work for almost 100 people, but it might work really well for a smaller party. Another alternative is to take the pictures and send them in Thank You notes if you send those after the party. Lastly, I am extemely jealous of your old Victorian. They are gorgeous dressed up for the holidays! You just can't buy that charm, you know? Anyway, keep the ideas coming and I can't wait to hear how everything's going! It would be great to see pictures of the fruits of our labor at the end of the year (or beginning of the next), too!! :)

golddust, was this inspired by my "Filth" thread, by any chance? I am an introvert, DH is an extrovert, but we both usually enjoy having company. I don't know about him, but I enjoy it more when I'm at least somewhat prepared (i.e., have something to offer by way of food and drink, have a clean bathroom, etc.). We used to give a big party during the week between Christmas and New Year's, but it was getting too big for me -- a lot of work, too many people who didn't know each other, too crowded for our small house. So we stopped inviting so many people and try to keep our parties down to a dozen or fewer. There was one time when we invited BIL and family (and SIL's sister and husband) for lunch on Christmas. I can't remember why. Lunch was Chinese carryout, and I had baked some cookies. We were nervous wrecks. I think it's because they never want to eat anything we cook (we're vegetarians and they're big meat eaters; BIL is allergic to chocolate and tomatoes; I could go on but you get the idea -- which is why we decided on the carryout) and they act like our house is the shabbiest thing they've ever seen. SIL's sister made a remark like, "Why, this is really a nice little house," like they'd been dissing it to her beforehand. (Their house is a perfectly nice suburban house in a lily-white new-ish subdivision out in the middle of nowhere; we live in a 60-year-old rather diverse neighborhood close to town.) So entertaining them makes me nervous. But having friends over is usually fun.

It is so very frustrating, isn't it? My kitchen took 9 months from demolition to completion (well, we still have a punch list of stuff, but no one has been here since before Thanksgiving, not pushing because completion of punch list means last payment). I was assured it would be done in the spring, and then certainly by July 4th, and then I realized I'd better cancel the party I had planned for my husband's birthday in August. When my mother said that I would be lucky to have it done in time for Thanksgiving, I laughed, but she was right. We had a major mistake midway that required a big redesign, and some brand new cabinets to wait endlessly for. Weeks where no one came, vacations that interfered with the job, a million little problems that added up to big delays. But you know what? I had a party on Sunday. Late Saturday night after I finished cleaning my kitchen to perfect, I sat staring at it, and I love it. All the bad times are just a funny story to tell. I was discussing the whole process with some women, and we decided renovations are like pregnancy. It feels absolutely endless while you are in the middle of it, and it is so unpleasant and painful at times. You swear you will never do it again, and you'll never get over how much harder it was than you thought. But then when it is done, you forget all the pain and agony, and just marvel at your creation. My advice? Vent like crazy here. Read stories about people's much worse experiences to make yourself feel better. Remain calm, and realize that just about any problem can be fixed, and human beings make mistakes. And as my mother likes to say "this too shall pass." And in the end, it will all work out, and you'll be thrilled with the end result. It really is worth the wait.

Do you have an overhead cab plan with measurements? It's impossible to say whether you have adequate aisles, whether you can go with a larger island, etc, without knowing what your clearances are. Do you really need that much refrigerator/freezer space? You wrote that you entertain often so perhaps you do, but they do dominate that wall. Really assess your needs and see if you can shrink them to give you more counter for your beverage center, which looks chopped up with the bar sink in the middle. Also, if you intend this to be used when you entertain, you may be better off with the fridge/freezer columns closest to the cook top wall and moving the bar sink and beverage center towards the (assuming, can't read the above image very well) family room. One last thought for now: I'd get rid of the walls at each end of the fridge run. You'd gain 9" more to use (assuming standard 4.5" thick walls) for counter and storage. And if you move the beverage center to the left end, it will no longer be hemmed in by a wall. If the reason for the walls is to have a place for light switches, you can always install them into cab sides like this: [Contemporary Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2103) by San Francisco Architects & Building Designers Rossington Architecture [Traditional Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by Millbrook Architects & Building Designers Crisp Architects