Hmmmm. You have a lot going on. How have you been watering? How long and how often? Mowing probably has not been a concern because the grass is not growing. Once the grass gets growing, raise your mower to a level from 3 inches (Kentucky bluegrass) to all the way to the highest (fescue). It looks like you might have some KBG in there, but KBG and fescue look much alike. I would expect you to have a rye grass only because you are in the PNW...sort of. On to fertilizer. Since you live in Oregon you must be a tree hugger or a redneck (I've met both from OR). This is good because I am going to suggest the fastest way to improve your soil, regardless of how bad it is, is to pound it with organic fertilizers. I am assuming your gravelish soil actually has 'dirt' in it. If it is really just rocky, then replace it. But I'm going to suggest fixing what you have. Go to the GardenWeb Organic Gardening Forum, find the FAQ, and read the last one on lawn care. The gist of it is you can find inexpensive organic lawn food at your local feed store. Back when I wrote that FAQ, corn was dirt cheap. This year it is the most expensive material out there. I have switched to rabbit food (alfalfa pellets) this year. A 50-pound bag should cost about $12. For you the application rate can be up to 50 pounds per 1,000 square feet. That is a TON of fertilizer. To start off I would go with 20 pounds per 1,000. Put that out and wait 3 full weeks to apply again. Apply the second time at 3-4 weeks and at a rate of 30 pounds per 1,000. Wait another month and apply at 40 pounds per 1,000. If you start that now, you should know after the 4th of July if it is working. At the minimum you should see dark greening of the grass you have. What you should look for is the return of grass in the thin areas. If you don't see that, then at the end of summer you will need to reseed. I would continue with the monthly fertilizer until the grass stops growing in the fall. Organic fertilizer is the fastest way to improve the soil because you can apply it with no fear of hurting the grass. Chemical fertilizers are salty and can burn the grass in the summer. You also need to learn more about your watering system. Put out cat food or tuna cans and time how long it takes to fill them up. That time is your starting point for weekly watering. You should be able to water once a week in the summer and get the job done for the rest of the week. If the grass wilts before a full week is up, then water immediately but water for a longer time than it took the first time. If you get runoff, stop immediately and let the water soak in for 30 minutes. Then start watering again until you get the full amount of time. With my watering system and pressure, it takes me 8 hours to get an inch of water. Your system may only take 45 minutes. Every yard is different. One more thing you can do is a soil structure test. Find a glass jar with straight sides. Fill it half full with soil. Then fill it all the way with water and a drop or two of dish soap or shampoo. Seriously, only a drop - not a squirt. Shake up the jar and let it settle. After 2 minutes measure with a ruler (and camera) how much of the contents has settled. Then measure again after 2 hours and again after 2 days. Note also how cloudy the water is at the times. Sand and rubble will settle immediately. Clay will never settle and will cloud the water after 2 days. Everything else in between is silt. Post the pictures to your Picasa site. For now I'm not worried about how bumpy your lawn is. Leveling is your second priority behind greening. The water and fertilizer suggestions above will definitely green it up. As the soil improves, the surface characteristics may change. It may not improve but it might. Spot spray the black medic and clover with something like Weed-B-Gone for clover. By spot spraying you are minimizing the collateral damage from chemicals. Gnats are not a lawn problem that I'm aware of. You will find that when you are on a full organic feeding program, you will see more lizards, toads, birds, and other critters that take care of pests for you. I've always had little white flying things in my lawn. I notice it when I mow, but then again I don't get down and roll around...much. One more thing you can try to improve water penetration: mix baby shampoo and molasses in a hose end sprayer (I like the Ortho) at a ratio of about 50/50. I just eyeball it in the jar. Take the screen off the down tube on the sprayer and spray it on the lawn. Adjust the dial so you see brown foam coming out. Spray it right before you water the lawn. The soap and molasses each help to 'wet' the water and reduce the surface tension. This will let the water penetrate deeper. You can repeat every time you water or skip to every other watering. At the end of two months you should have softer soil after watering.

A CPA's prospective: I encourage those with simple returns (ie just a couple of w2's, interest etc) to do their own returns. However anything more...hire an accountant. I am quite willing to do a return with w2 slips, itemized deductions, interest etc for about $80.00. including efiling. And I will provide tax planning advice too...I'll identify if you're eligible for the savers credit or perhaps recommend you defer that purchase of an energy efficient heat pump until this year..so you get a credit. You get the gist. I don't just plunk in the numbers...you get a real live person to assist you with minimizing your tax liability and maximizing the dollars that stay in your pocket. How much do I charge for you to call me and ask a question during the course of the year -Nil, Zip, Nada - it's included in your tax preparation fee. I have high end tax software and still find instances where the results are not the way they should be but at least I can IDENTIFY when something is wrong and fix it. It's amazing one missed checkbox and the whole return can be wrong. And a word of caution: No matter how simple the return is please review the output before submitting it. Step back and look at the figures and make sure they make sense. Look for typos, missing information etc. Carolyn, CPA!

Getting Great Stuff foam off your hands can be challenging, but here are a few methods you can try: Use soap and water: Try washing your hands with soap and water, as this may be enough to remove the foam. Use warm water and lather your hands with soap, then scrub the foam off your skin. Use acetone or nail polish remover: Acetone can dissolve Great Stuff foam. Apply some acetone or nail polish remover to a cloth or cotton ball and rub it onto the foam residue on your hands. Be sure to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water after using acetone. Use a pumice stone: A pumice stone can help scrub the foam off your hands. Wet the stone and rub it over the foam residue in a circular motion. This may take some time, but it can be effective.

Hi Laura, I do feel we need the second window as the room is quite dark being an interior room. I might be able to find another spot for the steam oven (although it has to be above counter height due to specs/safety) so I can move the fridge down. It won't be a problem relocating the microwave or regular wall oven to the peninsula or island. To accommodate the steam oven would mean bumping up the height of part of the peninsula as I can't put it too far away from the prep action. Having an extra high cabinet on one end of the peninsula may be visually distracting in another way. GreenDesigns, Thanks for your comments. I respect your opinions and know your advice is given to be helpful and comes with significant expertise. You may be right that my unconscious is bothered by a nagging feeling -- that feeling may also have been fed by some concerned comments received from GW posters about past layout designs I have posted over the two plus years I have been trying to get the design right. If it were not for GW, I would likely have listened to the interior designer long ago and would now be enjoying a completed kitchen even if it did have flaws. Please understand, the main interior designer I have worked with has not rushed me along or just listened to my ideas -- she was very involved in creating this design, but she did understand my need not to be prepping against a back wall and my desire to have the cooktop on an island or peninsula. After all, the more hours I hem and haw about this design, the more money for her (she does not sell the cabinets but charges by the hour for her time). We have also paid for second opinions, and showed our plans to cabinet designers too. As per not being fans of the two islands set-up, the two DW locations or the fridge locations: these have all changed around repeatedly and quite drastically in earlier stages in response to older GW posts I have made about the kitchen. The not perfectly matched windows will just have to be that not perfect as we want the extra light. I could give away the extra window we have and re-order a smaller window, but that would be expensive. I don't think we have room for the second window to be the same size as the currently installed left hand window. GreenDesigns, our first plan was an L shape with seating at the peninsula and one island (developed through working with a few cabinet makers) I was quite happy with it, until the new designer and one cabinet maker independently explained it would provide a barrier between the dining room and cut off flow between the two rooms (think having to walk around the short L to clear table, etc.). Having more of a galley shaped kitchen was supposed to make flow between the kitchen and the dining room barrier free. After hearing these comments from the two local designers, DH is not happy to lose the flow to go back to the original design and I have moved on as well (but less strongly than him). I think what I will need to do, is find yet another local designer to go through my plan with me and see what flaws he/she finds and what suggestions for improvement he/she would recommend. I do not feel there is one layout that would be perfect for every cook, nor every family nor every GW poster. Different cooks have different priorities, but surely if one meets all of the kitchen guidelines the design is not all that bad. Sorry to have gone on for so long. I do appreciate everyone's attempts to help me. Carol