Some where along life's journey, you **MUST** visit Dominica, an island about 3 islands north of Grenada! I guarantee you will never regret it! We made our home on Dominica for about a year but even if we had been there a lifetime, I do not think we would have seen all the wondrous and beautiful sites that are the island! Morning starts when the sun pops up over the ocean at 6:00 AM and as the morning goes on you watch over the mountains (volcanos) as the mist accumulates and clouds form and it dumps rain on you from about 2:00 to 4:00 PM. Everyday. There are no words to describe the beauty of the rain forests. It is hot and very humid but surprisingly not oppressive to climb through the undergrowth. Perhaps the excitement and the adrenaline kicking in? Hummingbirds abound. Everywhere. The Sisserou parrot, the nation's pride, is a majestic bird indeed. They are THE MOST protected of Dominica's natural wonders. If one of a bonded pair of the parrots dies, the mate will cease to eat and soon will also die. The zoo there finds on occasion a lone bird mourning over a lost mate and capture it and try to feed them and get them to recover and find new mates. I saw one such male at the zoo but none in the wild. Go to the open air market (don't stand under a coconut palm) on Saturday and take your pick of ferns (I have no clue what they were), orchids, flowering this and flowering that. Most times the seller is not aware of the identity of what was being sold. There was a Rasta we befriended and he would save \"plants of curiosity\" for me. (Legal. All legal!) Plants generally will cost you up to $5.00 EC. You want to but a pig's tail for soup or a cow T-bone steak all the same price per pound...$2.50 EC. That is roughly $1.00 US. Go early for your shopping (6:30 - 7:00 AM) before the flies set in and on your soon to be groceries. Visit the old Brit. fort there and you can readily find cannon balls from early battles. Beaches near Portsmouth are black from the volcano. Storms bring up squid, sponges, sometimes fish on the beach. Go for a walk early (5:30-ish AM) and rescue these guys and toss them back into the sea. (Do not pick up red or orange sponges with bare hands.) Look out over the ocean and you may well catch a glimpse of whales, dolphins, or sea turtles doing their thing. You may even be asked for a dance by a Coconut Crab as he waves his claw at you and does the side step left and side step right. Mountain chicken (little frog legs) is an island delicacy. So is Ting, a carbonated grapefruit juice drink. They have Coke..make from cane sugar rather than corn syrup. Delonix regia everywhere. Weedy little things. Wee seedlings sprouting like spring maple seedlings in Ohio. There is no rabies on the island. There are no poisonous snakes...but the snakes they do have are huge! So are their centipedes. I brought one back to the Ohio State University entomology dept. that was 11 inches long. (Yuck!) The people are delightful and will go out of their way like no one else to help you or do anything for you. You step out on the balcony in the morning to be greeted by the absolutely perfect rendition of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik whistled by the neighbor as he has tea on his porch and watches the hummers at his Bird of Paradise patch. You just haven't lived until you have ridden into town in the back of a pickup truck with three pigs! :-) Night comes at 6:00 PM. Fade to black. Mosquitoes come out then so be sure you have your mosquito netting ready. Cholera and Dengue Fever are common. When dining at a restaurant, a word to the wise, look at the bread or rolls before eating them. There are very tiny ants that quickly move into baked goods such as bread, though the pastries they make seem safer. Electricity can be iffy at times...where ever you are. The favorite saying seems to be: The lights will go on when the generator is working. But who needs lights when you have a sky full of stars and a meteor shower every night. Oh how you wish you had the nerve to lie on the ground and just be drawn into the starscape but there are things creeping about at night: lizards, crabs, snakes, something like fire ants (or maybe they are a type of fire ant) those darn centipedes and don't even mention the spiders. They export bananas and fresh water. Much of the water goes to Antigua. If I could I would go back to Dominican a heartbeat. Oh..If traveling there try to get your prop plane to land at the Canefield Airport. The other airport is a blind approach over the volcano and more than a little scary. That's about it from the Dominica Tourist Bureau (Ohio office, dontchaknow?)

I'm sorry Rhome, my last post was not clear. I was explaining my reasoning for originally selecting the placement for the prep sink. By all means I'm open to all suggestions. I was just trying to explain (more to marcolo) that the clean up sink water will be for clean up. I most definitely see us using the prep sink for water and appreciate your thoughts for optimal placement. Having the prep sink in general is such a hard concept for my brain to digest. I know I will LOVE it and wonder how I did without it. However, I have a hangup on the sink getting in the way of me spreading out all over my prep space in the island. And, yes, you are correct we use the sink for washing up, etc. more than I realize. My mind is always on wahing up from the dirty outside, but we use the kitchen sink too. Also, I must not be very clear with my posts because the boys are learning to cook and bake and quite enjoy themselves in the kitchen. I am however the main cook at the cooktop on any given day. They have always loved baking and we have started adventuring out to breads and pizza dough this year (wonderful dh gave me my much wanted kitchen aid, in red:). The oldest is starting to prep more and the 2nd oldest LOVES working with fresh onion and garlic. As they get older we will be a fuller kitchen. I guess I'm wrong about using the island for everything. My kitchen aid is in the corner nearest the pantry. Now for example when I make cookies, I carry all ingredients from the pantry and fridge over to the island. I measure and pour into the bowl from the island & then turn around, use the mixer and bring it back to the island. I fill the sheets and empty them onto the island. Perhaps I need to train myself to do things differently in a more effective layout. Perhaps a baking area is needed and I need to think outside of always being at the island. The corner built out by the cooktop and hutch (away from the dining room) doesn't have to be there. We are looking at swapping the laundry and mudroom, so the dryer would then be vented outside to the front. I do love the look of the two hutches flanking the windows;however, I have also seen many great kitchens with one hutch and for a better kitchen I would definitley be able to change that. One larger hutch near the dining room could most definitley hold all the daily dishes. Then rather than having the cooktop area "built-in," I could use the counter beside the cooktop for landing from the island. Like I said, I'm "stuck" on using and thinking of the island for all my prep, baking and landing space. I really appreciate the feedback and help!

I'm not against cook tops or ranges in islands, provided the island is large enough to allow for ample work space on either side of the cook top or range. Your first plan allowed for 24", about 7" more than I currently have on each side of my island cook top. I hate it with a passion because there is so little room to prep and work next to the cook top. It's one of the driving reasons for completely reworking our kitchen (remodel to start soon, yay!). And the pop-up downdraft is a joke. That said, new pop-up downdrafts are much more effective but, as has been pointed out, island venting is more expensive than perimeter venting. So I'm glad to see that your later versions moved the range out of the island and eliminated that odd sink wall jog by bumping the whole wall out. Of the 2 latest plans you posted, I prefer Option 2. There is no zone crossing between clean-up and prep/cooking functions, unlike what will occur in your Option 3. I think Option 2 could be made even better. I moved the sink out of the corner. I'm not sure what you gain by going with a corner sink, other than mirroring the other angled corner. (I have a corner sink under corner windows; I've always been happy with this set-up. The main downside is that it's very difficult to clean behind the sink.) Eliminating these 2 angled corners gains you longer stretches of counter, which is always a plus, IMO. Here are images of sinks against walls, not under windows, so you can see design options for this type of set-up. [[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/kitchens-by-julie-williams-design-traditional-kitchen-san-francisco-phvw-vp~114198) [Traditional Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by Novato Kitchen & Bath Designers Julie Williams Design [[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/kitchens-traditional-kitchen-san-francisco-phvw-vp~1994291) [Traditional Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by Los Gatos Kitchen & Bath Designers Kitchens of Los Gatos [[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-kitchen-contemporary-kitchen-dallas-phvw-vp~574875) [Contemporary Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2103) by Dallas Interior Designers & Decorators Denise McGaha Interiors [[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/island-view-traditional-kitchen-boston-phvw-vp~696524) [Traditional Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by Boston Kitchen & Bath Designers Dalia Kitchen Design btw, I made an assumption about the size of your double pantry doors, basing its width on the integrated fridge (also assumed this was 42" not 36"). If it's larger or smaller, you'll need to adjust the sink wall accordingly. Putting a range in a corner is a tricky thing to do. You have to design it very carefully to make sure it works, plus it eats up a lot of space on each wall. A 36" cook top will require 51"-54" of space from each wall. Because a range sticks out beyond the counter edge, you'll need wider spacers next to it in order to be able to open cab doors and drawers without bumping into the range. That's not saying it can't be done but you should know the pros and cons of such a set-up. Read the following articles written by Kelly Morisseau, CMKBD, for more information. A reader asks: A cooktop or range in the corner? A Design Reader Asks: Help with range in the corner? btw, the same cautions apply to placing a fridge or an oven in a corner, too. Plus, there's the awkward placement of a tall thing breaking up stretches of counter. I wouldn't do it.

Sorry if this posts twice. I cannot find where my original post went through :(((( I am looking at multiple scenarios for a downstairs living area of approximately 1300 square feet (won't go through everything which I did in another post about the whole dilemma). Because what we have now with our 19-year old engineered wood looks somewhat "patched" together due to uneven sub-floor and some damage in one prominent area, we are looking at multiple options right now. One of which is to re-do the entire floor giving me the benefit of changing the entire color (never really like the color of the original, which has been here for 19 years but cannot be refinished - another story). Based on the fact my floors will have to be brought up to match the height in other rooms to make it ONE smooth and even floor, my sales person says I should not go with anything more than 3/8" or it will create problems with the front door. Based on that and other personal variables (color, traffic, etc.), he is recommending Anderson Casita blanca in Galleon color. My concerns are about it being 3/8" (meaning I can never re-finish if something happens and it gets damaged or worn over the years, correct?), and the fact that the cost is less than $3.00 square foot for the product. I don't want something that is not going to be good quality or that gives me zero options if something happens to it. Thoughts on my concerns as well as the Anderson brand itself?