I did have a cast iron griddle crack.....and haven't yet found a replacement....sob...... It does SO matter what brand the cast iron is...certain brands are much finer finished and will season better than others....Griswold pans I have are the smoothest...with Wagner coming in second and Lodge last. I use soap, but rarely and only in case of something like really stuck on egg....from a pan left on the fire with remains in it....mostly I just swish and wipe... But I really take issue with the recommendations on the wooden bowls. I have my grandmother's wooden bowl and she died in 1950 at age 68. She said....never put water in it, but to rinse and always empty any leftover salad immediatly because moisture will cause a one piece bowl to crack. That bowl is used often in my kitchen today....if it gets a bit of a rancid smell....a scrub with salt will fix it right up. and never EVER put cooking spray on your bowls. As for the canard about the wooden bowl and the pepper grinder, I think that's apocryphal. The classic recipe for a Caesar salad recommends rubbing the wooden bowl with a cut clove of garlic before making the salad....and the reason waiters walk around with the pepper grinder....and the reason it is so large is because patrons have a tendency to swipe them. The first time I ever encountered the giant pepper mill was at Pals Cabin in West orange...some time before 1950... Sure it's a subject of satire....but the satire came after the practise. The country club I belonged to used to have a pepper grinder on every table...until they started disappearing....then you had to ask as there weren't enough to go around....then the waiters started carrying them.... I need a 10 inch cast iron round griddle...preferable used....don't much care for the coarse finish on the modern ones.... I need to be hitting the yard sales. Linda C

Did not plan properly for storage of my skillets. The 12" pans will not fit vertical / on their edge in the 12" drawer (the actual clearance of this drawer is 10.5"). So instead I have them stacked in the bottom of the other 12" drawer. Arrrggh. The drawers in this cabinet are 6-12-12. Drawers of 6-9-15 would have been much better for me. In my defense, I had not bought the pans yet when the cabinets were ordered, haha. All of the other pans fit nicely stored on their edges. At least I know I have a lot of company on this one. I see several upthread with the same oops. I wish I had planned a longer kitchen window. It sits about 12" above my counter height. When the house was being built, I could see out just fine when I could walk right up to it. But now that I am 2 feet away from it because of the base cabinets, I cannot see my driveway, the street, or even any of my neighbor's driveway across the street. I would like to be able to see when people drive up in the driveway of my house. I have to walk into the other room to look out another window. I'm 5'3"... others who are taller can see more than I can. (Our kitchen is on the top floor of our house, which is the equivalent to being on the 3rd or 4th floor in height) Not in my kitchen, but in the dining room right next to the kitchen ... I wish I had known that the clear opening of my 5 foot sliding glass door to the deck is only 23.5". For soooooo many reasons ... a wheelchair won't fit thru the door, living room sofas wouldn't fit thru it, etc. In the architectural design program I was using, the default width of a sliding door is 5 foot. I never even thought to question it. And also, I assumed that would give me a 30" opening. I have deeper upper cabinets on one wall in my kitchen, but not on the other walls. There is one other spot that I wish I had chosen a slightly deeper cabinet, even 12.25" would have been enough to store my 3 largest mixing bowls. As it is, a couple of them touch the door on the inside and just barely keep it from closing fully. It would have been no extra charge to have it deeper, I just didn't think of it (UltraCraft allows changes in 1/16" increments to height width and depth at no extra charge). I am very glad we went with 15" deep uppers on the other side of the kitchen. They are deep enough that I can store my large canning / crab steamer pot up on the top shelf. Also they are deep enough for my glasses to be 4 rows deep and my cereal bowls to be 2 rows deep. I wish I had planned ahead the space under my sink so I could have had a larger trash can there than just a little dinky bathroom size can. i.e. how deep is the sink, where in the sink are the drains located, which side the disposal would go on, how the pipes would run. Right now, trash can is in a different location, not in a cabinet. : ( The electrician must have mis-measured - he installed the outlet for the over cabinet lights too low on one side of the kitchen but it wasn't noticed until the upper cabinets were installed. So the outlet ended up being inside the upper cabinet. I wasn't here the day they installed the upper cabinets on that wall and the cabinet guy cut a hole in the upper back of that cabinet for the outlet. Glass front cabinets. Oops ! It might still end up ok. I now have an outlet inside the glass cabinet for lights in there, which I hadn't previously planned for lights in there. Eventually, I will get an electrician out here and have him piggyback another outlet above the cabinet to that outlet. I wish I had thought of asking for shorter toe kicks to give more space up inside the base cabinets. An extra inch or two would have come in handy in that skillet drawer !! I wish I had recessed the outlet behind the range so it could push back further, closer to the wall. We are also using the Lee Valley channel dividers to customize our drawer organization. Yay !!

Here's 10 recipes. It's pretty forgiving as to formulations by the looks of the recipes. Some like to add water softener, OxyClean, dishwashing detergent or other additives to help with their needs. 10 Homemade Laundry Soap Detergent Recipes Recipe #1 1 quart Water (boiling) 2 cups Bar soap (grated) 2 cups Borax 2 cups Washing Soda Add finely grated bar soap to the boiling water and stir until soap is melted. You can keep on low heat until soap is melted. Pour the soap water into a large, clean pail and add the Borax and Washing Soda. Stir well until all is dissolved. Add 2 gallons of water, stir until well mixed. Cover pail and use 1/4 cup for each load of laundry. Stir the soap each time you use it (will gel). Recipe #2 Hot water 1 cup Washing Soda 1/2 cup Borax 1 Soap bar Grate the bar soap and add to a large saucepan with hot water. Stir over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted. Fill a 10 gallon pail half full of hot water. Add the melted soap, Borax and Washing soda, stir well until all powder is dissolved. Top the pail up with more hot water. Use 1 cup per load, stirring soap before each use (will gel). Recipe #3 Hot water 1/2 cup Washing Soda 1/2 cup Borax 1/3 bar Soap (grated) In a large pot, heat 3 pints of water. Add the grated bar soap and stir until melted. Then add the washing soda and borax. Stir until powder is dissolved, then remove from heat. In a 2 gallon clean pail, pour 1 quart of hot water and add the heated soap mixture. Top pail with cold water and stir well. Use 1/2 cup per load, stirring soap before each use (will gel). Powdered Laundry Detergent - Recipe #4 2 cups Fels Naptha Soap (finely grated - you could also try the other bar soaps listed at the top) 1 cup Washing Soda 1 cup Borax Mix well and store in an airtight plastic container. Use 2 tablespoons per full load. Recipe #5 Hot water 1 bar (4.5 oz) Ivory Soap - grated 1 cup Washing Soda In a large saucepan add grated soap and enough hot water to cover. Heat over medium-low heat and stir until soap is melted. Fill a large pail with 2.5 gallons of hot water, add hot soap mixture. Stir until well mixed. Then add the washing soda, again stirring until well mixed. Set aside to cool. Use 1/2 cup per full load, stirring well before each use (will gel) Recipe #6 2.5 gallons Water (hot) 1 Bar soap (grated) 3/4 cup Washing Soda 3/4 cup Borax 2 TBS Glycerin Melt bar soap over medium-low heat topped with water, stir until soap is melted. In a large pail, pour 2.5 gallons of hot water, add melted soap mixture, washing soda, borax and glycerin. Mix well. Use 1/2 cup per full load. Recipe #7 2 cups Bar soap (grated) 2 cups Washing Soda 2 - 2.5 gallons hot water Melt grated soap in saucepan with water to cover. Heat over medium-low heat and stir until soap is dissolved. Pour hot water in large pail, add hot soap and washing soda. Stir very well. Use 1 cup per full load. Recipe #8 2 gallons Water (hot) 1 bar Soap (grated) 2 cups Baking soda (yes baking soda this timenot washing soda) Melt grated soap in a saucepan with enough hot water to cover. Cook on medium-low heat, stirring frequently until soap is melted. In a large pail, pour 2 gallons hot water. Add melted soap, stir well. Then add the baking soda, stir well again. Use 1/2 cup per full load, 1 cup per very soiled load. Powdered Laundry Detergent - Recipe #9 12 cups Borax 8 cups Baking Soda 8 cups Washing Soda 8 cups Bar soap (grated) Mix all ingredients well and store in a sealed tub. Use 1/8 cup of powder per full load. Recipe #10 - (Powdered) 1 cup Vinegar (white) 1 cup Baking Soda 1 cup Washing Soda 1/4 cup liquid castile soap Mix well and store in sealed container. I find it easiest to pour the liquid soap into the bowl first, stirred in the washing soda, then baking soda, then added the vinegar in small batches at a time (the recipe foams up at first). The mixture is a thick paste at first that will break down into a heavy powdered detergent, just keep stirring. There may be some hard lumps, try to break them down when stirring (it really helps to make sure the baking soda isnt clumpy when first adding). Liquid Detergents Note: Soap will be lumpy, goopy and gel-like. This is normal. Just give it a good stir before using. Make sure soap is covered with a lid when not in use. You could also pour the homemade soap in old (and cleaned) laundry detergent bottles and shake well before each use. *If you cant find Fels-Naptha locally, you can buy it online (check Amazon). Optional: You can add between 10 to 15 drops of essential oil (per 2 gallons) to your homemade soap.

Don't use Pledge, it has silicone in it and besides making it near impossible to refinish if needed it just locks moisture in. All RAF is is paint thinner with a tint, it dissolves the original finish and smears it around, I've heard it doesn't last too long either. CB, that white ring was moisture trapped under the finish and would have probably come out with gentle application of hair dryer. Mike, you could try that but again I don't know if haze is moisture or damage from ammonia/urea.