Maybe I mis-understood HH but I'm sure I'd downloaded one of Don's lists titled "Hostas with Tall Scapes". I was checking them while running down one of Bobbi's NOIDs which turned out to be Krossa Regal (which was on the list). So was Eliator,Regal Splendor and Tall Boy. My Honeybells has very long scapes (45") also as does my Blaze of Glory, for it's size. Stiletto has tall scapes for a low grower at 25" Blaze of Glory Maybe we should set categories, for example dwarfs/minis with scapes over 30" and large with scapes over 60". What impresses you HH as "Holy Scapes, Batman" HH? Les

So. The guys finished up their part yesterday and now it's up to me to do the rest. Their work looks pretty good if you don't look real hard at all the details (which I am going to stop doing in a day or two, I hope, since done is done). These are Applad cabinets from IKEA (semi-gloss white--love them!) and their solid beech butcherblock Numerar counters. The sink is a big honking 16-guage near-zero radius corner Vigo from the O site, faucet from IKEA. The shelf was ripped from one 8' Numerar counter and installed on 10" corner brackets from the hardware store which were screwed into studs every 2 feet. I'd originally gotten some of those posts where you have to drill holes into the shelf edge and slip it onto the posts but they weren't sturdy enough for an 11" deep 1.5" thick solid hardwood shelf that will have cast iron pots on it---so I switched to this method (thanks to my daughter for finding it online!). It is STRONG. The parts that show on the wall under the shelf will be patched and tiled over. The undersides of the shelf were routed out so that the bracket is recessed--will see about patching that over with thin strips cut from leftover butcherblock using a circular saw. They also routed out a channel for the LED tape lights (again, thanks to Yllimuh!) so you can't see the tape unless you crane your neck under there which I do not intend to do ever. LOVE the LEDs. The outlets with the transformers are inside cabinets at the ends and they fished the wire through the wall on the side with no uppers. Still waiting for the appliance people to come back and install the DW and slide-in range, which I hope will happen in the next few days. I paid them for installation months ago but it had to wait until now. I am going to get the IKEA "Bursta" table in the 32" square size (with two pullout leaves which i think make it about 60" long?) and keep it pushed up against the wall most of the time with 2-3 chairs around it. It can be moved into the living room if I ever want to have 4+ people at a sit-down meal. Or just pulled out into the kitchen a bit. It'd be cramped in there but it would only be for rare occasions so it's fine with me. I think I'm going to repaint the walls. They are a very pale gray but I think they'll look better the same color as the ceiling and soffits. There are too many planes in there to have different colors going on, even subtle ones. Oh, also, I skim coated the sand textured walls (except for the vertical parts of the soffits) by rolling on thinned joint compound with a paint roller (!) and squeegeeing it smooth with a Magic Trowel (!!!!). It worked amazingly well and was much easier than the conventional skim coating method! It took only 2 coats. I also bought a drywall sander Shop-vac attachment for $25 on Amazon--WAY worth it to not have to drape the doorways and clean up dust off everything for weeks afterward. It vacuumed literally all the dust as I sanded. I didn't even wear a mask. Amazing. Overhead light only LED lighting only from the other end of the room looking at the opposite side - 24"W fridge goes in the first tall empty space and the end unit is a 24" wide pullout pantry

Thanks, musicgal! Tracie, my daughter was told or maybe she read somewhere (here? ikeafans.com?) that the Numerar butcherblock counters sell out very quickly so I should check the website regularly for stock and then go immediately to get them when they had them. So that's what I did. Later I realized I should have ordered another 6' one; i was still within the kitchen sale period so I got a rain check and was able to get the 6' counter at the sale price as soon as they were in stock again. (They don't call it a rain check though---maybe "shopping list"? Something like that.) I don't believe that they're not ever going to get them again, at least not if they're still listed on the website. I've heard so many differing things about this and that at IKEA---FROM Ikea employees! It seems like it's really hard to get consistent answers about stuff. (Just in the past two days I've gotten four very different answers to a question I had about their faucet warranty. Sheesh!) edited to add: it wasn't more than 2-3 weeks that I had to wait for a new delivery of counters. And when I said I went immediately, I did--like within an hour of checking the stock. This post was edited by spanky_md on Wed, Aug 6, 14 at 17:59

I've also ordered from Connecting Threads on a tip from a Quilty Friend. The thread has been of good quality ..given me no problems, so far. The price is right and saves the headache of shopping and gasoline!! The last time I purchased thread in a store, the thread was of such a poor quality that I threw out two brand new spools.