The first and least expensive thing you need to do to lighten up the kitchen is to repaint it going a shade or two lighter of the same color paint. It looks like you've painted the greatroom and kitchen with the same paint but because the kitchen doesn't get a much light as the great room, using a lighter shade in the darker room will help fool the eye into thinking the rooms are more equally lighted. Next, and this may be a totally crazy idea but... It looks like you've got tons of natural light in the adjoining great room so I was wondering what you could do to borrow some of that light. Your arches and columns, combined with the dark wood (especially the dark ceiling beams) in your kitchen, plus the dark metal scrollwork on your lighting fixtures AND the fact that you have steps going up from the great room into the kitchen put me very much in mind of the "gothic cathedrals" in Europe. And that led to this idea. How about adding a "rose window" effect above the central archway leading between great room and kitchen to let more light into the kitchen. Attached is a link to an image of a rose window over an arched opening leading from the nave to the high alter of a cathedral that will give you a better idea of what is inspiring my idea. Basically, I think this would mean cutting a large round hole (like a round window) in the wall above the central archway and then inserting metal scrollwork to give the impression of a rose window. This would doubtless require a bit of reframing but it would cost a lot less than trying to add additional windows on the exterior kitchen wall. And, extra light from your greatroom would pass through the hole into your kitchen. Then, to make the rose window look like it was part of the original plan, you could find (or have made) some similar but smaller pieces of gothic scrollwork to hang over the archways leading to your front door and over the niche on the wall opposite the kitchen. Add a metal scrollwork quadrifoil design to the front of your hood (that smaller 4-leaf clover shaped window you see at the very back on the inspiration picture is a quadrifoil) and your stove very subtly become the "high alter" of your home. LOL! I'm also thinking that if you eventually find the western sun creates too much glare, you could hang stained glass in the kitchen windows instead of curtaining or shading them - which of course would add to the gothic cathedral impression. Anyway, I know its a crazy idea but sometimes you it helps to think outside the box. Here is a link that might be useful:

I just dont like mdf or mdo for outside work for a lot of reasons but thats just me after seeing termites get into a couple of projects years ago.I know its normal to use that stuff for outside trim I just disagree. Wrapping badly warped/twisted posts is a little timei the trick is finding the right size that will work out overall,that is find the worst one and aline the rest with it using a string line. They all will be over size, using the two L shaped pre fab aline the first one with a tack after they are straight intall the second L shaped member to complete the wrap There is a given with this, it will be a floating attachment that is the two L shaped members can be securly fastened and they can be secure to each other, fasting to the post will be tricky I use a nail gun and a predrill my senco tool is easy to line up with the pre drill, Anyway one guy holds the wrap in place as I nail through the pre drill being very cearfull to mind the string line top and bottom. With this done top and bottom fastening is a snap and really holds the wrap in place. Material,,,,, all of this can be done with ipe,it can also be done with yellow pine but its the same deal as pt pine speed install, white pine moves a lot less and gives a person more time to work. I vote ipe even though it will take a few more coats of primer before the top coat. J.

M J, Frontloaders are much superior washing performance to the HE "impeller" toploaders. Washing a comforter or other large/bulky items in those is an exercise in futility, there's no way the impeller can overcome gravity to entice the item to roll over for thorough washing. A frontloader by design lifts and rolls the items over through the wash (and rinse) water. As others have said, stay away from washing everything in cold water. Even a designated "Cold Wash" cycle. While it's true that many machines nowadays add some hot or warm water to the fill on a Cold setting so the water in the tub is minimum 60°F to 70°F, using cold exclusively for everything has a large chance of causing mold/residue/odor in the machine, as well as shortening the service life of it. I recently repaired a Samsung frontloader that was destroyed by bad laundry habits in 4 years 11 months. Liquid fabric softener was used on every load to large doses and too much cold washing led to waxy residue on the exterior of the drum (where clothes don't rub on it) that corroded the drum support. The drum broke loose during spin and wore a gash in the outer tub. The machine has an onboard water heater with 1) a Sanitize cycle that heats to 150°F, a Heavy cycle that heats to 115°F, and a tub cleaning cycle that heats to 140°F. Regular use of any/all of those cycles would have kept the waxy residue from accumulating. I tested the designated Normal cycle and a couple others on it, and with 130°F+ input temp from my water heater, I got 80°F on Warm and 92°F on Hot. Consider the difference between 80°F (which is less the body temp) and 115°F or 140°F regards to dissolving waxy residue or greasy laundry soils ... and it becomes clear why washing primarily or more-often-than-not in cold water is not a good thing. One may not see residue insidethe drum where the clothes rub but it accumulates where the clothes (and you) can't reach ... on the outside of the drum and on the inside of outer tub.

loribee- The problem is that it is too late to do anything. Rot typically occurs with the section of the post in the ground/concrete. Sealer will do nothing to prevent that. Typically, in a situation like this, one would put gravel in the bottom of the hole before pouring in concrete, which allows some water to drain out the bottom rather than be contained by the concrete and contribute to faster rotting. Also, a pressure treated post would be superior to natural, untreated wood. Having said that, however, since you have a redwood post it will be a number of years before you have to worry about anything.