I usually just lurk here but thought I could possibly contrubute something on this thread. Almost scared to stick my foot in here, but I'm going to anyway. The gouging comment got to me. I'm a professional gardener/landscaper. I'm NOT asking for or offering to do either job, but can maybe give a bit of insight into your project from a different perspective. I've done both, built raised beds, and laid dryset flagstone patios, although I try to stay away from hauling stone around. I'd rather plant flowers. However, that said, I can give you a glimpse into how a landscaper figures and sets our prices. A professional landscape company has a limited time frame in Denver to make their annual income, due to weather obviously. Assume, I have a 3 person crew. Ok so if my 3 man crew will (barring weather) put in 40 hour a week for 32 weeks of the season, then I have 3840 hours of work I can sell. This is my product. I take my base overhead is $38,400 (3 men at $10 per hour) Plus 20% for Uncle Sam's share = $46080 add in insurance (multiple types), Work Comp, Rent, Phones, Owners Salary, Transportation costs (have you seen the price of gas???), repairs, loan payments, equipment payments, equipment recovery/replacment, Office expenses, Ect...... Ok, so you get the idea. And that doesn't even get into the amount of time spent on a job, while not on site, selecting materials, working and reworking bids, fighting with suppliers who don't deliver what they say they will when they say they will, and so on. Ok lets say we end up with $150,000 in total overhead, so then I take that 150K and divide by the available work hours in the season 3840 = 39.07 per man hour. This is what I need to charge every customer to make a halfway decent living. Most large landscapers cannot begin to justify the expense outlay on such a small project, which is why that one stated he wouldn't come out if you didn't do the entire yard. His excuse to you was pretty lame, but the real reason was simple math. I don't care what anyone says about no project too big or too small in their advertising, it just doesn't make sense to send a crew to more than one location per day. Two or three small jobs in a day means transportation time between jobs, which I have to pay the crew for, but is not producing any income. If equipment is involved, most companies won't take a job that is less than several days. If you used the above figures, assume 2 men, 8 hours for your walkway. Could be done in less, but there are some variables, slope, limited access, drainage close to the house, etc, that will require extra time if done properly. 8 hours, x roughly $40 per hour, x 2 men. $1600. Not far off the other guys $1700. Another thing. This is absolutely the worst time of year to try and get a small project done cheap. We are busier than we can handle. I for one, am working 10 hour days on the job site, then meeting with potential new customers AFTER that in the evenings, and working into the night drawing new designs and researching plantings and trying to build estimates for those customers. We won't even discuss how far I am behind on quickbooks. If you want a small project done, call someone in February. Or November. We're much hungrier then. As someone who hires a lot from Craigslist, it's about a 50/30/20 gamble. Of the ones who answer your ad, 50% of them will show up. 30% of those have the motivation to do more than lean on a shovel. 20% of them will actually have a clue how to do the work without you having to tell them every step to take. And that doesn't allow for the nasty, mean flaming emails you will get when you post that you want manual labor for $10 an hour. And I totally understand that living in Denver on $10 an hour is nearly impossible. But bump it to $15 an hour, plug that number into the formula above, and see how many customers you get. For the raised beds, you might try searching craigslist for a handyman. Might be cheaper. Ok, sorry for the rant, back to work.

You don't mention where you will be building but in some places you can actually hire a company to provide expert advice as well as give you lists of pre-vetted sub-contractors if you decide to be your own builder. In Texas where I live, there are at least three such companies that I know about. Owner Builder Network UBuildIt Texas HelpUBuild Each of the above companies differs slightly in the exact services they offer but, in general, they act as guides/mentors/expert advisors to folks who choose to build their own homes and they help you to find/hire good subs who will treat your job as if you were a volume builder because the subs want to stay in good with the mentoring company. I'm not really sure what UBuiltIt or HelpUBuild charge for their services but Owner-Builder Network's bases their fee on the square footage of your house. In my neighborhood which consists of about 135 two to ten acre lots with about 100 custom or semi-custom homes built over the past 12 years, 5 homes currently in the process of being built, and about 30 lots still vacant, there are 8 couples that I know of who used one or the other of the above companies and built their own homes. We have regular neighborhood parties to whom everyone who owns a lot in the neighborhood is invited. At these gatherings, homebuilding/remodeling is often a topic of conversation - especially whenever someone who just finished their build or who is still in the process of building attends. And I would say that ALL of the people who built their own homes with the help of one of the above companies seem to be quite happy with their building experience and they regularly say that they got their money's worth and would do it again. Meanwhile, among those of us who hired professional builders, I would say at least 50% now loudly curse our builder's name and feel that, one way or another, we got thoroughly ripped off. I hired a builder and wound up having to fire him midway thru the build due to his shoddy workmanship coupled with suddenly finding myself having to pay off $60K in liens filed by subs that my builder hadn't paid even tho he had been given the money to pay them. He was broke because he'd spent our money to pay off subs he still owed from previous jobs. Classic "robbing Peter to pay Paul" and due to the imploding economy, we were his last suckers. After we found out about the liens, he admitted he was broke and then had the gall to ask us to advance him MORE money so that he could purchase the materials he needed to compete our house! Yeah right. Just how stupid do I look??? After firing him, and hiring a lawyer to try and get some of our money back and make him release a residual lien he still held against our property, we took over and finished the build ourselves. But by that point we were so broke we no longer felt we could afford even the very reasonable Owner-Builder Network fees... so we had to proceed without expert guidance. Fortunately neighbors who had built their own homes freely shared with us the knowledge they'd gained in the process and the names of the subs they had used. So in a way, I'll admit, I got a lot trickle-down benefit from all three of the above companies. Even if you're not in Texas, you might check out the above websites and see if there are similar companies operating in your area. If I had it all to do over again, I'd definitely GC my own build with the assistance of one of the above companies.

My son is graduating too this year. We'll probably give him money. We got our older son a St. Michael medal (his name is Michael) and nice gold chain + some money. Middle son said he didn't want the medal, so will just give him a bit more $$. Personally, I dislike gift cards - unless they're for a specific purpose to a store that they already know they want to shop at. My kids have gotten countless gift cards over the years from relatives to stores they don't really shop at. So, they "save" them thinking they'll find something they need at some point. I'm not talking about handing the kid a small fortune, but at some point they need to learn to control themselves with more than $100 bucks in the bank. My son recently started working steadily and we opened him a bank account with an ATM card. He'll use this account in college, and I'm assuming will deposit all his gift money into it. Maybe we'll talk about creating a savings account too, so he knows he's got the money over there, but isn't tempted every time he goes to the ATM!

In your latest, while the pantry access from the kitchen won't be quite as convenient, I think it will work. I think it's better than the one with only one entrance. Plus, it gives you a shortcut from the garage to the Garden room w/o having to go through the kitchen - which I can almost guarantee that people would do - and that they would cut through the main workspace instead of going around the island. I like it! I also like the idea of the appliance pass through - which makes me wonder if you could also use it as a staging area for things you want from the pantry to cut down on the amount of running around to the side door with your arms full - you might want to make it another foot or two wider to use it that way. Will the pass through have a door to hide the appliances from view when not in use (and to hide the interior of the pantry)? I do have two concerns about the pantry: #1 - You don't appear to have much real storage space. Do you really need that sink in there? I'd rather see that wall be all shelving for food storage. If you really want a sink, then put it on the opposite wall. Make the wall that's shared with the kitchen a row of cabs + counter with the sink. It would also make it easier for the pass through idea. #2 - The refrigerator & Freezer locations...First, the refrigerator may not open fully b/c it's against the wall and it might not quite fit b/c of the door frame/trim. You will need at least 6" b/w the wall and the refrigerator to allow it open fully - and then it will be opening into the doorway. Second, how wide is that aisle b/w the refrigerator and freezer handles and the opposite wall? You don't want to have a "pinch" point there since you will exiting with items in your hands/arms. I would try for at least 45". So, how much space do you really need in your office? I know that when I work from home, I rarely take up more space than that needed for a desk to hold my laptop + two large monitors + notebook space (yes, I still take hand-written notes!) You might want to take another foot or so of depth on the "bottom" to add to the pantry to give you a wider aisle. Inside the pantry, I would add another 6", at least, to the refrigerator/freezer wall so you can put a 6" pullout or similar b/w the refrigerator and wall. Idea! Why not take 13.5" and... From the wall, add 1.5" filler (to clear the door trim) Then, 12" pullout for brooms, etc. Then, refrigerator & freezer Then, shelving Finally, eliminate the "Broom" cabinet on the bottom and use that for more cab/counter space in the pantry.