dapper, You sure can use Mushroom compost in March and I'm not sure why Cowgirl says that it will heat up if you pile it up. I watched an episode of Dirty Jobs a couple years ago where they were at a Mushroom Farm. The way they made they're compost was simple. It was Horse manure, lots of Straw, Urea and water. The Urea and water was used to get the process started then they turned it everyday until the pile became that nice dark stuff we call compost. Here's the thing... If the stuff Mushroom farms were using wasn't finished, I'd say it could get hot if piled up, but I don't see how any compost will get hot if it's finished. And if it's not finished and you want to stop the heating process, you could add some Lime. I've seen Mushroom compost (I've got a few mushroom farms around me) and the stuff looks like super rich and dark dirt. There's also a place that resells spent Mushroom compost and I've never seen any of their piles steaming.

OK, your replies are just what I needed to hear to get me more focused... and browsing the FKB and everywhere else I could google a picture. Kelleg, I am attracted to clean lines.... and this has been creeping up on me over the past year or so. We have so much stuff. Old stuff. Antiques, etc. I want a space that is fresh. Although the cabinets are shaker they are a modern shaker...so I can pull it off, I think. The black sink will be history... I'm drooling over the Orca...but not worried about that decision yet. I'm thinking about Labrador Antique or Blue Eyes for the tops...and I really liked RemodelFla's idea of a limestone look porcelain tile, or maybe even grey. How about that? Igloochick...been thinking about your story all weekend...hoping things will work out for you. Off topic, but, Yandi...Jasmine is my bestest girl. She will be 14 in June...we lost her brother (ache, ache) a year ago in January. We also have a Scotty and a cat...so are thinking we wanted hardwood, but will probably do tile...we had it in our last home and loved it. It looked sort of like mud :) I wonder if Labrador Antique and Blue Eyes are considered the same price point? Gotta get up for work tomorrow...so I'd better quit obsessing and get some sleep! I really appreciate your responses...

KSWL, I agree with a lot of your observations. I think we both see it as a more traditional, classy room and some of the changes lean too trendy, or as you call it not appropriate. I was going to suggest using the lamps as the art on that wall and choosing carefully, either something traditional or transitional. But she is trying to "update" the bedroom by removing the large mirror. I have a dresser and large mirror in a guest BR and have thought of doing the same. I suggested moving the lamps to the dresser because they DID look buffet-ish to me. I wondered if it would look wrong in the bedroom, but now I think "Why not put them on a dresser?" Someone came up with the idea of putting tall lamps on a buffet and that style was adopted, but it doesn't really make a lot of functional sense. To me the engineering prints aren't bedroomy. Who are those people and what are they doing in my bedroom?? J/K, I know it's just an example. The question for me is how do you update traditional without getting trendy, especially when you're purchasing expensive items like lighting and art that you'd like to keep for at least 10 years.

Sorry -- I think I fell off the end of the earth -- no that was just the first week of school, meetings almost every night since then, football and band going full tilt and I thought I could function with little or no sleep. My son had a big roller coaster experience with his college and life plans over the weekend and the first of this week. I'm still not certain where that will wind up, but the crisis moment has passed. OMG -- I'm not sure I'm ready for this senior year. I'll be okay when he leaves for college, but deciding where he will go and all that goes with that is not going to be easy for this one. I was supposed to be somewhere else hours ago, so I will quickly tell you what I was playing with and see if it sparks any interest rather than spending more time trying to get back to drawing it up and then finding it's impossible or whatever. I'm really getting caught up on the living spaces and flow of the home more than the knit-picking of the kitchen itself. The main thing that is bothering me there is the pantry being so far away from the cooking and prep areas. If you have enough cabinets to put your spices and most used staples in them near your baking and cooking zones and use the pantry for extra storage, small appliances and extra bakeware -- the things you don't need daily or won't have to go grab as you adjust or improvise when cooking, it might work. Or if you cook in an orderly fashion -- all by recipes or can gather everything once and not need to run to the pantry to get something you forgot or decide you need to adjust or improve something, it may work for you. I had a kitchen with a pantry across an aisle -- not as far as this one would be, and it drove me crazy -- to the point of hating to cook. I had very few cabinets in the kitchen itself and no room for any food other than the fridge. Even my spices were in the pantry. The walk-in pantry was one of the reasons I loved the house when I first saw it and one of the reasons I hated it by the time I left. -- but it was the whole package and you have more to work with. Just make sure you know where things will go and how it will work for you. I was thinking that instead of moving the laundry you simply move the door and reorient it, but if that has moved already, it's a moot point. I was kind of hoping that would save some expense so you wouldn't hate me if I suggested taking the kitchen to the right instead of to the back so that you could create a large great room rather than having things divided. It doesn't sound like you live divided and need the two living areas and two dining areas. I will forget that for now -- looks like it might be too much and too late. However, I would not wall off the area in front of the master. I was thinking of moving the desk that faces the kitchen and putting it over between the coat closet and the master BR door, then make that open area (overgrown hallway) a reading or game area with comfy reading chairs and/or a game table for playing cards, board games, crafts, extra dining for get togethers, etc. That's an area that will work with your family room but still give you an added function. I think I would still do that and even if you go with the kitchen pretty much as planned, the area that was patio could be a crafting/activity room that is more segregated and can be closed off from the much used door. I think that closing off that space and having traffic right through the middle of it would make it a mess in terms of too much hall and too little room to work with. If you make that area a game/study area, you could make that wall separating that area from the kitchen a peninsula - go all talls on the back wall and then have a pass through so that you can do snacks, coffee/beverages and even buffets there. If you have island seating, you then have three eating areas for when the family and grandkids are all there -- possibly even room to set up another folding table - and everyone can see each other. The thing that really stuck with me was that this house didn't flow and you wondered where the space was. I am afraid that if you wall it up and box things up like you have them, you might not improve that at all -- maybe make it worse. As I said at the start -- I have been out of the loop on all that has preceded it, so if I'm off on the wrong track I'm sorry.