bdfrase, I made an appointment with the Extension office in St, Mary's County and spoke with Ben. Ben knew a lot about small fruits like berries. But while I was in his office, we made a conference call to the Anne Arundel extension office and spoke with David Myers. Ben told me that David was the fruit tree expert in Maryland. David wrote a Spray Schedule and also a Home Tree Production guide. Both are available for download at the Anne Arundel Extension site. In his guide, he makes a suggestion for fruits that do well in our area. He spoke very highly of Geneva root stock. And spoke about the problems here with Fire Blight and recommended resistant trees. They also spoke very highly of Adams County Nursery as a supplier. I was not able to get all my trees from them, but found their site very interesting. The truth of the matter is I've gotten more to the point and pertinent information from this forum thanks to Scott and Harvestman and others. I'm in the same position as you, living in Southern Maryland and putting in a small home orchard. Please feel free to email me if I can be of any further assistance. I'm pasting the link to Anne Arundel County Extension. Look under bulletins. Here is a link that might be useful: Anne Arundel Co Extension Center

Yes, this is definitely a temporary fix, although there are many temporary fixes still hanging on 5 years later around here, so I'd like to make the most of it in case this ends up being a 5 year project. I do enjoy symmetry, but it's not necessary if other layouts work out better. I've been doing some shopping around just to see what might work and compare bunk beds and look at trundles. A neighbor stopped by last night to make our weekly goods trade and we were discussing beds, and she mentioned she had bought a day bed with a trundle that can be locked in a raised position to make a king for her spare bedroom. My sister-in-law mentioned futons, which would be easy to move around and could fold up to couches when they needed the floor space, but I'm not sure how great they would be for sleeping in every night. noellabelle- my kids love camping out too! They've been camping in the tipi at my in-laws all summer. Their room turned out great, and like you, I want something they can grow into. While they all love the frilly princess pastels and playhouse beds now, my oldest is already showing signs of outgrowing the look. I think I can do a more modest look they can enjoy for years to come, and can hopefully reuse most of it when they move to their future bedrooms. geokid-I've been looking at the TV cabinets as well. There are hundreds on CL this week. I like the idea of having one for each child too. I'm keeping my eyes out, although dh is not excited about trying to get them upstairs. We had to knock out the closet at the top of the stairs to get our mattress up there lol. bostonpam- I will definitely check out the Ikea system. Even if it won't work in this room, I'd like to put some type of storage in the laundry room/entry. I'm kind of curious as to how many of you have children who share or have shared a bed in the past. How long did they share a bed? I don't want for them to feel forced to share a bed if they don't want to.If I could get away with two beds for now, the girls would have a lot more floor space which would be nice at their ages now and I could satisfy my need to hide the clutter with more storage. nosoccermom- I love those hanging beds! I want one for our bedroom lol AnnieDeighnaugh- I hadn't considered hanging curtains or fabric over the clothes. That would be such a simple fix even until we get everything straightened out! I think I will gather up all of our curtains and try to make something work today!

We have a lot of similar elements to our layout. We have the stove in the island and it is the same length as yours (108"). Our is in the center to have equal prep spaces should there be 2 cooks at some point, but yours has space on either side too, so that is good. I'd move the island to have more aisle space on the work side than the other side. When the dw door is open, it would cramp the walkway. I'd add at least 4 inches to that aisle because you have it to spare. Our sink wall is similar to yours only the dw is on the other side of the sink (well it is also on the left, but our table is on the right). The cab closest to our table has silverware in it, so it is convenient to the table. We scrape off plates in the garbage pail at the end of the island (where you show seating) then the dishes head into the dw out of the way of the person at the sink. One major difference is our fridge is not so far from the cooking area. Ours is at the end of our sink run away from the table but you have the doorway to the dining room there. Would it be possible to move your fridge at the end by the table? It would be move convenient to be near the table and it would be closer to the sink and prep area there. If you remove the cab next to the dw, you would have room for it there, or better yet, move the dw to the other side of the sink and put glasses and dishes in a drawer stack base cab between the sink and fridge. If the fridge is not by the bsmt door, I'd move the wall oven to over there. It won't be opened into a walkway/entry area then. We put our micro on a shelf 13" over the counter between our fridge and sink and that has worked well for us. I am not sure I'd want it so far from the action as you have shown.... Since your boys are teenagers, they may not be around much to cozy up together at the end of the island. I'd skip giving up so much space there and maybe keep a stool or 2 tucked on the other side by the open shelves. Those can be moved around to any part of the island for hanging out. With the table for eating so close by, it may be redundant to make the island a regular eating spot as well. While I love open shelves, I was wondering if anyone would see what is on them on the far side of the island. There seems to be a wall facing that side..... You asked about cabs and drawers and I can't tell which of each you have and what you plan to put in them. I can say that having all base cabs be drawers is one of my fave new things about our kitchen. I'd even try to make the sink a drawer cab if I ever do a kitchen again, lol.....

We ran ours horizontally from the front door as we wanted the wood to go across the longest expanse of the main floor which is open concept like yours. We have three kids and a dog and have engineered wide plank white oak. It’s lovely. We do have LVP in the basement which just flooded today though. Lame. But it won’t need to come out so I see the draw!