At first I used to trade seeds on the Canadian forum but now I have so many plants I don't know what to do with them all! Also the rest of Canada is a different climate and so far away. Now I go straight to this forum and my other fave is PETS, where I have received much good advice about raising a dog. WINTER SOWING has the most enthusiastic group I have ever seen and really cheers me up in the winter! I just realized how many forums I haven't looked at, so when I have a few minutes to kill I try a new one.

I'd have to say it's the island. I never had an island before and I love island living. It does everything it was supposed to....lots of work surface for baking and cooking, works great for entertaining and parties so people can talk to me but not be in my way when I cook and I can spread out lots of food for everyone to enjoy....the prep sink allows me to cook while DH can be in clean-up mode at the sink on the side, out of my way....it works as our breakfast table...there's a TV in the cabinet above the fridge and DH has his breakfast and watches the a.m. news there every morning...on the end is a bookshelf to stash all my cookbooks and it has an outlet in it for a charging station. Across from the cooktop, it has my viking convection oven which I also love. And it has large drawers in it for storing my knives and woodboards and such that I use on the island all the time...so convenient.

Great ideas! Thank you all so much! herbflavor-Thank you for the kind words about the cabinets as they are:) Most of the feedback I've gotten from other sources is about how awful they look, so it's nice to get a different perspective (and I never saw them as hideous myself). I did consider leaving the maple cabs in their natural state, but when we replaced our dishwasher with a nearly new panel-ready Asko Craigslist find, we realized how much the maple had yellowed/oranged despite the lack of direct sunlight. Plus, these cabinets are absolutely everywhere throughout the house---every bathroom, storage closet, laundry room, you name it. The real problem is that I think they might be too warm for the cool grays in the granite. So, I'm thinking paint would be the answer. I was not sure about gray paint on the cabinets, either, yet something is calling me to try it. It's only weeks of hard physical labor, right?! When you suggest the right and left flanking cabinets for glass inserts, do you mean both cab doors on the right and left, leaving 2 solid center doors? Or just the single far door on each side? Also, you mentioned changing the back of the peninsula. Do you have any suggestions? I think it needs improvement but have no clue here. Gigi4321, I like the idea of an open cabinet with shelves or glass shelves, and I adore that look when I see it in other kitchens. I may try that first after removing the doors to see how it looks; my concern would be with keeping the items clean since that is where we keep our everyday dishes and wine glasses. I'm fairly clean, but would hate to feel the need to dust my dishes before company arrives:) I love what you did with your kitchen, Annac54. Love, love, love the stain and the fact that you also DIY'd the majority of it, as we will be doing . It gives me hope. Btw, we had the exact same tile. Ten years of cleaning that grout spurred this facelift. Sadly,I still have the same tile in all 3 bathrooms. But that's a future post... Thanks for the photo of your center cabs a2gemini. That is some beautiful seeded glass. I think I may need to copy that, if you don't mind. Can't wait to see the finished pics. Artichokey, thank you! I feel so much better about my kitchen after reading your comments. It's easy to see these gorgeous, spacious gw kitchens and feel somewhat embarrassed by the fact that most of the butler pantries here are larger and nicer than my entire kitchen, nook, and family room combined. And I never knew that my ledge (as I always referred to it) was the dreaded and outdated "soffit" until I found gardenweb:). But with 15 foot ceilings and ample storage space, I could not see the value in reworking the entire space by adding cabs to the ceiling. I do love our kitchen and think it's functional and perfect for us. You asked about the area to the right of the kitchen, and here it is. This is the wall flanking the kitchen nook, on the way to the family room (open plan). Yet more cabinets, and a built in desk to boot (also an outdated feature, but yet again I do love its functionality). I've chosen a gray 2 shades darker than the "repose gray" for the main kitchen cabs (SW Dovetail) in hopes that it pulls both areas together while maintaining some continuity. Not sure yet about the desktop color... Again, thank you all so much. I truly appreciate your thoughtful responses. Love this forum!

My tall oven cabinet came with a shelf, so I just put it high enough to fit my griddle and extra long platters and then placed the dividers on top of the shelf. The dividers can be screwed down, but I didn't bother as they don't move much without the screws and it also meant I didn't have to drill holes in my shelf! Even if the cabinet had not come w/the shelf, I was going to ask for one since I already had planned for this storage based on what I had seen here in the thread linked below. I think I got the idea from Gizmonike and Sail-Away. BTW...I was originally going to get the Rev-A-Shelf dividers but put these from Walmart in temporarily. The Walmart ones worked so well that I didn't bother to replace them...besides, I would have needed 6 packs of 2-dividers each and at $14.95 per 2-pack, this was much cheaper! I used 3 dividers from Walmart at $5.95 each, so $18 vs $90...easy decision! I also bought two more of those dividers and put them under my corner prep sink...one in each deep corner One holds cutting boards, the other holds my pizza stones & cast iron frying pan. Here is a link that might be useful: Thread: tray cabinets - top 1/2 wasted space