Many good points have been made in this discussion including pointing to - adequacy of natural rainfall - hardness of water and need for maintenance - placement of sprinklers or emiters - benefits of conservation of water - evils of overwatering - use of mulch A couple more considerations not mentioned so far relate to soil and to shade. Where soil is extremely sandy, water can drain through easily meaning it is almost impossible to overwater. The corollary of course is that heavy soils loaded with clay can easily become waterlogged. Shade can also interfere mightily with natural rainfall. A heavy tree canopy can produce desert like conditions beneath even when there may be regular and reliable rainfall. Mulching has been shown to help retain the water in the soil (as well as prevent weed growth) but as one early post mentioned, mulch has the nasty habit of harbouring slugs. Taken altogether and applied to my situation ... I have a ready source of lightly fertilized (from farm field runoff) water in a river that flows through the property so it costs nothing more than electricity to move it. The soil is extremely sandy and well drained - any excess water applied simply runs through the sand and percolates through nature's filter into the water table. The hosta gardens are under heavy shade mostly from eastern white pines and require water or nothing would grow in that desert. Fighting slugs or fighting weeds is a subject for debate. I use mulch in gardens in full sun but with the hostas, I made a conscious choice to try to avoid slugs ... ergo no mulch. That combined with the falling needles has done a great job minimizing slug damage. But, it means generally a greater requirement for water and an ongoing (but generally very easy) task to keep any weeds removed. Most plants grow slowly or not at all in heavy shade so it is not much of a problem. I installed sprinkler heads that deliver significant amounts of river water universally across the whole garden even on the flagstone walks from early June through mid september. Initially I tried setting it for 1 inch per week delivered all at once. This was an abject failure as the water ran down through the sand and everything was bone dry within hours. After a series of experiments that I won't bore you with, I settled on 1/2 inch every second day. This seemed to work well enough though the results were not spectacular. It should be noted that hostas are pretty tough and can tolerate most conditions even semi drought though clearly they grow faster and look more verdant under ideal conditions. This year, using the adage that hostas can be drowned, I increased the watering to 1/2 inch daily. Now the results came in - all hostas showed tremendous growth, moss grew much better on all the granite rock and the garden has remained very attractive and healthy even this late (beginning of September) in the season. The first frost is just around the corner (probably by mid September) so I will shut down and drain the sprinkler system in two weeks. I don't think that any one approach will suit every garden. Each of us has to consider all the factors and make a choice which inevitably involves some compromises. About the only constant is that where nature does not provide sufficient rainfall, then the gardener must supplement it. Doug

Here's a pic of a kitchen with the Upswing Door cabs!! I have another really good one, but I can't get it to work right now. Will try again after I drink a glass of wine. In my cabinet layout I'll be having 3 upswing door cabinets (WOW! I never knew what to call them either!!) stacked on each other. They're 18" high and I think 13" deep. The first one is on the counter top, then the other 2 right on top of one another. I have to admit, this was a purely form over function design decision for several reasons. I'm not really sure how convenient storage is inside the cabinets. The hinges and hinge arms (for lack of better description, I'm taking about the hardware that actually lifts the door up) are on the sides in the middle, and they're pretty big. They take up some space in there. And, in my case where I am stacking 3, the bottom door will swing open on its own, but the middle and top doors will open together from the middle cabinet (ie: you lift the middle cabinet door up and the top cabinet door goes up, too). That's fine, but, am I even gonna be able to get into what's in the top cabinet? Will the middle cabinet's door be in the way of the top cabinet when they're open? I never asked my Cab designer. I am assuming he wouldn't plan this way if the top cab will be unusable. I'll definitely need a stool to reach the top cab (I'm 5'4) but that I don't care about that. I figure I'll just store rarely used stuff up there. I really loved the cabinet when I saw it in person (Brookhaven). I saw a single one. And I love the way the 3 stacked looks on paper. I hope they're at least a little functional. I'm willing to put up with not 100% functional in this aspect of my new kitchen as long as I love the way they look and they hold some stuff.

We installed one in our basement bar/kitchen almost 4 years ago. It is an Ikea Varde with a double hinged door which folds in the center and is held up by special supports. It uses a Blum system. No, it isn't used every day but no problems thus far. Here is a link that might be useful:

Assuming you'll use the shower both in "regular" shower mode and steam shower mode, you should have an option to vent the shower so water vapor can be continuously removed by the bath vent fan as it's generated. If you trap all the water vapor in the shower, you create a big shock load for the vent fan when you open the shower door. You may find water vapor condensing on walls and ceilings as a consequence. To avoid the same shock load problem for the vent fan in steam shower mode, turn the temperature down, and if you have a hand-held sprayer, knock down as much water vapor as you can at the end of your shower.