Greetings! I've been browsing the net for tips on just this subject and your thread has answered a lot of questions - thank you! I just have one more inquiry - do you know of a way to make the end product of one-part self curing silicones (after curing) softer and stretchier (lets say more like human skin, goal hardness is 10-30 shore A)? The reason I'm asking: I am a resident in heart surgery and I'm trying to make practice models of parts of the human heart and tissue to use for training outside the operating room. As you said the platinum cure silicones are used for this purpose but the price difference is tenfold and they're a bit too expensive for us.

Annette, I picked up Great Gardens of England from the library Tuesday and have watched all four DVDs. Although I enjoyed walking through all those gardens and listening to their owners comments, this video set wasn't what I was expecting. I guess I thought I'd be going to gardens like Sissinghurst or the ones at very large estates or public gardens in England, with huge castles and a maze or two. But glad I watched them before I purchased the set. Sure do give a person a wealth of ideas though, plus I was amazed that the gardeners did all that tending and work themselves! Simply gorgeous borders, and the woodland gardens were wonderful. Those were my favorites I think. All that planning and designing, whew. Thanks for the heads up on this DVD set. My cousin saw it on the "hold" shelf at the library before I picked it up and wrote me a note saying "I wished that I had reserved this!"

Well call me wacky if you like but I have said for a long time, long before the lead in toys and pet food recall scandals that it is likely all these unidentified substances in products from places like China (mass producers) that are responsible for many of the health problems westerners face like fibromyalgia (sp) and other issues that don't seem to have a discernible cause. If medical professionals started automatically testing people with these ailments for lead content (or other known toxins) I believe they would be surprised at the results. I know, I'm certifiable, but every time I buy food for my cat or see a Dora toy I go back to this same idea. Suzan J

Natalie, you've come a long way from your initial plan, making some great changes that will make your kitchen work well, but there are still some issues you need to resolve in order to have a well-functioning kitchen that you'll love for years to come. I'm going to be blunt. If you don't have room to add a 3-4" deep buffer, taller than the counter, behind your range - if space is that tight - then your plan needs to be adjusted to avoid serious safety concerns that *everyone* here has mentioned. 42" between table and back of range *is not enough*. I'm glad you haven't had any problems with this type of set-up so far but your kids are young. They will grow and get bigger and take up more space than they do now. My youngest is now 6 feet tall. He used to run circles around my island *beneath* the counter overhang. NKBA (National Kitchen and Bath Association) guidelines state that "Countertop should extend a minimum of 9" BEHIND the cooking surface, at the same counter height as the appliance, in any instance where there is not an abutting wall/backsplash." (emphasis mine.) You are planning to have 0" of counter behind your range, which is more highly powered than your existing cooktop. Adding a 12" deep cabinet is only one option. Here are photos showing another option that takes up about 3-4". [[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/colonial-farmhouse-remodel-farmhouse-kitchen-boston-phvw-vp~34650) [traditional kitchen design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by boston architect DSA Architects Eliminate the rounded curve for seating, just have the counter go straight across the top. You can see how this gives you a buffer around your range without intruding into the room that much. When someone bumps up against the range side of the island, instead of getting close to burners or pot handles, they bump this small bit of cabinetry with its counter cap instead. Bruises are way better than burns. Here are two photos showing what it would look like from the range side. [[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/hill-section-home-rustic-kitchen-burlington-phvw-vp~34443) [contemporary kitchen design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2103) by other metros architect Birdseye Design There's an outlet, barely noticeable, tucked along the backsplash to the left of the bowl of fruit. [[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/transitional-kitchen-transitional-kitchen-denver-phvw-vp~96636) [eclectic kitchen design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/eclectic-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2104) by seattle general contractor Neil Kelly Company - Design & Remodeling You can see the outlets more easily in this photo. It also shows an angled island with cooktop and prep sink, somewhat similar to what you're planning. I don't think the sink as you show it is going to be very functional from the range side of the island. There's no sink frontage facing that way. You'll end up wedging yourself into the corner of the L - made even tighter because your range sticks out beyond the edge of the counter (see my next paragraph). You'll also need to lean over to use that sink. If you really want a sink next to the range and not closest to the fridge (most work flows fridge to sink to prep to range), then angle the inner corner so that you have easier access to the sink. Your aisles will actually be less than you show in all cases because you're not adding in the counter overhang (1" to 1-1/2"), the actual depth of the CD fridge (add 4" at least, not counting handles) or of your slide-in DCS 36" range, which is 27-1/2" deep according to DCS, other sites list it as 28-1/8" deep or 29-1/4" deep. Difference could be because one includes handles, knobs, the other doesn't. Either way, it's definitely not 24" deep as you show. You're also still skimping on counter overhang on the peninsula. I understand that you're trying to keep as much open space as possible but shrinking overhang from 15" to 12" will actually backfire. Chairs will need to be scooted farther away because there isn't enough leg room under the counter. You need to show accurate clearances to settle on a plan that will work IRL as well as it does on paper. If you don't, you won't discover the pinch points until it's built. Here's a suggestion to address the island concerns I mention above: I shifted the range section of the island forward 3-4" to allow for a backsplash behind that area, as per photos above. I angled the inner corner and added a 14-15" wide rectangular sink. You still have 36" of prep space to its left. Most work flows from fridge to sink to prep to range but having your sink placed in the inner corner allows you to use the faucet (get one with a pull-out sprayer) as a pot filler, which would be really handy. The downside is that I think this will still be a pinch point because the range sits deeper than the counter. You're seriously crowding your counter space around your main sink. You have 14" to the left and less than that to the right because of the upper cabinets that sit on the counter. You don't accurately depict the depth of the upper cabinets either. They will sit 12" deep, not including the doors, not the 9" you show in your drawing. I'm not sure why you've opted to move one of the peninsula seats to the mudroom sink wall. You've plenty of room for 3 to sit side by side on your 6' long peninsula (recs are for 24" for each person). As you've placed them, you'll actually have more collisions when either of the people seated at the inner corner move their chairs away from the counter. It will be even worse if both get up at the same time. btw, my math the other day was off when I was talking about your pantry/W/D closet. I saw 6' and thought 60". D'oh. So you could end up with a 15" pull out pantry cabinet to the left of your W/D (I'm allowing for 3" wiggle room for moving W/D in and out without scraping the heck out of the pantry cabinet). Will that, along with your countertop pull out cabinets give you enough pantry storage for your family of 6? That seems on the skimpy side to me but maybe you shop regularly instead of buying in bulk. Lastly, I wasn't suggesting such large slide-in doors for the whole closet, only for the W/D cabinets. They would be much shorter and lighter, and should hold up without a problem. Natalie, you actually have quite a generous space to work with but the constraints you insist upon reduce options for planning ample workspace for your new kitchen. Your largest sections of counter are not next to the main sink or the range. This is your kitchen and you admitted you and your husband are stubborn so it's likely you'll do as you wish, despite our best attempts to help. I just think that would be a shame because kitchen remodels take time and money and they are not fun to live through. I'd like to see you get a huge return for your efforts when all's said and done.