Reading Rhome's comment about adjustable shelves moving/shifting/jiggling made me laugh because I found that out just recently. Not thinking, I moved something heavy from one end of a shelf and had a bunch of soda cans on the other end - well, of course, the unweighted end popped up and scared me to death. Oddly enough, none of the cans fell and we just popped the shelf back in place, but I can see it possibly being an issue if someone has a lot more on the shelves. Everyone would probably laugh at my pantry since compared to most people, we have almost nothing in there! It's just the two of us, so even though we have plenty, it's nothing like stocking up for a family of 4 or more :) I've even used it for extra storage for things that I just can't figure out another location for! But anyway, we have solid wood shelves with adjustable tracks so that they can be moved if we want. I think it's sturdier than the wire shelving and I haven't regretted it. I didn't really think too much about it and initially planned fixed wood shelves, but we simply got tired of waiting for the contractor to get around to building them. Long story, but we'd probably still be waiting 5 years from now if we hadn't gone ahead and installed the adjustable tracks and then just had him cut the wood shelves to fit!

In the FR against the Kitchen/pantry wall, we plan to put in some tall cabinets of some sort for books and other storage and maybe the TV/stereo components as well as put a 36" desk between them. That wall is 82-3/4" right now (it extends about 4' beyond the kitchen) plus we're adding another 18" or so to that wall for the pantry. That means we will have 100-3/4" to work with. We'll probably put in a 30" cabinet + 36" desk + 30" cabinet, all at least 24" deep. The desk may be 30" deep. That's the plan anyway. However, that will not be for at least a year or two. We need to save the $$$ to do it. But before then, we'd like to put in a DIY Mudroom in our Garage. We need someplace for all the clutter, etc. We might be able to put the Message Center there, but I'm not sure we'll have the room...it's going to be a small Mudroom (we're taking a 5' x 10' bite out of one garage bay to do this...we will still have room to park a car in that bay, but just barely!) So, in the mean time...I guess we'll have to find someplace else. The Pet Center is where we plan to store the dogs' food, collars, leashes, etc. We feed them right around the corner in front of the PR where there is a little setback b/w the kitchen & PR. The counter above is my baking center...I don't think I want to put a phone, keys, etc. where the flour may be flying! My KA Mixer will also be housed in that corner on the counter. [We have 2 standard poodles, around 45 pounds & 55 pounds.] Ruby & Shea (sister & brother) I have just about every counter and cabinet planned out! Perhaps I could put the landline phone & answering machine on the DR peninsula...although, there will be prep sink in that corner and it's pretty far from the FR...I'll have to think some more! Thanks for the suggestions!

Dear GWers, I am sorry I have not responded in a timely way. I was struggling with a minor kitchen near-disaster. What are the chances?? The drywall was hung on Tuesday. On Wed., the woman (yes, the woman) doing the drywall mudding/finishing said "Uhh, Oh. We have a problem!" My 1930 toilet decided to start leaking the day after drywalling was put up. Ruined a few sheets. Now, after my initial consternation, I was grateful it happened now. It could have happened AFTER the mudding and texturing were finished, or it could have happened after the full install. I hate to think about that. Anyway, I spent about 16 of the last 30 hours wrestling with old toilet technology. At one point, it looked like I was going to have to try to learn how to make a molten lead/oakum joint in the cast iron plumbing! Fortunately, it did not come to that! (Before you ask, there are good reasons to have repaired the old toilet rather than replace it with a new one.) Oh, and I was so excited to have drywall up; it was beginning to look like an actual room! Sigh. At least I was able to fix the old toilet, thanks to the good offices of the only plumbing store in town that deals with old fixtures. Anyway, back to cabinet symmetry. You generous people have come up with many good ideas! Chris, Lynn, KK, I immediately thought the corner was a great idea. I was (am) a little concerned about whether there was enough of a "leg" for it. As KK kalkulates, I think the leg could easily be 7", or perhaps more if I take more out of the larger cabinet. Then the For and Flor duo tag-teamed a perhaps better idea (and a new GW term, to boot!). I think I like a nearsighted corner. (Yes, the cabinetry will be custom, so this is feasible, I presume.) I wonder how this will look with stacked uppers? Back to the drawing board. Weissman, thanks for the concern. I have checked with my *very* pernickety municipality, and they declared there is no code issue with ranges and windows in our locale. They have signed off on my plans. Thank you so much, everyone. What a treasured resource for brainstorming!

You're probably not going to want to hear this, but my mullions and shelves not lining up drove me so crazy that I ended up replacing the mullioned glass doors with clear ones. The shelves will actually never line up with the mullions, because if you get them to line up, say, viewing them straight on, when you view them from an angle, they then won't line up from that viewpoint. I think it's a matter of people's personalities, because this issue would not bother some people, and does bother others. The good news is that I had FOUR mullioned glass doors that I replaced with clear ones, and it wasn't actually much of a big deal. The big expense in cabinetry is the boxes, not the doors. What I did was order 4 new doors without glass from my cabinet company, which surprisingly wasn't too expensive. Then I brought the glass-less doors to a local neighborhood glass/mirror shop where they measured them for the glass. I did end up choosing to bevel the clear glass edges. The bevelling adds a high-end luxury look - it ought to since it almost doubled the cost of the glass. But after having seen the bevelled clear glass, I know I wouldn't have been happy with the plain clear glass. When the glass was ready, about 10 days later, the glass store installed the glass onto the doors for me, and I brought them home and hung them myself. It was really easy, and I am not at all handy. I know it sounds like a lot of trouble, but that's how much the not-lining-up issue bugged me. And now, every day I can look at my clear glass cabinets with their lovely bevelled edges, and the shelves going cleanly horizontally, and enjoy the view. Sorry if this message is a downer for you, but thought I'd relay my experience.