Well, just in case....here is another idea. It's really tasty and can be served warm or at room temp (A bonus!) Grilled Ratatouille Source: Rachel Ray Magazine 3 large tomatoes, halved crosswise 2 bell peppers, quartered 2 zucchini, thickly sliced lengthwise 1 eggplant, thickly sliced lengthwise 1 onion, thickly sliced crosswise 1 head garlic, halved crosswise 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil Salt and pepper 1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, sliced 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar Preheat a grill (I used stovetop grill pan) to medium-high. On a large baking sheet, arrange the tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini, eggplant, onion and garlic in a single layer. Brush with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Transfer the vegetables to the grill and cook, turning once, until just tender and slightly charred, about 5 minutes for the tomatoes, 8 minutes for the peppers, zucchini and eggplant and 10 minutes for the onions and garlic. Return to the baking sheet and let stand until cool enough to handle. Chop the peppers, zucchini, eggplant and onions into 1/2 inch pieces and transfer to a large bowl. Squeeze out the garlic cloves, finely chop and add to the bowl. Working over the bowl, slip off and discard the tomato skins and remove the cores, then crush the tomatoes with your hands and add to the bowl. Add the olives and vinegar, season with salt and pepper and toss. My notes...1/28/10 This is incredible! I subbed a carrot for the eggplant. Could easily sub black olives for the kalamata. Linda

Just buy the house next door and do a covered walkway between the two. It'd be a hell of a lot easier and cheaper ;) Because that is what you are essentially proposing to do. You're talking about building a nice new modern addition that is the size of a full house. And then attaching it to the old less modern settled over time existing walls and foundation and insulation house. If your neighborhood supports 1.5M comps, you would be miles ahead functionally and financially to do a teardown. You would actually be likely to be able to finance that through a bank if your income would justify the resultant note. If your income would not justify the note, then it's unlikely to be able to support doing the remodel that you envision, as that would be even more costly. And the mix of old and new will not appraise nearly as well as all new. So you spend 1M on this home overall with original purchase price and remodel costs. It won't appraise for that. However, if you spent that overall on a teardown, you would most likely be able to sell it for very close to that if you had to. Never think you won't have to sell. Live your life for you, sure. But, if you can, make sure the risks you take won't wipe you out completely if the unforeseen happens. The problems start, and the real spending of money gets escalated when you attach new to old. Attaching old and wonky to new and straight is a problem. Throw lots of money at it, and the problem gets solved. To do what you've envisioned, you will need all new electrical service from the pole and to redo a good portion of your existing wiring. You'll need all new septic plus extensive reworking of existing plumbing to get it to flow properly to the new septic (or city sewer connection). You will need all new HVAC, and additional reworking of existing ductwork. You'll need all new roof and siding, at least on the back half of the house, and that will make the front half look like a stepchild without it. (Then the new windows won't match the old drafty ones, and you'll be replacing them too.) You'll need to completely retrofit the old house to modern seismic standards. In other words, you're already completely rebuilding the major money portions of the old part of the house anyway, so going ahead and tearing down what's there makes it able to be completely rebuilt to modern wiring, plumbing, window, seismic, and insulation standards much easier for the tradesman. That equates to a lot cheaper labor to do everything when the walls are completely open during new construction than it is to fish everything in existing walls in old. That's the biggest reason why remodeling is much more expensive than new construction. Labor is high. Retrofitting is more labor intensive than new construction. And you live in CA. The red tape capital of the US. It just got even harder (and more costly) with the requirements that your state and potentially your muncipality requires. There's nothing wrong with spending your money on your home if that's where you want to spend it. You'll have more substantial visible results than if you had a crack cocaine problem. But, be sure you understand that you are spending your money with a remodel. You will not get the financial return on investment that a teardown or moving would give you. You're literally digging a big hole in your back yard and burying dollar bills. If you're lucky, you might get 1 out of 20-30 of those dollar bills returned to you in the ephemeral (but important) "resale value". If you are totally comfortable with those financial ramifications, and the increased utility and comfort in living is worth it to you to spend that money on, then do proceed with the plans as you've outlined. If the notion of burying that much money makes you uncomfortable, then you should definitely explore the other options here.

Tomatoes, Mother Earth's favorite fruit! I like tomatoes sliced thick, spread with a mixture of pesto and bread crumbs and passed under the broiler just until the topping browns a bit. Fresh sliced tomatoes with basil and balsamic vinegar and a little extra-virgin olive oil. Heaven! Tomatoes stuffed with ham, chicken, tuna or egg salad make a lovely lunch.

IMO pulls should be in proprtion to all cabinets which means an 8" pull on a 3" drawer are too small but I need to know a bit more about your style and what black at all. I use painters tape to decide pull size and no 2 pulls on wide drawers for sure . Since you have all these different sizes I would look for simple pulls that come in a good number of sizes and amke no decisions until all cabinets are installed