Well so far the storms have been mostly rain and this afternoon (SAT) we get about a 1/2 inch of sleet and then back to rain. Maybe we wont get alot of snow if the temp stays up enough. I am just getting to see my younger blueberry plants and if the weather stays nice this week like it is suposed to might beable to get outside to do a little bit. All will tell by morning. I think I am going to start some seeds soon. I know I should wait another few weeks. Maybe I will give it another 2 weeks and call it close enough to April. We have a few bulbs already sprouting that we bought sitting in the house. They need to be potted I think. At least until I can get them outside. My agenda is set to finish spring cleaning this week and early next week at both houses so I am ready to work outside and spring clean the berry field and garden ASAP. When the weather finally decides it is spring I will be ready to rumble.

Nice house! I think that golden oak and brass fixtures will soon make a comeback, because dark wood and silver/stainless have been popular for so long. I don't think the peachy wall color in your house looks good with the oak, though, because it makes the oak look so yellow. Before you paint the trim and window blinds, try painting the walls. Our walls are a pale khaki/green, so light it reads as a neutral, and it looks great with warm wood tones. I've also seen nice warm grays look good with golden wood. On the other hand, as much as I love wood, I think the bookshelves look odd in that spot, mostly because they appear to be floating above the baseboard heater. I think that would be the best wall for the TV, so you may have to change the shelves to make that work, or move/remove some of them. Can the dining room be closed off completely, with a big arched doorway? With such open space in the other rooms, it might be nice to have a more intimate space for contrast, and to have less sound bouncing around when you talk and laugh at the dinner table. Can the ceiling in that room be lowered? If not, I do like the grill idea suggested above for the openings to the DR. Lastly, before you shop for furniture I would make many copies of a to-scale floor plan and try moving little paper pieces of furniture around to make sure you can make it work before you buy it.

desert, I plan to get out to some showrooms this week to see what's there and I'm really hoping that will help move me forward a lot more. When we built this house, we hooked up a trailer and drove to Dalton GA and came back with all the flooring needed to do the entire house. It was easier to make choices when we were looking at the entire roll and not just small samples. We got terrific deals and then just paid the labor to have everything installed by a friend of DH. For the majority of other items we spent hours at Lowes. lanval, I plan to give the island a new top along with whatever we choose for the countertops and I know that will help spruce it up more. Originally we were told there was no room for an island at all, but our cabinet guy designed the funky shape to fit one in. I wish we had space to redesign it to allow more of a rectangle shape with an overhang to fit a couple of stools, but there is just not enough space around the u-design of my current layout. Anne, DH is assigned the reno to his brother. He doesn't have time to get involved in the work itself. That's probably a good thing since we end up disagreeing on details most of the time. I've learned we just see things from different perspectives because I'm considering details he thinks are not important. And since the kitchen is not really his domain, I don't want to get into a power struggle over the choices I make. I tried to discuss the timing with him yesterday and he sees no problem moving ahead with the April schedule. I pointed out the events coming up that will coincide with the time the kitchen is torn apart, and his basic outlook/comment is "it's no big deal"...he's just a 'get'r done' kinda guy. I tried to remind him this is not one of his empty houses that is unoccupied and the fact there is more involved than just slapping on a countertop and being done. Maybe I'm just thinking too hard, but I can see the entire kitchen torn apart and me being stressed enough over that while trying to juggle our spring busy season and my DD's precious time left living at home knowing the activities associated with that. Plus the responsibilities of finishing up our eoy business details is difficult enough alone, and now I'm sposed to be doing research/legwork to plan a kitchen reno. I'm sorry if I'm rambling, but when I say 'overwhelmed' I'm not exaggerating. If I could just put everything else in my life on hold right now, it might be no problem, but everything else is not going to just stop. I'm glad you see what I'm feeling about the timing of my DD last days at home. Just last year when she wanted to have her after-prom party here, I had some mini meltdowns feeling overwhelmed with my regular daily workload and then adding more to it. This year isn't looking much better... Anyway, to clarify some of the questions you asked: I broke the measurements into 2 sections since the bar seems to separate it into 2 areas. The nook area is 13'x9'8". The kitchen area is 9'5"x13'2" but that is only the actual floor space. The cabinets are 25" deep so you could add that to the width of 9.5 for a size of the actual room. The garage is on the other end of the house. There is door to the backyard patio in the nook area. The original plan called for columns and a more open floorplan. DH chose to change it to large c.o. I posted pics from different angles to try to show this. I measured everything you asked to help clarify; fridge is 35"Dx35"W - cab depth is 25" - MW cab is 29"D - raised bar is 12"D. I checked the face frame of cabs and it appears the only ones sharing is the section to the right of the sink where the raised bar is. The rest are chopped up due to the DW, stove, and corner that leads to the MW cab. I'm trying to visualize the changes you suggested...I guess I need to sketch it out to understand it completely. Since his brother is doing the reno, it actually gives me more comfort b/c I know is fully capable of any little details I bring up. At this point...right now...I'm in panic mode after talking with DH last night and he totally doesn't get my lack of enthusiasm about the schedule. He makes it sound so easy. The ct can be done in one day, the floor can be done in one day... what's the problem??? Arrggh!! happy, Glad to hear of your wp sucess, painted and stripped. I hung every bit of the paper in this house and have 3 baths of wp also facing stripping.

Ok, I just got done redoing m 1980's honey oak kitchen with a white vinyl floor, so I can relate to what you're wanting. If you want to reconfigure the kitchen, please spend the money and hire a designer, as all above have mentioned. You don't need a design/build person at this point, but a good kitchen designer. If you live someplace where its hard to find such a person, you can find one on here who can work with you remotely! We didn't change the configuration much, though we did yank out a pantry and instead designed a whole wall of cabinets to take up the "eat in" portion of the kitchen. Given that we didnt' reconfigure, I relied on my own choices, and good contractors to make it happen. For the new wall of cabinets, I simply worked with the kitchen person where I bought the cabinets. Lessons learned: get the plan, and the estimated budget, in place before you do a single piece of work. Build 15% contingency into that budget. If you're doing it without a general, make sure you get good advice about how to sequence the work to minimize the pain. Its worth it in the end, but it takes patience.