Which brand of 36" panel ready, french door refrigerator you would buy? Thermador, Jenn-Air, Miele, Bosch, KitchenAid or SubZero? SubZero seems to be the most expensive and the most back ordered. It is hard to find reveiws. Amazon has a lot of positive reviews of the Bosch but does not sell other brands. I see a couple of people on this site agreeing with your opinion of Decor but ApplanceConnection.com has a lot of positive reviews of their refrigerators. Thanks! I so appreciate advise.

Hi garden_gal and Irma, it’s so good to hear from you both again and gratifying that you remember my little garden. In answer to your questions, we do still live in the same house. The garden looked wonderful for several years but the shrubs eventually grew very large and many of the plants died off or had to be removed. I have found it increasingly difficult to find pesticide free butterfly host plants and attractors but this is my mission again this year. The garden has evolved but I am happy to report that it is indeed still alive with butterflies, bees and hummers!

“It’s so sad to see all the lower income seniors that have lost everything. It’s not like they have time or means to recoup. It’s just so sad. There are so many and I wonder what is to become of them.” Remember 2004 when we (Florida) were slammed - Charley, Francis, Ivan and Jeanne? FEMA sent a bunch of small trailers to house those displaced. I hope that is an option now for some. I’ve seen where a few air b&bs are donating stays, some long some shorter. I’m still without electricty, the news we see is lacking in information. I did see coverage that included video of a mobile home park. the homes look to be in pretty good shape. The tie downs did their job keeping them put. One would never guess that during the surge the homes had 8’ of water in them. Some of those poor souls had not evacuated, Its all so sad.

You say about your kitchen: First kitchen, need toaster oven, blender, mixer, juicer, gravity water filter on the counters all the time so that do not have to dig them out of cabinets/drawers and put them back. Not on display in the main kitchen and also close to clean up sink and dishwasher. The obvious solution to utility vs display, is to decide to focus on one or the other rather than both. As soon as you do that, design is much simpler. For example, if you decide on utility, then you can close off much of the kitchen so that everything is hidden by default from the rest of the house. That would mean you could do work, even messy work without disturbing the zen of your whole home. Note: it does not mean that your kitchen can't be beautiful; just that it not be the visual focus of the main floor. If you choose display, then you are deciding that whatever is happening in the kitchen affects the entire main floor-- no escape. You are committing to either constant cleanup during kitchen work or to seeing mess. When you design a display kitchen, you need more storage (or less stuff) to reduce visual clutter. And since you still want to use your kitchen, much of that storage must be easy-access and more like disguise than storage (e.g. a sliding panel that covers the small appliance zone.) Right now, the house plan you have has one room for each goal, however minor (which is part of why you have essentially 2 kitchens). Your architect should be getting you to prioritize and group your goals so that s/he can design spaces that meet multiple goals successfully at the same time. 4000 sft is a substantial amount of room for a 3 person family. It would not surprise me to find out you'd initially told your architect you wanted a 4000 sft home. And so, because there is essentially no real constraint on the size, the design is lazy. If I were you, this is what I'd do: Stop adjusting this bad plan. Do Verbo's spatial logic exercise-- in fact, do it for real in the home you live in now. Whenever you are doing something in your current home, think about how efficiently and comfortably (or not) you are doing it. Think about what would make the process better. And consider how much of an irritant or pleasure it would be if your new home addressed (or didn't) the identified goals. This will help you prioritize what is important to you. Once you've identified how you want to live rather than what you want your house to look like, then write up a prioritized list. Something like: We like to garden and our child likes to play outside. We're messy and expect a lot of traffic between the house and outside. a sunny spot to nap, cuddle or read a book. I dream of a suspended day bed with a view of my garden. We keep lots of groceries on hand and cook daily. I don't want to have to frantically clean up if an unexpected guest arrives. we prefer not to bring strangers or acquaintances into the main part of our home. It would be good to have a more formal area near the front door for that. our home will be a busy, energetic place. We'll need away spaces to recharge our batteries. We have lots of stuff and we use it frequently. Organization and ease of access is key. take this list to your architect. Explain that the design brief has been lacking a critical element and that's why the project isn't making any progress. Then sit down and discuss your list. Make sure s/he understands that this "feeling" list is more important than any of the previous "features" lists. And that each "feature" must be assessed in the context of the "feelings" it will promote and prioritize. at this point your architect should be asking you questions about each of the points on your "feeling" list. S/he should be developing an understanding of how you want to live. then s/he should go back to the drawing board and design a home that fits the site, functions efficiently, meets your needs and suits your taste. when s/he shows you the new plan, don't assess it by ticking off features. Ask them to walk you through the spaces and explain how they are supposed to work, how they support the vision and meet the goals. Ask questions about how you would accomplish any task that you think might be difficult in the space. For example, rather than saying, "I need space for a bigger sofa in the living room", ask "We have monthly, casual gatherings of about 15 people. How do you see that working?". It's really important not to define the solution to the issue. That's the architect's job, not yours. Your job is to identify issues and explain why you think they are issues. Best of luck!