OMG, I have so been there. The child who carries around completed assignments, not turning them in, until they are lost. He'd lose his own head if it weren't attached, I tell ya... And he's only in 6th grade. I'm fearful of high school. First, I told him that he had two choices - I can go to school with him and make SURE he turns things in, or we could figure out a system that would work for him. Of course he chose the second option, lol. He's required to have one big binder for all of his classes and as a result, the thing is like the black hole. Things go in and go into the abyss. I assume he looks for things in class but just gets frustrated and decides he doesn't have it. So, we went and got a sturdy thin folder with pockets on the inside. This is the HOMEWORK FOLDER. The left side is labeled for assignments TO DO. The right side is assignments TO TURN IN. This is kept totally separate from the black hole. Nothing else is allowed in that folder but assignments that are done at home. We've had a bit of an issue with him putting things into the homework folder while he's at school (they sometimes get shoved into the binder), but at least at home I can make sure that all of the assignments he did that evening get put into the homework folder TO TURN IN pocket. And there they are supposed to stay until they are turned in. That way when he's in class he doesn't have to fish through the black hole, just pull out that folder and there it is. It's not foolproof, but it's definitely helped.

jejvtr, tell your friend that house is just adorable!!!! we have a 1926 house (plainer but similar). our kitchen remains separate from the dining room (no door, but a doorway separates them). i understand where she is coming from. some things that i can add (having redone our old kitchen) are: 1) that by living there only part time, she seems in a good position to do this kitchen in slow fashion which is best for a lower budget and an older kitchen (our DIY budget was around 10K. and our kitchen is actually larger than hers--includes the old porch they had). if possible, can she put a temp kitchen in place in the dining room, remove old grandma hutch to storage, and rip out the present kitchen to the studs? then she will know very quickly whether it's best to remove or keep walls, etc. that pocket wall could hide a beam or something, who knows. 2) i have learned that walls that seem illogical in 1920's houses have their own logic that is not visible at first (must remove plaster). Even though we wanted to change them at first, after looking inside, we have often chosen to leave things right where they are and NOT for historical reasons! ;-) 3) if she opens the room to other spaces, she loses her wall cabinet space, so i understand that. 4) at least she still has a radiator, our kitchen rad was removed by the POs and replaced with.....no heater at all. good luck, it is challenging. kren

sweeby, I appreciate your input! If I keep the frig by the pantry, my builder will put a filler strip so that the door swing should work out, so I think we can solve the door swing issue. BUT would you still put the frig on the pantry wall knowing it is a 14-15 foot jaunt over to the cooktop situated on the opposite wall? I can see myself going back and forth between frig and cooktop cuz I need to add more butter to something, etc... The distance is what caused me to rethink the floorplan and move the frig closer to the cooktop. It makes a tighter work triangle. So which is the lesser of two evils? 1. Frig on pantry wall 14-15 feet away from cooktop. 2. Frig on cooktop wall with tighter work space: 14" landing between frig and cooktop, but a 6-8 foot run of counter around the corner to the R of cooktop. I think 2 cooks could still stand in front of cooktop couldn't they? One cook could stand on L of cooktop in the frig landing and in front of the cooktop while the other person could stand partly in the 12-14 inches of space to R of cooktop and in front of R side of cooktop. Does that make sense? I have plenty of prep space on the island or to the R of the cooktop. If it helps any, we only have a family of 3. My dh never cooks and my daughter may help on occasion as she gets older, but I'm the primary cook. sala 08, No the pantry walls are not in place. Actually my favorite plan is to remove the pantry entirely which would greatly increase my upper and lower cabinets, counter space, etc.. but it would also greatly increase the $$$ of the kitchen to add in more custom cabinets, granite, etc. and we already pushing the budget envelope so have to let go of that option. I can check into moving in the pantry wall on sink side so that there is adequate room to stand if I move DW to R of sink. The question is whether or not giving up 6-12" of pantry space would be worth gaining base cabinet space to L of sink where DW was previously located. Still welcoming input! It really helps me think things through.

Hard to tell. Fungicides don't cause bud drop. But young citrus under stress sometimes do drop buds. Don't worry if it does as it's too young to support fruit anyway without causing a little more stress and it will make more soon enough if its happy. I'd enjoy the flowers if it keeps them and take off any fruit this year. Flowers don't stress it much. Concentrate on growing the tree strong this year so it can give you lots of fruit in the future. Read the threads here about proper soil, watering, etc and you'll be fine. Lot of good info to be found on past threads.