Thank you! I was trying to copy Barbara Mcguire's swirl of wire on them and it's tough when you don't have a "prescription" for how long to cut the wire to begin with. Can you tell I was trying to be stingy? I was using part of my little roll of sterling wire. It was the only kind I had of the right gauge. A problem with that: The earwires are not sterling and I'm not sure I like combining the metals. I should see if my local bead shop sells sterling earwires... What kind of wire do you use that won't dull with time, besides real silver? I don't know much about findings and all that... But I agree the details make a difference!

Yesterday I had to approve the layout for my new granite for my kitchen. Since I already have a backsplash and it's relatively new I wanted to keep it. When they demo'ed the Corian they did not injure it at all, still there, looks perfect. But yesterday they informed me they will have to raise the granite to meet the bottom of the already in place tile. I did hear the word "shim" mentioned. I am almost thinking I would rather have added a pencil trim piece at the bottom of the tile than to have the granite raised to meet it. She assured me that you would not be able to see the shim unless you got underneath the cabinet and looked up at the bottom of the ogee edge. I don't know if I will be ok with this...sigh... I asked if Corian was thicker than granite and she said no it's just that it was mounted on wood so it was higher. The granite I am getting is the usual 3cm. Maybe they do this all the time and it will be fine??? I'm a little anxious about this. They also have to build a "cradle" to support my heavy cast iron sink because it weighs 126 lbs. But when they went to look for my sink they couldn't find it!!! I delivered it to them weeks ago to have on hand when they got ready to fabricate. Oh well....if it's lost maybe I'll get that lighter weight Silgranite, lol. I would have gotten it to start with but they did not have any configurations that worked for our plumbing and husband was not happy with a major change to that. We had 70/30 and already with a disposal on small side it was just too much to change and deal with so that is why I ended up with the Lakefied Kohler. I like it well enough but would have been fun to do a newer looking design.

So with 2 little ones your hubby is going to try to figure out how to "do things", while the kids are taking a nap? Down with flu or cold? Sanding? Any allergies in family? As a newlywed we moved into a $60 rental house with wonderful landlady. The lady that had lived in house for years had died. House had not been painted or anything done for at least 20 yrs. Not up to our standards that is for sure. I spend hours washing down walls, sanding & painting as it was a well built 1920-30's house & I wanted it to look like new. The ceramic tile was 1 in squares on bathroom floor, I can not even tell you the hours I spent scrubbing the grout but it sure looked great after it was done. Same with kitchen countertops. I used Tilex back then & windows open as could smell fumes, not good for kids even tho products have improved. You don't say ages of kids but you can't put a paint can down & go out of room without kid managing to stick their hand in it or worse if they are under 3 yrs old. So unless dad is superdad & great at whipping up lunch with a paintbrush in his hand you are heading for trouble in your marriage. Later we bought a new home but just painting or getting new carpet was a hassle & a half with 2 kids underfoot.I removed all the old carpet & horsehair pad myself(very allergic to it) No money for sitters so kids were underfoot & of course as these things happen, it rained that day so furniture was slacked on covered patio & covered with tarps. Things go wrong a lot on this forum so unless your marriage is super strong & you both love,love, love old homes this could be a fast track to a divorce, especially when money gets short. Buy or borrow a few tools & make a picnic table & benches & see how talented you really are at getting angles right, etc. I've done a lot of things & can refinish old furniture beautifully but I can not put together a simple birdhouse for the life of me!! If you can't do simple things you probably will wish you hadn't gotten into this house. It is very attractive(from a distance). Try replacing glass in an old window someone has around & see how much fun that is. After the picnic table & a window or 2 you may have some idea how it will go. Best if wife & you work on these 2 projects together. If you end up yelling at each other or have a ball doing it that will tell you somewhat what is ahead, as far as your emotions go. Good Luck!

In general, you need 24" of linear space for each person & a 15" overhang for counter-height seating. I would not go less than 15" since your island is replacing a table. If you have a corner w/seats on each side, remember to leave at least 12" (preferably 15") extra for shared leg room. (Yes, this applies to you b/c of the proposed diagonal sides) This should illustrate it... See how Lagrant does not have seating right up to the edge on the side closest to us...that's b/c that last seat on the left side needs that for leg room. With your setup, you could get one seat on the 39" side...but the 12" overhang will not really be enough. The 18" sides will be much too shallow for someone to sit at plus it would be tight anyway not only b/c of the lack of linear space but also b/c of the shared leg space. This is what you're trying to do... (1 square = 3" x 3") Do you have a DR? With our remodel, we also eliminated table seating in our bay window. But, we raised the window and put a counter along that wall w/a sink in the bay. We also took down the wall b/w the DR and Kitchen and now use our DR for all our family meals. We do have 2 seats at the peninsula b/w the Kitchen & DR for a quick snack or breakfast or even to setup a laptop. Our peninsula is 5'2" w/a 15" overhang. BTW...we tried to do the same thing with our kitchen...put in an island w/seating...we even tried to follow the contour of the bay like you're trying to do, but ultimately it did not work. So that's when we decided to make that wall a run of cabinets & counters...the best thing we did in our kitchen! To help you find a way to get 4 seats, it would help if we could see a layout of the kitchen w/dimensions...especially the bay window alcove's dimensions. Is your design finalized? If it is, you're going to be very limited in what you can do at this point...which means you may not get the 4 seats you want. If it isn't, then perhaps we can find a way to get you what you want.