The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)/Articles pages contain helpful information about how to navigate this site as well as the world of kitchen renovations.

The Kitchen Forum Acronyms will help you understand some of the acronyms used frequently in posts.

The Finished Kitchens Blog has pictures and information about many GW members' finished kitchens. Not only can you see them alphabetically, but you can also use the "Find-A-Kitchen" function to utilize several search options if you're looking for specific things like a kitchen w/a Beverage Center or a kitchen w/a mix of dark and light cabinets. Access "Find-A-Kitchen" via the via the menu bar at the top of any FKB page. Additionally, "Find-A-Kitchen" contains a link to "In-Progress Kitchens" for those members' kitchens that are not quite ready for the FKB. There is also a link to "Coming Soon Kitchens" for those kitchens that are ready for the FKB but have not yet been added. To access the "In-Progress Kitchens", the "Coming Soon Kitchens", and the "FKB Categories", see the links on the menu bar at the top of any FKB page.

The Appliances Forum is very useful when you have questions specific to appliances.

To start off the kitchen remodel process...take the Sweeby Test. Then, move on to Beginning a Kitchen Plan.

Other topics such as layouts, planning for storage, and stone materials are discussed in later topics in this thread. Even more information can be found by doing a search on the forum.

Tips:

• Before posting a question, please search the forum. There's a very good chance someone has already asked the question.


• When using the "search" function, be sure to use the search box on the bottom of the page, not the top!


• Note, however, that you will probably have better luck searching if you use Google (or similar search engine) than if you use the Forum search function. When using Google, to limit your results to Garden Web, include the following in your search criteria: ***site:ths.gardenweb.com


• In the Subject, the site changes the double quote used as the inches indicator (") to a single quote ('). We don't know why. To compensate, use two single quotes and it will appear as a double quote in the Subject. Luckily, the double quote works in the message box.


• When composing a new thread, you have a couple of options:


• Have replies emailed to you: check the box offering this option. However, you must have "Allow other users to send you email via forms at our site." box checked in your profile for this to work (see the "Your Profile" link at the very top of the page) [See the post later in this thread with the Subject: Getting Emails Sent To You...3-step Process]


• Insert a link: When you "preview" your message, you will be provided with two boxes for a link...one is for the link itself and the second is for the name or description of the link.


• When using the "Clip this post" option (far upper right corner of each post, small print), remember that only the current post is clipped, not the entire thread. Also, you are allowed a maximum of 50 clippings. Once you reach this max, you will no longer be able to clip or email posts.

How are the home page and the Forum organized? (based on the Kitchen Forum's FAQs entries)

• The Kitchens Forum home page lists 30 thread titles, starting with those that don't yet have a response. After the unanswered threads, threads are listed in order of most recent response. That first page displays the last 2 hours or so of activity. (If there is no response to a thread in an hour or two, the unanswered thread usually starts to drop.)
• Below the thread list are page numbers 1-67 for the total 67 pages of threads available -- capturing maybe 2 months or so of threads, less when the Forum is busy.
• Below that (and at the top of the thread list as well) is a space for you to switch to the Conversations or Gallery "sides" - these are set up similarly but are not nearly as active.
• Next down is a Search box -- very important! This is also the Search box you should use (not the one at the top of the page.)
• Always refresh the page two or three times b/f assuming a thread has disappeared right after starting it.
• As to searching...a thread will not be found doing a GW search for up to 24 hours after it has been started. This may seem too technical, but...searches are done against what are known as "indexes". Indexes use key fields/words to find things. iVillage only indexes threads once a day. So, that means that until your thread is "indexed", it won't show up in a search. If you start a thread just before the index is taken, you will be able to retrieve your thread by searching soon after creation. If, however, you start your thread right after the daily index, then you will have to wait almost 24 hours for the next index.
• Next is a place for you to start a new thread. And finally there are some instructions and links at the bottom.

Kitchen Forum "Sides"

Discussions: This is the "side" you are on. It is for on-topic discussions concerning kitchens...renovations, use of, etc.

Conversations: This is the "side" where you can post off topic threads such as regional get-togethers and non-kitchen subjects.

Gallery: This is the "side" where members often post pictures...especially if you're posting a lot or a finished kitchen. (Note: This is where StarPooh, our FKB person, wants you to post your finished kitchen prior to having it added to the FKB.)

Again, welcome and good luck! The journey is wild, sometimes bumpy, but fun and very rewarding in the end!

Note: The links in this Read Me thread have been updated to reflect the new Finished Kitchens Blog (thank you StarPooh!)

We will continue to bump this thread, but not the other threads I created. Please, do not bump the "subject" threads I will be linking to from here. We do not want to flood the first page with all those threads. To do so would knock threads from members asking for help, etc. off the first page and would be counter-productive!

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0213484417254.html

Note that the topic in the link above describes how to post multiple pictures in a thread and does not use the GW "image" function. The GW "image" function is limited and in most cases is insufficient for our use.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg010521247761.html

What are zones and how do you design with them in mind?

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0508230128712.html

A piece of advice:

When you post a layout for comments, please do not take the comments you receive personally. Everyone here is trying to help, not criticize maliciously. We want you to have a kitchen that, in the end, functions wonderfully well and looks nice overall. This may mean that some of us may tear apart your layout and rebuild it to what we think will work better, but it's done with good intentions. We're not the best at just "validating" someones layout, we're best at critiquing!

I will warn you that most of us here are "function over form" (or "function first")...meaning we strive first for a functional layout and then fit the form or look around it. It is far easier to make a functional kitchen look nice than it is to make a nice looking but dysfunctional kitchen functional. So, if you are a form/looks over function person, be sure to state that when you post.

Some people here think "function over form" means that we want all kitchens to look the same....not true! What we do want is all kitchens to function well...which means that in 99% of the cases, the workflow is the same...so that will mean some similarities due to workflow. However, as each kitchen is unique, each will have its own unique quirks, etc.

In the end, remember this is your kitchen. You don't have to make any of the recommended changes if you don't want to!

[Note: If you're just posting for validation of your layout (i.e., you don't want comments that suggest changes), state that as well. If you don't, people will comment on it!

Warning: People may comment anyway, it's tough to let a kitchen go that you think is dysfunctional and will cause angst later...especially if it's not yet installed and we think we can help. Bear with us, we're just trying to help!]

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg010523449014.html

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg010437444278.html

Note that the topic in the link above describes how to post multiple links in a thread as well as describes how to use the GW "link" function. The GW "link" function is fine if you only have one link to post. However, if you have multiple links to post, the topic above will tell you how to do that as well.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0105243228880.html

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0105344116836.html

Contains:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0105292031876.html

Note: As of Summer 2012, iVillage changed the thread lists & history functionality so that old threads can be resurrected. However, once a thread falls off of page 67, you will still need the URL of that thread to bring it back up. What has changed is that now if you bump the thread, it will re-appear in the list of threads.

While this may be useful for some, it does have the potential for pushing newer threads with more recent information and those asking for help off the first few pages faster. I would like to ask everyone to use discretion in resurrecting old threads. Yes, some have a lot of useful information, but I would like to suggest we create a "Library" of such threads as part of the FAQ rather than bringing them back to the thread list.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0105254810134.html

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0105280230861.html

Sooo, do you gals want to pick a theme for this thread?

Can we post art work? We don't have to continue but I will add one piece that has intrigued me from my art history class:
Judith Slaying Holofernes (1614-20) Oil on canvas 199 x 162 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. (Wikipedia text)

Landscape with Tree, c. 1920 - 1921 (another reference list 1917-1919)
oil on canvas
43.2 cm x 54.0 cm
Collection of Glenbow Museum, Purchased 1956
56.23.5

La Grande Odalisque, 1814 by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
The Louvre

The thing I always really liked about Ingres is the difference between the background details and the treatment of the main subject. To me, I always thought this said (Ingres speaking here) "Yes, I can darn well paint photo realistic if I choose to: look at those curtains. However, I wish to portray my model in a different mode. It is not that I CAN'T paint her true-to-life, I want to emphasize other things."

So, lets post a picture of any art work (2-D or 3-D) and tell a little something about why the image is significant to the poster.

This is a copy of his work from the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha web site

Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889-1975),
The Hailstorm , 1940
tempera on canvas mounted on panel, 33 x 40, 83.82 x 101.6 cm
Gift of the James A. Douglas Memorial Foundation (1971), 1952.11

Bump

I continue to love your choices. As I say, I am less well-schooled and diverse, and for now I will stick to the more well-trodden paths.

Here is Claude Monet's Impression, soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise). (1872, Musee Marmottan Monet). Obviously, this is not the best or most widely known of his works. The reason I chose it is that it was the painting that launched (and gave the name to) the Impressionist movement.

(Christmas bump!)

...He says, as he points, "look at the wondrous babe!"

How about this winter scene that I found. The image, text, and title are from this web source:
http://www.kunsthaus.ch/wintermaerchen/gallery.html

"Pieter Brueghel the Younger: Winter Landscape with Bird Trap, 1601
Oak, 39 x 57 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Picture Gallery

This is the first independent winter landscape in European art. Unlike Pieter Brueghel’s celebrated Hunters in the Snow, this painting was never part of a series of the Seasons. And there is no reference to a religious, mythological or historical story. This is interesting and important because for a long time landscapes served exclusively as backdrops: for biblical stories, for scenes featuring classical gods, or for depictions of important historical events."

Overview:

Within:

Maybe every now and then do a picture.

OR, we could do links to great art.

Wassily Kandinsky, a Wikipedia entry for this artist.

Would you believe we have a Plensa in my town, too!?

What a gorgeous picture of the lake, sky, and statue!

From the Guggenheim Museum website:

"When Constantin Brancusi moved to Paris from his native Romania in 1904, he was introduced to Auguste Rodin, the French master sculptor who was then at the height of his career. He invited Brancusi to join his atelier as an apprentice, but the younger artist-with the confidence, stubbornness, and independence of youth-declined, claiming that "nothing grows in the shade of a tall tree." Brancusi rejected Rodin's 19th-century emphasis on theatricality and accumulation of detail in favor of radical simplification and abbreviation; he suppressed all decoration and explicit narrative referents in an effort to create pure and resonant forms. His goal was to capture the essence of his subjects-which included birds in flight, fish, penguins, and a kissing couple-and render them visible with minimal formal means."

Brancusi's "Muse" (La Muse), 1912. White marble, 17 3/4 x 9 x 6 3/4 inches (45 x 23 x 17 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Photo: David Heald

Thomas Gainsborough. Mary, Countess Howe, (ca. 1764. Oil on canvas. 95 x 61 in. Kenwood House, English Heritage; Iveagh Bequest).

What really struck me was how Reynolds captured that faraway look in her eye, even though we can only really see one of her eyes!

Buehl, love the snow sculpture! Who did it?

Bump!

Bump

Bump.

In any case, Bump!

which lives in here:

Grant Wood, The Birthplace of Herbert Hoover, 1931.
Of note this was a commissioned painting by Iowa businessmen as a gift to president Hoover. But when it was presented to him, he rejected it. The source I am getting this information from (DM Art Center) states that "the figure in the center of the paing points to the small cabin in which Hoover was born. But Hoover 'did not approve of the painting in which the actual cabin is obstructed by a house that was not there at the time of Hoover's birth' ".

Another comment taken from the Des Moines Art Center source. "In her book, My Brother, Grant Wood, Nan Wood relates that the critics 'couldn't decide whether Grant was glorifying or satirizing President Hoover. Considering the artist, most of them decided it was satire.' "

Thanks for the nice picture and story.

.....look familiar?

American Gothic, by Grant Wood, oil on beaver board (whatever that is)
Created in 1930 and sold to the Art Institute of Chicago in November of the same year. Information from Wikipedia.

Kind of in your face :)

I have always liked this ever since I saw Sunday in the Park with George in the theater in London. This is one of Georges Seurat's most famous works, and is an example of pointillism.

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
Artist - Georges-Pierre Seurat
Year - 1884-1886
Type - Oil on canvas
Dimensions - 207.6 cm x 308 cm (81.7 in x 121.25 in)
Location - Art Institute of Chicago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday_in_the_Park_with_George

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday_in_the_Park_with_George

That bustle really pops out doesn't it, in the Georges Seurat painting.

And Deedles what is that? Your imagination? He's wearing Converse BB shoes.

Bump

Bump to help get this back to pg 1.

The art was my idea. Angie has always had literary ideas. So I thought since this is such an artful site, image art would be a good thing, to go with the poetry she started on the last thread. The down side, that I realized quickly, was that the images really slow down the loading of this important thread.

So for the sake of the impatient I propose that we post the smallest files we can find or create :)

Girl with a Banjo, Mary Cassatt, 1893-94, Pastel on paper:

Just kidding.

I do like the art a lot. I also like the idea that we CAN post a picture, but don't have to. I enjoyed the poetry thread immensely, but I admit I was getting a little tired of "having" to find a new poem each bump.

Nice to have you as a "bumper," Will.

From an Amazon review of the Gashlcrum Tinies:

"A is for Amy who fell down the stairs. B is for Basil assaulted by bears. C is for Clara who wasted away. D is for Desmond thrown out of a sleigh..." The rhyming couplets of this grim abecedarian are familiar, of course, to devotees of macabre humor, but the darkly crosshatched drawings are (as Poe put it) "the soul of the plot." Several years went by during which The Gashlycrumb Tinies: Or, After the Outing was not available in a small hardcover edition like this one, which is the true format for Edward Gorey's specialty, the adult picture book. (For those who wish to share the gloom there's a 10-copy assortment with The Curious Sofa.)

Lame, GW!

Willtv, the second Diego Rivera is stunning. It looks like an adobe room painted top to bottom. DH said "Cool!" to both Riveras

Bump

Willtv, the second Diego Rivera is stunning. It looks like an adobe room painted top to bottom. DH said "Cool!" to both Riveras

Bump

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), Autorretrato con monos, 1943 (Self-Portrait with Monkeys, 1943) oil on canvas 81.5 X 63 cm.

SNOW DAY, YAY!!! NO WORK FOR ME!

And a little soapstone!

I've added the link to my soapstone sink progress.

Bump!

Buehl, I love the "flake". It is truly one of a kind.

Did you make the sink, enduring? So nice!

And now for the bump

It is easy to cheerlead for such a wonderful project!

Bump.

Earlier today enduring's sink pic was right side up. Now it is upside down on my iPad. Anyone else see it this way??

Hopefully You all had a good laugh! ;)

Bump

edited to add LOL, for tea4all!

It's been a crazy day with our senior dog at the vets. I got on GW for some sanity tonight but "New To Kitchens.." just continues the craziness. I think I should cut my losses and go read a book. ;)

Big BUMP to get this baby off of pg 3.