Sounds like a good plan to me. You and Hobo were in the right place at the right time for each other. 22 years ago we had a skinny, flea infested Border collie mix show up at our door. We knew she was someone's pet because she kept trying to get inside our home. I took her to be bathed, dipped and cleaned up and brought her home. I posted signs all over the neighborhood; called the Animal agencies and drove her around our community hoping someone would recognize her. No one claimed her and she became ours. She was grateful for a home and companionship and she rewarded us daily with her proof of love for us. After we had her for about 4 years we found out she belonged to a family that lived 3 blocks away that never bothered to look for her and was known to have kept her in the back yard all of the time. I was scared that they would find out we had her and would try to reclaim her. I contacted an attorney who told me to document what her expenses were for food, Vet bills and to estimate what boarding fees would have been. He drew up papers stating that in order to reclaim the dog, the previous owners would have to reimburse us for these expenses. She lived with us until she died at the age of 14 and those people never knew (or didn't care) that she was living with us. But we would have gone to court to fight for her and we were assured that our request for $$ repayment would have held up in court. Hobo is yours now and I just know he will repay your kindness many times over as he enjoys his new home with you. Bless you. Mona

Blue Store employee here, so I do know what's expected from a KD there---or Cabinet Specialists as they term the position. They don't use the term designer, because they don't expect actual true design responsibilities from the employee. They just never tell their customers that. Unfortunately, Lowes employs many kitchen Customer Service Associates who are not designers at all, and are not there to do any type of design work at all, but that may not be clear to a consumer. They're there to dust, and to escort people around the showroom, and make appointments for the KD's etc. They aren't supposed to create quotes or do designs, but some do. When they quit paying commissions to the KD's, Lowes lost most of the experienced KD's, and had to replace them with poorly trained transfers from other departments. The person you talk to today may have been in paint two weeks ago, and then watched a bunch of computer videos to get transferred to kitchens. You don't get a lot of competence for $12 an hour and no incentive to work harder or better. So, even if you do get a "Cabinet Specialist", they may not have the knowledge to do the job they're supposed to do. It's just too complicated a job to think that a few weeks of computer training will be sufficient. But they insist on doing it that way anyway. If I hadn't already had a background, there's no way that I could do the job based on the training that they offer. And, at least Lowes offers the computer training. According to a local source, HD is getting out of the kitchen design business in store all together in the next year. Within the next few months, you wouldn't have had anyone to talk to at all about your project had you gone into Orange instead of Blue. We give "free estimates" for counters, but those estimates are based on the customer's measurements that they bring in, which aren't usually accurate at all. We have few solid surface counters on display, because it's so out of fashion, but we do display a set on backsplash and a coved backsplash. I do personally discuss the costs of the coved backsplash when we're having a general show and tell, but at $40 a foot, I can't tell you the last time someone actually wanted that. Nor can I even tell you the last time someone even asked about it before I showed it to them. It's been literally years. We might do a solid surface top about once a month, and it's never for someone looking for a budget top. Budget people do a cheap granite. We don't even do a set on backsplash for 95% of the counters we sell of whatever kind, even laminate. It's flat deck everything with people doing tile backsplashes. An estimate is required before a template can happen. A template isn't free of charge. The templater's time has to be paid for. It requires a deposit, which either a set measuring fee in some markets, or, in most markets, the entire counter amount paid for up front based on the customer's probably not so accurate measurements. (Which is why no one does a final contract on an estimate.) After the template, when the real measurements are ascertained, and all costs for all of the options being chosen are known, that's when the final costs are determined. That is explained to every customer, at least by me. If you back out of the sale after the template, you are refunded all but the template fee. That's in the small print. And that's why I say you owe the fee. As far as the miscommunication goes, even with an experienced KD, that sometimes happens when a customer has assumptions that they aren't fully sharing or explaining because they are assuming that something is one way or standard when it's not. It's up to the Specialist to ask enough questions to be able to educate the consumer and correct those assumptions. However, had you asked me about a "seamless counter" I wouldn't have assumed you were talking about the backsplash at all. Just the butt seams or corner seams in the counter. The big takeaway though from any interaction would be that the process should have been explained to you enough to know that your total wasn't final until after the template. And this is one of the reasons that I always over estimate a counter. People don't mind getting a bit of refund, but they hate coming up with more money for the job.

Hi y'all -- sorry this thread got away from me and I never looked back after a certain point. I know there are fellow inveterate plastic-rescuers around. But it's ironic to find myself in this position because there are few who hate plastic as much as I; I hate it so much I can't throw it away because that will generate more pressure for it. It's the bottomless cup-paradigm - if you don't like the drink, draining the cup won't put a stop to it. Or something. I have confusion about the issue of safety and plastics. Much of what I read I believe is not true. I would never heat any plastic-encased food, really, in a MW. Having no kitchen for a while I've resorted occasionally to premade costco foods in plastic containers that can nominally go in an oven. But they melt. How scary is that?? However the stuff about washing bags leeching vinyls or whatever it is that's claimed -- I don't believe that. I think age can start vinyls to fall apart, but washing? nuh-uh. Food grade plastic: did you know most of those "tshirt bags" are not rated for food? You're not supposed to put food in em. I gave up worrying about that long ago; life's too short. Everyone does it. I try to remember not to, but frankly that particular scare has been pushed out of my forebrain at some point. BTW I love how the ones most vocal in "sharing information" about how washing plastics results in unsafe plastic to use are ... water bottlers. My kids regularly get scolded by teachers for reusing water bottles. It makes them feel badly. And I try to spare them the public humiliation the teachers sometimes put them through regarding this. I think the humiliation is likely far worse for them than the supposed vinyl slough-off. I think mold in plastics can certainly be a problem; it can be hard if not impossible to adequately clean plastics of mold if not food residue. But disintegrating plastic? I don't think so, not usually, not unless heated. Much of my feelings on this subject are generated by a friend who is a much-awarded materials chemist. Anyway... there are lots of good hints in this thread that I thank one and all for. More tales from the war zone of neurotic inability to throw-away: I have been - not once or even twice but several times in the past - been threatened with arrest for refusing to take a bag for goods purchased at a store. My kids don't believe me about this, but it's true: not so very long ago (and more so in certain parts of the country) it was considered just shy of insane, certainly unpatriotic and utterly criminal, to wish to leave a store without one's purchases in a bag. When I forget to bring a bag into a store or don't bring a large-enough one, my "punishment" is to leave the store with everything in my cart: I tell the cashier that my car is a big-enough storage vessel for it. This usually gets a smile. BTW, part of this neurosis is wanting to avoid purchasing a container when there are so many orphan-containers around. If you have recourse to a perfectly acceptable in-want-of-reusing container and instead go out and buy one, that's generating unneeded demand and pressure on resources. That's how the neurotic argument goes.... And finally: books. They are clearly their own species and worthy of building houses for, are they not? (another primary reason for renovating here!) But I have recently discovered PaperbackBookSwap. If this isn't better than sliced bread I don't know what is. You can swap your done/disliked books for someone else's. There are so many books out there I'd like to just have around in case I ever found time to read anything again -- this is the way to do it. I cannot tell you how much fun this has been. It's not just for paperbacks either. If you want me to send you a signup link, I think you or I or both of us get a free credit or two. Email me and I'll send you the link. No worries if you'd rather sign up independently; I have more credits than I can likely read through before I die! Here is a link that might be useful: Book exchange site

I never had any use for Cardinal Richelieu among the historic figures of Europe. The fact that Huguenotic ancestors might have something to do with it is not the only reason, see his quotes. Love the Tolstoy and Austin quotes as well as Pavese. Thanks, Don.