Many people get food poisoning from commercially available products, and if you saw what went on in many restaurant kitchens, you'd probably never eat out again. In 2007 there were 4 cases of botulism linked to canned hot dog chili sauce, and there were cases of botulism from Bolthouse Farms Carrot Juice, and an update shows the serious effects of botulism. "All of the victims of the Bolthouse Farms Carrot Juice botulism outbreak developed respiratory failure and required lengthy ventilator treatments. One victim in the United States fell into a coma and died three months after ingesting the botulism toxin. A couple in Canada also experienced lengthy comas and nearly died after drinking Bolthouse Farms Carrot Juice. Two years after the outbreak, in December 2008, two victims were at home, two were at a rehabilitation facility and one victim remained at a hospital. At this time, two of the five survivors were still dependent on mechanical ventilators." Also in 2006 there were a couple of cases of botulism from some home fermented tofu, so it doesn't need to be canned food alone. However, when you think of the thousands of people with e coli from improperly handled beef and salad greens, the salmonella from improperly prepared chicken, from jars of peanut butter, from fresh cheeses, and the countless and endless recalls of everything I can think of, well, I'm a lot more comfortable eating my home canned food and home grown beef, even if I don't have the same equipment and may not have been diligent about following all the "rules". It's a good thing I like to cook, that's for sure. Annie

We've had Wolf range with charboiler for 7 years. I like it and it's why we chose the Wolf over others at that time. For what griddle style cooking we do I prefer to use pans. Yes it has a cover, a learning curve and it is hot (which for what we cook--meats, chicken, thicker cuts of fish) and that's what I wanted. We use it sparingly as we also grill outside, however in winter and inclement weather, as well as for the occasional appetizer when entertaining we use it. My spouse prefers the grilled flavor over our NG Weber. IR is closer to charcoal in how it cooks, and our next outside grill will definitely have an IR searing burner rather than the more common radiant searing burners. The heat can be moderated by covering parts of the ceramic burner with their "blank off" plates which we rarely even have to use. As for the salesman's comment the griddle does everything a grill does, having worked behind the line in restaurants as well as cooked for many years, he is completely wrong and misleading. Both have different methods of heat-to-food transfer which is sort of what cooking is all about.

Good idea to move the kids' study area/play area to the front of the house. Even with the stairs between the LR and kitchen/DR areas, this gives a better sense of connection than the plans I proposed earlier (Plan A above). You could opt to open up parts of the staircase walls, like windows without glass, to connect these spaces even more. That way you won't have to move plumbing lines. I made a tweak to your plan: I opted for an L, not a U, eliminating one corner cabinet (never the best use of storage). That allowed me to lengthen the island and put a prep sink in it. IIRC, your fridge is standard depth. That's why I'm suggesting a 30" depth along this wall: the fridge will look more built-in. Here's how to handle the extra depth either along the whole wall or just behind the range. [[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/florida-historic-renovation-traditional-kitchen-tampa-phvw-vp~794549) [Traditional Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by Sarasota Architects & Building Designers Clifford M. Scholz Architects Inc. Moving the fridge and pantry also made room for the doors to the kid area to be centered on that wall, allowing a better flow of light between these two spaces. (IIRC, you said that the front of your house was fairly dark. Nnorth facing?) The other plus is that in the blink-and-it's-here future when your kids are older and crave more privacy, they can move their zone to a basement rec room and you can tear down the walls separating this space from the kitchen/DR area and make it a larger gathering spot for family and friends. The other tweak I made was to the powder room. I lengthened it and added an angled wall for the door. That increases storage and make the powder room seem as if it's opening into the foyer and not into the kitchen/DR. And maybe it will make it less likely that the toilet will be visible when the door is left partly open. I got a bit confused about your measurement for the width of the kitchen/DR so I went back to the measurements you provided when I first worked on your plan. Oops, I just saw that the column I thought was a pantry is an oven/steam oven column. That can be swapped although I'm not crazy about the lack of convenient landing space near these appliances. That may be why you did a U lay-out. Oh, well, perhaps my stab will spark additional ideas for you.

Landed here from a Google search where I had the same problem. What I discovered is that after heavy rain/snow melt, the water table around our house rises to the level of the underground french drain, into which the house gutter downspouts empty. And then, one of our sump pump outlets is routed into the downspout near the foundation. So when the water table is high, the french drain is saturated, and cannot take on any additional water, especially the water volume from the sump pump. My decision was to install a ball valve and a cleanout T connection in the sump pump outlet, so when the water table is high, I close off the route into the downspout, and connect a 20ft long pipe to the cleanout T (it's threaded, so I use a trap adapter to screw in to the T connection) that runs out to the driveway. It's not ideal, but it works. When it rains hard or we get a flood watch, I turn the valve and run the pump water out to the driveway instead of overflowing my french drains.