Thank you! I got all the dishes, glasses and pitcher as well as the flatware from Dansk when they had a little outlet store here. The dishes have a regular soup bowl as well as what they call a fruit or cereal bowl, which is a totally different shape. Then Lenox bought Dansk and closed the store. It was the greatest place. They sent coupons out often, and you could use them on your whole order. If someone got one for 50% off, they let you share. It was great! Wish we still had it, I would be posting pics everyday of what they had!!! Hi2all, I answered your question about my dining room carpet on the home dec forum under centerpieces. If you want, I will take a better pic of the carpet. Maybe when I get all my St. Pat's stuff out I'll put it on the carpet and take a pic, killing 2 birds with one stone!!! As for the napkins, they call it a crown, and it I would have starched and ironed them, they would have come out better. Next time! LOL

Here are some places to try -- I didn't locate pricing on this first one. Good Luck! http://www.authenticdesigns.com/lanterns.php?cat_id=1&cat_sub_id=1&pn=1&photo_id=7 Here's another similar one for $301.00 http://www.gatesmoorelighting.com/images/catalog/19.JPG And this company has the style for considerably less $150-200 http://www.sandwichlantern.com/Lanterns.htm

Hi, Sayde. It eally seems you've pretty much made your own argument for not having one. We're on a septic system and don't have one. The only reason I could think of for wanting it was to grind the little stuff that didn't go in the composter, but that's more theory than anything else. We just don't miss it. Plus, more importantly, that's very valuable, close-in space under the sink that should be rescued from its back-alley/chemical dump status and outfitted for more valuable storage--the way the rest of the kitchen is. My assemblage of noxious chemicals goes on shelves in the cleaning/broom closet. Do you really want to give up space that could be used for drawers or other pull-outs to store your big stock pots/salad spinner/plastic storage containers/colanders/flower vases/??? for a noisy contraption you don't want and seldom use?

natal, can you post a photo or link of your foot-operated trash/recycle cabs, muspic, can I see your cork floor? We're doing cork as well. The telling sign for me was when I went into a "wood flooring" showroom. When I asked where their cork display was (the whole floor was covered in the different wood flooring), I expected them to say they didn't have one (like most stores). Instead, they took me to the area where the employees stood all day. All cork. No wood. Enough said. Alabamamommy, our current house has white Corian counters. They were here when we bought the house and were afraid of them at first, but now we love them. I cook every day and never had any problem getting anything off them, including red white and tumeric. I spilled about 4 t. of tumeric on the counter when I was making keema yesterday. I got most of it right away. After I was done cooking, I saw that I missed a spot. I sprayed the spot with 409, let it sit a few minutes while I cleaned up then came back and it came right off. We've also had success with set stains using Soft Scrub, and even a baking soda paste. For the kitchen in the house we're building, my must haves were: * cork floors (I need the sound proofing for living with a brain injury and active boy!) * walk in pantry (that it is 9'x9'11" is a bonus) * all base drawers * wide aisles * pulls instead of knobs * dropped baking center so I don't have to stand on my tippy toes while kneading bread, and open on two sides so my son can help. * foot pulls for trash * hands free water faucet * island (I ended up with two. WIth my TBI, I can't go out to socialize much, so two islands give me a "little kitchen" where I can focus and not be distracted (aka, burn the house down). The second island allows others to be "in the kitchen" to help prep, socialize, clean up, etc. without being in my space. I can't wait! *desk area for printing recipes, menu planning, etc. * side by side frig. It just works best for the way we live. Funny story, when we bought our current frig, the deciding factor was the one that fix a pizza box. In the last four years, there have been less than 5 pizza boxes in there! We cut out most processed foods. So we love the side-by-side because when I cook dinner, I always make larger portions so we can get 2-4 leftovers out of it. There are packaged in lunch size containers in frozen. Everything is easy to see in the morning, when DH grabs his lunch. * Full size freezer in pantry. We currently have a chest freezer, but we'd like to be able to buy a part of a cow from a local farm, so we're getting a side by side freezer to store our meat and extra bulk goods. DH's must have, beyond what's above: * deep single sink for washing pans (Usually I clean up as I go, but often I run out of steam by the time dinner is done, so he'll do clean up. I figured if I give him the sink he wants, he'll do it even more!) * energy star appliances * water sense sinks * Sharp microwave...