Hi,everyone.I will be getting a new kitchen in April.My questions are do any of you have the counter top with wood around the edges if so do you like it,is it easy to keep clean or is the crack between the two surfaces a bother?Also my husband is now building us a pantry/laundry room,which makes better use of the space cabinets or open shelving?willa.

-- willa (goodall6@hotmail.com), February 12, 2002

Answers

Do NOT build something with a built in food catcher. Cleaning problem and health hazard.

Cabinets with fronts look tidier.

-- Rose (open_rose@hotmail.com), February 12, 2002.

the "crack" in the counter just needs to be sealed,, easy to do,, for the pantry,, no doors, as long as ther is a ,, board or something to keep things from moving forward and falling off

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), February 12, 2002.

I would consider what you are putting in those pantry shelves. I wouldn't want anyone looking in MY laundry room cabinets, that's for sure. I know where everything is, but it's all my cleaning rags and solutions, laundry stuff, shipping boxes I might need, and other stuff for which I can't find any good spot!

If I were putting, say, all my home-canned jams and pickles and such up there, I would probably want them open, or with glass-inset doors to show them off. If it was cleaning stuff and miscellaneous "junk", I would hide it definitely!

I'll be interested to see the concensus on the wood-edged cabinets. We are planning on redoing our kitchen in a couple of years, and I'm planning and plotting already!

-- Christine in OK (cljford@mmcable.com), February 12, 2002.

Sounds like a great husband to me! Keep that one!

Can you build a pantry Across one wall of the utility room--not very deep, say 14 inches but put sliding doors on the front like a closet? That way, you could shut the doors when company comes, but leave open when you are putting things away?

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), February 12, 2002.