Thanks everyone, I don't think I dare show this to Ashley, she's going to get a big head! Cathy, don't worry about it. I know that everyone has their own way of doing things and I know you aren't malicious at all. At least I don't have to deal with a florist, a caterer, flights, accomodations or foreign languages! Ashley did hire a photographer, but that's her problem. Social event? ROFL. We don't have "social events" here, and I've never heard anyone refer to any local wedding as a social event. It will be a heck of a good party, though, so if you want to come to Michigan, come on up, I'll have a cranberry juice and limoncello ready for you. You'll be safe, every cop and fire fighter in the county will be here! Annie

Lol, the toilet does not feel private! It's next to the shower. We could have relocated it to a closet close by, but it would have been cramped and windowless. We could also have combined the tub and shower and put the toilet up one end or other. The toilet location was the biggest challenge with the width of the room, but there's a door and we close it while using the toilet, so it doesn't really matter where it is.

Thank you, everyone! :-) jerzeegirl - yes, the cabs are custom. The man who demo'd and then rebuilt our addition is a cabinet-maker by trade, so this is his "thing". He has been great - I must have changed the layout and the cabs vs. drawers about 10 times, and he never changed the price. His original rendering/bid had all cabs with just a few drawers - we moved it to all drawers for the lowers. No price change. I asked for pullouts - no price change. Under-sink "drawers" that look like cabs - no price change. The inside of the drawers are made of maple, with rounded edges and dovetailed joints. We're so pleased! The hinges on the cabs are soft-close, as are the drawer slides. Awesome! :-) sochi - it's a plain wall on either side. I wanted to highlight the cooktop/vent area and not compete with the somewhat "busy" laminate countertop on either side. I've always liked plain painted walls, so we'll stick with that for now. mtnfever - yep, used Circuspeanut's instructions exactly! It was a lot of fun, and it's really interesting to see it change each day. This morning when I got up, there were "patinaed" lines that represented last nights wipe-down before bed (sometimes I follow with a dry cloth, but I'm trying to train myself to just "live" in the kitchen rather than baby it, cuz we're not the type to baby our belongings. Might as well get it worn in now! Closer pictures of the backsplash - but the quality isn't great. My camera battery is dead, so this is cellphone quality again... From Temp From Temp The lightskirt still has to go on the upper cabs, but you get the idea.

Oh my! Shopping was quite overwhelming. I found many slabs in the white / off white category (both granite and quartzite) that I could see in our kitchen. But then I saw the soapstone! Wow - it was gorgeous and I think it would go beautifully in our kitchen; however, DH prefers a granite. Stumbled onto a gorgeous honed via lactea granite that has a soapstone look. What do you think? Could I pair it with a carrara marble herringbone backsplash?