thanks to you both! This is exactly the look I'm hoping for with my rangetop (not a full range). Apparently the drawings Capital provides show that that rangetop has to drop in, with a "lip" of some sort sitting on top of the countertop. However, that drawing contradicts another drawing that shows the SS top of the rangetop perfectly flush with the top of the countertop. When it sits on this lip, it ends up making the place where the countertop edge meets the rangetop's bullsnose look bad and poorly planned. My GC was on the phone with Capital for a LONG time going over it last night. And Capital could only send me two pictures showing full range installations that look similar to coleen's above. It seems this may be a small engineering snafu that Capital needs to work the kinks out of. I'll post what we do for future Capital rangetop planners. This issue has pushed our template date out to next Thursday; I really want to get this right. (Meanwhile, would just love to see a rangetop owner's installation pics!)

thanks lukkiirish and pharaoh...have been so overwhelmed with everything lately (renovation coinciding w/ my dad's being ill and flying back and forth from fla to help him out) that it's really nice to hear calming voices. the tile shop agreed to take the leftover tile back (minus restocking fee and the ones that were actually up --one of the three shower walls). i went ahead and had it taken down, fearing i'd always hate it and would kick myself over a couple of hundred dollars. i know accessories and paint would make a huge difference but i'm not terribly good visually and the tile installer said that taking it down today would be a pain but ok, whereas taking it down tomorrow would be a major problem. so i bit the bullet and had it come down. took them less than two hours. now i'm trying to decide whether to go w/ the crema on the shower walls (and what size) and whether to keep tumbled crema on the shower floor (not installed yet) or make everything honed. other choice for wall would be a white subway. pharaoh any pictures?

"& what has happened in Texas is that full-price offers are full price offers as long as only reasonable & customary expenses are requested from the seller." Interesting. "A financing contingency is not considered a concession, but a normal condition, as are good title & acceptable survey. " Now you have changed to "reasonable & customary expenses." So what have the courts decided in Texas? (citations would be nice) You seem less than clear on the matter. Is it purely expenses? Maybe you should take at least a business law class. When is a notice of cancellation of a contract consider received? These may seem like annoying details, but there are volumes of contract law written on this, and while you may proclaim "brokers neither write nor interpret legal contracts; we use the ones stipulated by the Real Estate Commission & by our Association. Interpretation of those contracts is done by the courts when somebody sues somebody else when the parties disagree over what the contract says." Many (if not most states) do not have a state mandated RE contract. Sounds like another reason to avoid Texas. You are participating in the formulation of contracts as soon as you fill in a line on the mandated contract. While the final interpretation may devolve to the courts (and that generally means the contract was poorly drawn or someone is being stupid and refusing to abide by what they agreed was the contract) the first thing the courts look to is the intent of the parties executing the contract.

Thanks for all of the responses! As it turns out I'm going to be able to go to Ikea tomorrow so I will at least have this evening to hash this out. Thanks to all of your replies I have more things to consider and bounce off my brain. caligirl cottage - I'm going to order in person. IKEA is about 20 minutes from my house so it's not that big a deal to go there. The trick is finding a time during the week (when it's not crowded) that I don't have to bring my children with me. I have an opportunity tomorrow and I'm going to see what I can get done. I'll let you know how it goes. I agree with your point about the granites above with the carrara being too busy. I always think of carrara as being so serene that I forget that there really is a lot of movement with veining that would definitely compete with some of those granites. However, if I was ever to do granite it would be something green like the ones above. I love the concept of soapstone with a white marble because I think it is so classic and exactly evokes the look I want. Oddly enough, though, I HATE the feel of soapstone. It just scheeves me no end - like fingernails scraping a blackboard. (Which, incidentally, is a good thing because I can't afford soapstone.) However, I LOVE the look and feel of honed marble. Weird, eh? remodelfla- My floors will be natural red oak to match the rest of my house. I like the idea of a white backsplash but I think I'm stuck on the white marble for the perimeter. I just love the look of off white cabs with a white marble. rococgurl- Thanks for all of your comments. Just to give you more information, my goal with this remodel is to lighten and brighten a dark kitchen. I love turn of the century/vintage, cottage, and farmhouse styling. So, I guess I would say that my taste lies more in the traditional realm - as opposed to a modern one. I realize that IKEA cabs are very modern in general even if they do have some doorstyles that try to lean a little towards the traditional. I always see the Adel doors in more modern kitchens but I'm hoping to make them work in one that's more vintage inspired. Here are the rest of my inspiration photos that I've borrowed different elements from: The first 2 are from bunglogrl's kitchen. A link to her finished kitchen pics are below. (notice the crystal knobs) Different photo of same kitchen in previous post: The next 2 pics are from the same house. I love the white cabs with carrara but, in the second pic (the kitchen), I think it's a bit cold. However, in the first pic the little piece of white cabs with carrara look beautiful (imho) against the warm yellow with black accents. So...to give you all a complete picture (in case you don't already have one) of what I am envisioning I will run down a quick list: -Adel white perimeter cabs -Adel medium brown island -white marble on island and perimeter (so far anyway - busy taking in all of your comments into consideration around what to do about island) -crystal knobs and maybe crystal pulls -polished nickel faucet and fixtures (maybe rohl perrin & rowe or Grohe bridgeford) -off white subway tile with white accent backsplash (I would copy the backsplash in the first pic if I can find those accent tiles.) -Natural red oak floors -ss appliances -those warm yellow walls (I think it's BM Barley) -stained brown (similar to adel mb color) farmhouse table with wheatback chairs -Not sure of lighting yet - kicking around schoolhouse type lights, pendants in 3rd pic of this post, and/or black chandelier type like in the 4th pic w/the yellow walls (love that chandelier) or a combo. Ok - Like I said above, I'll have to bat around what I'm going to do about the island color\counter choice thing. Anyone else w\comments about that - please feel free to chime in. BUT --- rococogurl got me thinking about something else: Will I be able to pull this off with these door styles? I'm trying to approximate the adel doors with the doorstyle type in the last pic. Will the details carry this look or will it just look mismatched and odd. I haven't seen any other Adel kitchen like this or even any that are remotely traditional. They are always in modern settings. Am I forcing the issue here? Sorry to be long winded but I've been at this for a long long time (can you tell?) and I'm trying desperately to have the look I want within my budget. But please be honest. All of your comments are really helping me figure this out. Thanks again everyone. Here is a link that might be useful: Bunglogrl's it looks like it's original 1920's kitchen