Sorry I didn't get to this sooner, djdoggone, and sorry this is long but I can go on forever about bathrooms. LOL If it's too much to digest at once, you could save it to your "clippings" (look on the right side of the screen) and read it in bits. Glad your library is getting you the Powell book. Even if you find absolutely nothing else useful, which I doubt, there's some great eye candy in it! :-) However, 8'x9' is not a small bathroom, it is quite generously sized! When you said "tiny bathroom" I was thinking more like the 5'x6' bath that's fairly typical of a small house! Do you have a floorplan? I was able to fit both a soaking tub (a clawfoot, yum) and a shower stall into the 8.5'x8.5' master bath in my previous house; in the same-sized upstairs bath (oh, do I miss having separate baths) had a shower/tub but a double vanity and good-sized linen closet in the same size room. Very rarely do you have to lay mosaic tiles individually - they pretty much always come in sheets for easy installation, thank goodness! Unless you cough up for custom made borders (yeowch) or use a simple strip border, they have to be put together by hand but you can set them up on mesh mosaic sheets beforehand, which are then just laid onto the thinset. I had eliminated the small mosaics because you had specified "easy to clean" and that's a lot of grout! (I was unimpressed with the so-called stain-resistant epoxy grout. It DID stain, had a bit of a plasticky look, cost a lot extra for both materials and installation, and just wasn't worth the hassle in the end.) While Greek key borders can be had premade they are virtually always either glass or stone which isn't really appropriate for the style of house you're aiming for. One of the other nice things about the Daltile octagon-and-dot, it's dirt cheap. :-) You can do a simple but attractive border by cutting out the small tiles in, say, a double line around the perimeter of the room (before installing the sheet) and replacing them with those of another color. It is very classic and goes pretty much anywhere. (Some people will insist that you have to use large floor tiles with a small bathroom "to make it look larger". I disagree, especially if the color values of the small tiles and the grout are similar which minimizes visual clutter and busy-ness. I also disagree that small spaces must be automatically made to "look larger" - we have in this culture an attitude of "bigger is better" even when perhaps we should really embrace compact efficiency.) If you live in a chilly location, electric floor warming mats are probably the best few hundred bucks you'll spend in a bathroom project. On average they use about the same amount of electricity as a light bulb, and you can get a programmable thermostat as an option. I loved mine and the people who bought the house were totally jazzed about having such a "luxury". (It cost about $300 for the mat and the fancy thermostat - Home Depot and Lowes both carry the Suntouch brand, which is what I used.) Per the pedestal sink... maybe I'm just strange (okay, that's nothing new) but having pedestal sinks has always made it much easier for me to manage the clutter factor in the bathroom, because it forces me to put things away when I am done with them. When I have plenty of horizontal space like a full countertop, it accumulates "stuff". Some pedestal sinks have wider decks than others, too, giving you more room to set things down while they are in use - American Standard's Retrospect and Standard are two right off the top of my head, as are many of the wider pedestal sinks from Kohler (Bancroft, Kathryn, Devonshire, for example; the narrower versions have skinny decks). Toothbrush holders and suchlike can be wall mounted to get them off the sink top, or a glass shelf placed above the sink under the mirror or nearby. If there is floor space, a small standing cabinet (here's a spendy one at Pottery Barn, but it gets the idea across) can be placed next to the sink. As for toilet paper storage, there are attractive cylindrical storage containers especially for TP (Wal-Mart, Target, Linens & Things, etc.) that hold a four-pack and can tuck behind the toilet, keeping the "stash" within easy arm's reach. If you get monster packages, the remains can be stored elsewhere and the in-bath container kept filled from that. You obviously already know about recessed cabinetry, which is usually your best friend in a small bathroom - a wood-framed recessed medicine cabinet (VanDykes.com has a nice kit that is cheaper than a similar readymade from somewhere like Restoration Hardware) over the sink is stylistically compatible with beadboard etc. and holds some stuff, and if you use beadboard on the walls you can use a beadboard door on your recessed wall cabinet to help it blend in, and keep your trim very narrow. I had a tall, skinny (I'm talking like a 10x15" footprint) freestanding linen cabinet tucked into the corner near the toilet to keep the standard bathroom things in; things that were not used often were stored in the closet of an adjoining room. A pretty decorative cabinet can hang over the toilet to hold yet more - in the upstairs bath in the previous house that's where TP and such lived because we could just reach over our heads to get a fresh roll! LOL I am not much for the "spacesaver" sort of over-the-toilet cabinet, although some people like them. If you think the right way you can cram a positively ridiculous amount of storage into even a small bathroom. Can you do a pocket door? They are some of the best spacesavers in the world, and they have come a LONG way from the flimsy things of the 60s and 70s, more like the heavy and durable ones of the Victorian era (many of which are still functioning just fine today!). There is even locking hardware available. I understand the PITA factor of the combo shower and tub in a vintagey bath, I'm in the same boat. (Complicated by the need for a deep soakable tub for the 60" niche - I'm a daily soaker - in a lighter-weight acrylic tub in this 107yo house, feh! I love the feel of cast iron, but reinforcing the floor joists to permit the cast iron would require tearing up the floor in the hallway and one bedroom, or tearing down the ceilings in the dining room and kitchen. Uh, no.) Pretty shower/tub faucet sets are available - I love the one in American Standard's Standard Collection and it's very reasonably priced. Subway tile (white with light gray grout) would look especially lovely for the tub surround but if the hubby is being super stubborn then a solid surface (Corian type, but there are several other brands now) material would be attractive behind that glass and easily cleanable. A light gray with a subtle granite-like flecking, perhaps, although Corian does make a pretty solid light gray (Pearl Gray). Not quite sure what you mean by "how do I frame this bath" - can you clarify further? Have you visited the Smaller Homes forum? It's going through a slowish patch now but it has flurries of activity, and if you post questions you'll almost certainly get plenty of answers.

If you're questioning whether you'll get sick of two different granites, my guess is you will. Some people like that look, which seems to be popular, but some people don't (ahem,.... me. no one get mad! :)) Since the SW is outside your budget, stop considering it! In addition to budget concerns, I don't think the tones work in your space. (I think SW is gorgeous, but just not in this application. Also, if you had two different countertops and two different stains, I think it would be way too much.) Because your floor and cabinets have two different stain colors, I think a solid black would look good. biochem gave a good example and rtwilliams has a gorgeous kitchen with solid black counters. Did you throw out Cambrian black as a choice because of price? I will say that I have that counter in a leathered finish and, after 2 years, it is flawless. I don't know how Labrador compares. Is Labrador strictly black/gray or are there other colors? I thought it had variation, but I don't remember... I also think the newer choices, BA and others with some brown in them, would look very good. I agree they tie everything together. With that said, what do your inspiration photos or kitchens show? Have you saved particular kitchens you really love? If you saved 34 kitchen photos with black counters, do not be swayed to get BA! If your inspiration kitchens had a mix of counters, then that's another story. :)

Oooh--I just googled that stove. How beautiful. Let's see now. For my 1955 O'keefe and Merrit I would say.... Pros: 1. High btu's (for a residential--non "pro style" stove). Burners up to about 13.000. Not sure how low the simmer is, but there is a teeny weeny little simmer burner on each of the 4 burners. You can also adjust the flames easily. Everything is accessible. 2. Fold down top. Many vintage stoves have covers to make up for the lack of counter space in vintage kitchens. I use this "counter" allllllll the time. So my stove is closed more than it is open. 3. Style (of course!). A vintage kitchen needs a vintage looking stove. 4. The pilot light in the oven keeps the oven at about 100 degrees, which I love for rising bread dough. Also works to keep food warm. 5. The high end of the temp spectrum is great. My oven goes to about 600 degrees, so it makes great pizza (I keep a pizza stove on the bottom all the time. So, excellent looks and cooking performance. And mine was "only" 800 bucks. She is definitely the star of the kitchen. Visitors gravitate toward her, pet her, and gush. Cons: 1. All those pilot lights raise the gas bill a bit. But I have no idea how much. 2. All those pilot lights heat up the kitchen. I live in Northern California. In the fall and winter and spring, I love this. In July and August, it can really add unwanted heat to the kitchen. What I usually do when a heat spell is coming is turn off the gas, and gook via grill, electric kettle, and microwave. The only hassle to this is that I have to slide the 400lb stove out from the wall to shut the gas off. 3. Smell. I don't know what is going on with my stove in this respect. But the exhaust smell (it isn't a "fresh gas" smell) that comes from it when I use can be unpleasant. It isn't horribly strong, but you can smell it. It really bugs my husband. We do not have a stove pipe (which the stove should have), nor do we have a vent hood. Once we have a hood, this problem should be solved. 4. Tiny oven. I can fit a half sheet pan in there, but nothing much larger than that. I can fit a roaster, but it is tight. I cannot fit a ginormous family size pizza. So, big thanksgiving style meals would be tough (I haven't attempted any.) I really really really wish I had held out for a stove with 2 ovens. Two ovens would be a lifesaver, and many vintage stoves have 2 ovens. 5. My stove isn't well insulated, so it gets friggin hot on the outside!! When my youngest was 2, I was a nervous spaz about having him in the kitchen when I was cooking. Especially if I were making pizza! Thank goodness my boys are older now. Unfortunately, I can't really afford to have the stove taken apart, and reinsulated. (Actually, I have no clue if it even has insulation in there.) I think that's about it. There might be other concerns with a 1924 stove (it may not have continuous pilots), but if you are working with a good dealer, he or she can advise you. I have a friend with a 1920's Spark stove (yellow with red knobs!). She is an awesome cook and baker (and has the tiniest amount of counter space I've ever seen!). She adores her stove, and raves about its performance. She has a stove pipe, and I've never smelled any exhaust in her kitchen. But that remind me: older stoves with a stove pipe sit at least a foot (or more) away from the wall. this is a problem in a tiny kitchen, so you might want to look at younger stoves... Hope that helps! Feel free to email me if you have any questions! :-) francy

I just put in the Horus Art Cristalli tile in biscuit and I love it. I am awaiting the grout (which I will do in a matching color). I have honey/toffee maple cabinets in a Shaker style door, Crema Astoria granite (a creamy granite with white, black, and garnet areas, and with some subtle but not overpowering gray/silver movement). Even though I love clean lines, I chose this tile over the Tiffany (which is a straight subway) because it has a handmade appearance (the lines are kind of wavy, which go with the movement in the granite). It also has a little sparkle, which my granite does as well. I did not do a border or accent in my backsplash; I used only the HA Cristalli subways. I don't have a big kitchen - it's 10x10, only 15" from cabinet to counter. I chose to leave it plain as I want the focus on the granite and not the tile. I am so happy that I did! When I get a chance I will post some pictures.