Terriks, I guess I was not clear when I said membrane - I meant the pastic/vinyl(??) thing that goes down on the deckmud pre slope. Not a vapor barrier as in kerdi. Mongo and Bill, the upstairs flooring is pretty sturdy as far as I can tell (I am no expert, as you can tell :) no creaking when walked on, it is a 10 year old house. I believe what I saw when the carpet was ripped off, was plywood. I could be wrong, again. The wood was about 1 1/2 to 2" thick. I made him pull out a small portion to check for water damage, if any, which we did not find. The cement board was only screwed in, not thinsetted. So I know better, they should both be done? How about on the walls? Just screwed in to the wall studs? We are starting on the Master bath tomorrow, and want to incorporate all the changes that I have now realized are required, except for the kerdi, which I dont have access to readily. We are going to use Redgard (topical) on the walls. One more questions- as for water proofing the shower floor when builing a deck mud pan, do we use redgard on the cured floor before tiling (pebbles in my case)? My handyman has never used epoxy grout and I am not willing to experiemnt, as clean up can be a pain and if there are any problems, I am told that it can be pretty hard to get the stuff out once hardened. So I am going the tradtional route - sanded grout,(no admix) and then seal with a penetrating solvent based sealer. Is there anything that I need to do differently for a better result? Thank you all so very much, mrao77

Mud will give you very substantial shower. Properly done, the walls will be plumb and square to one another, and you know all those comments we always right about caulking the corners in the shower instead of grout, because grout will crack? In a mud shower with reinforcing mesh wrapped through the corner from one wall to the next, it's essentially a monolithic structure. It's not going to move, so you can grout the corners. So it's pretty much top of the heap durability-wise. You can either have the membrane behind the mud, or you can go topical (Hydroban, RedGard, Kerdi, etc).

This cold has my head so stuffed up, I can't think straight! Steph- You make an excellent point about the laundry, but now I remember why I had it, in the mudroom! The kitty boxes have to go in the back hall area, and I can't put them next to the dryer...since it's too noisy. Plus, I don't want the soaps and cleaners, open to the kitties. They are my indoor children (LOL) and I have to make a space for them, too :) So, laundry back in the mudroom, but I do want to add an extra foot to the depth, so there's room for the bench on one wall and some cabinets/tool storage on the other (by the outside door). This should keep my husband from putting tools, on the dryer! Plus, there's room for a cabinet, behind the door for brooms, cleaning supplies, etc. The bench in the mudroom is for him, but I'd like to put a bench (where the freezer is in the plan) for a few hooks for my coat and my husband's everyday coat. Then, the freezer next to the oven (back hall/utility side) and then a small cabinet, then kitty boxes under the countertop with upper cabinets, above. I plan to put fabric under the utility/farm sink, so maybe I'll put fabric to hide the kitty boxes, too. I'd better get back to work and maybe make some tea to get rid of this cold. Hope you all have a great day and spring will get here, eventually...right? This rain/snow/rain/snow, with occasional sunshine is starting to get a bit tiresome...but I'll be glad we had all this rain, this summer!

Very surprised to see this come back up, but so happy to be able to share and help! kathec, I'm so glad my kitchen could be of help to you! We have decided we love our 2nd island. It is a great buffet surface that allows for easy flow of traffic even with groups of people. roseofblue, thank you for all your kind words. The ceiling fan is not in the kitchen but in the living room which is open to the kitchen. Unfortunately, the air does not get to the kitchen at all. That is one thing I regret, not putting some means of circulating air into the kitchen. It gets pretty hot with that induction range going. (Since you asked, I think it was about $3200 before a rebate of 10% in the form of a cash card.) I still absolutely love the color on the walls, and still amazing to me that a blue can actually feel warm. The fun memories have already started with the weekly pizza-making and bread making and menu planning and school work (oh.. well, I guess that's not so much fun, memory making, but definitely the kitchen is a central part of our lives). firsthouse, I hate that you haven't been able to enjoy that gorgeous kitchen/house just after you've finished it! I guess it's better to have all that travel after it's finished rather than during the process. I have 3 monthly calendars, a weekly to-do, and a magnetic bulletin board, all from Storables.com. If I have two months in advance right in front of me, I'm more likely to write things down and not forget them. So I have Sept/Oct/Nov right now. They do get erased when the kids try to write things on them, but overall I think they work well. They are definitely not glamour items like the Pottery Barn ones but I just needed functional. The bulletin board is, though. I love it; it has a layer that takes pins, covered by a metal layer which consists of pin-sized holes all over. I also mounted some metal strips from Storables, under the shelf, on which I have hooks for keys and magnets for grocery lists, etc. On the weekly to-do chart, I transfer the week's events from the month calendar. That's really my brain. I also got a pocket for mail; if I remember to put it there instead of on the table, it works well. I don't know if ebse ever posted her finished kitchen to the FKB, but hers was my inspiration. I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much money until I saw that I was using such a system. I am still in training, so not using it consistently yet, but working on it! phoggie... thank you! The granite is Impala Black in a leathered finish. It is a fairly common stone, I believe; it looks darker leathered than polished.