The truth? I like your cabinets. I really do. They are lovely and you did some fun things with their design. I don't like the trim in that room where it's right next to the cabinets. It kind of feels like a mistake to me. Certainly, a good option is to paint the trims in the kitchen only. But here's an alternative: What if you added a fairly bold accent color to ties this room together? Since you mentioned beach cottage and south Florida, what about an antique red that looks just a little bit nautical? Or a deep melon? Or a more bold blue (again, sort of a sailing color)? And be sure to paint those three open shelves in that color. I can't promise, but it could be that once you introduce that vibrant color, your coconut and white won't look like a mistake anymore. The one course I would avoid is repainting those cabinets. I have 3 kids, and when mine were your age, their fingerprints were everywhere. The big advantage to going to a large cabinet company (as you did) is their finishes are so much more durable than a paintbrush and a gallon applied at your house. Right now, you have something that can be washed off and withstand more nicks etc...don't mess with a good thing. I grew up with repainted cabinets at home, and they were terrible...even back when we had oil-based enamel.

I have leathered antique brown granite. There is a lot of variation in colors, patterns and mine does have lines here and there. I have one long line in mine that seems to be natural to the stone because it is sort of meandering around. The line in your stone seems to meander around in the same way mine does. I can't feel it. Can you feel the crack/fissure in your antuque brown? Don't know if that means it's a crack or not, but maybe it does. Re regarding the suggestion to draw on it with a magic marker...i do have one area in my antue brown where there is a blob of white quartz that is just in a place that I don't like it. It's natural to the stone and there are several of these in my slabs. Just this one spot I don't like it, so I did draw on it with a magic marker, then gently wiped it off and now that area just blends in with the rest of the slab. So if you do find out that it isn't really a crack, that magic marker trick could work for you. Sounds a bit wacky, but it worked for me. But if it is an actual crack, of course that's a different situation.

Yes, the thinset is white, but when it was on the thinset without the grout it still looked a beautiful red. Kim - I've hardly posted here, but like you have learned a ton from lurking. I feel exactly as you do. Others say they like it, but its just not what I was going for. I have cherry cabs and the rich tones of the reds/browns in my tile complimented beautifully. And I avoided iridescent tiles for the exact reason you mentioned. But shouldn't the sales people give us a heads up about what our choices will look like in a real kitchen? Like "hey, just so you know, you will see alot of the blue from the irids once they are set on the wall"????

theoretically - I've always had to foot the bill to replace all the stuff my GCs subs had damaged To paraphrase from Rudyard Kipling's Kim: A GC is greatest blessing if of best sorts. Otherwise no earthly use. Our kitchen GC was fine about fixing anything that was his or his subs mistake at no expense to us except for at the very very end we disagreed about whether installation was done correctly. We hired someone else to correct it since he didn't accept that it was a problem. It was a small expense in the total scope of the remodel and we were willing to just pay it, but when he learned we were bringing someone else, he fired us (cancelled our contract). The remaining small payment that would have been due him covered fixing the hood installation and a bit of paint touch up that was all that was left so that was fine with us. The GC that did our family room and flooring was great - he had done a few small jobs for us before and we've always been happy with his subs. Only once have we had one of his subs cause damage: the guy pulling Cat 6 wiring broke through the drywall where the wall meets the ceiling in two spots on the other side of the wall from the outlet. Our GC was more upset at him then we were when we found it and had the sub send someone else out to fix it and check the installation.