Thanks again everyone. firsthouse_mp and rhome, your kitchens have long been in my inspiration notebook and I think your thick countertops are awesome! firsthouse, may I ask how tall you are? I'm 5'7. My mom is 5'11", and designed her kitchen to have a finished counter height of 37 1/2" because standard feels too short for her. For me, 37 1/2" feels on the edge of uncomfortably high. rhome, may I ask what the floor to countertop height of your cabinets ended up being? Is it comfortable for you? Unfortunately, working with the cabinet guy isn't an option yet, since I don't have one thus far. My place is just being framed now, so cabinets won't be happening for a while. I wouldn't even have to be thinking about this yet, if it weren't for the window issue. I'm going with an induction cooktop and wall ovens, so unless there's something I'm forgetting, I mainly have to worry about the dishwasher height here. Sorry for the dense question, but is a "Euro model" one that's actually imported from overseas, or just a European brand, like Miele? (I'm guessing brands like Miele market larger units to the US market but I don't know)

Knee pedals are great, lizzie2. We had one in an old singer cabinet from DH's grandma that DH brought into our marriage. We got rid of it when I got tired of fighting with the aging machine. The pedal part was nice, though. I have a friend whose granddaughter has spina bifida. She found an old knee pedal cabinet and the local sewing machine repairman retrofitted a machine into it for her. This lets her g-daughter sew! I don't see why a foot pedal couldn't be attached to a table leg or board to let you sew more easily. HTH. : )

Every choice has pluses and minuses, in the end you have to choose which plus and which minus matters the most to you and/or which have an easy fix (like using a cutting board under the crockpot; at work we have an extra piece under the big coffeemaker). budget mattered a lot to me (and I hated formica) so, I ended up with a lesser expensive granite and am very happy, no sealing or extra work for the stone I chose. I had formica previously which looked like h#*! from the day I moved in and didn't get better (except that I could use bleach to remove stains) so those of you whose formica looks like new after 30 years must be taking appropriate care -- using cutting boards (mine had little cuts all over) and so forth -- where my previous owners did not. But, I read that formica now is much better quality than what was installed 30 or 40 years ago. I looked at Burled Beach and liked it. It looked a warm sand-ish color on my samples in my house, but I saw a demo kitchen of it at a big box store and it was a warm greenish tone (I still liked it) under their fluorescent lights. You always have to ability to STOP and make changes unless the cabinets are all already made. If he is just now starting it might not be too late -- call him now! PS do you have an IKEA near to you? Most counter materials are less expensive there.

Counter Barstools in a location such as yours get a tremendous amount of use, probably more than any other piece of furniture in the home. This is the one place where you want to buy strong and sturdy and well-made. No one builds a better barstool than Hancock and Moore, and leather will hold up 10x better than any fabric in that environment. This is my top selling Barstool in my store, the Steele Farm (and I have these exact ones shown in the photo in my own home). They are not inexpensive, but they can take what the family can dish out for twenty years or more without a creak or a joint separation. Over 400 leathers to choose from and these are made in the USA