We painted our old 1975 oak cupboards to a warm white. I like them. But because they are "painted cabinets" I am having some guilt over spending a big chunk of money for a new counter top, vs a cheap option. But, I want to be happy with it, we plan to live here forever! Yep, been talking to the Stone Studio, they are fantastic. Very happy with them so far. On a side note, our daughter was about to start competitive gymnastics a year ago, the night I wrote the big fat check, she told us she really doesn't want to compete. So, she is just tumbling now. Otherwise, I would have had ample places to go see counter tops, traveling to meets!

Love love love this topic. Your kitchens are amazing. Looking for pics of stainless; particularly of stainless with white cabinets and beadboard backsplash... Have you ever seen this combo? Any ideas would be awesome. Again truly amazing kitchens!!

Thanks,Lisa, it's either White Spring or Typhoon Bordeaux. The slabs were in a stack that had both names written on it so we have never been sure what it is. I just wanted to add that the leathered granite is a very casual look - I find polished granite to be formal, but leathered (and honed) are more of an informal style.

I have lived here since autumn, 1991: Loving: I just bought this kitchen a new scratch and dent range late last spring - the installers fixed an electrical issue I didn't even know came with the original range but that one had been installed in 1969 in ways that got taken off of code by somewhere in the 1980's. The range is "basic", but it has a timer, and two broil settings, and an oven window. I'm so up in the world! When I moved here, one of the best selling features was that the side yard was very private. It still is, and I still like that feature. (I'd moved here from the Anxiety Condo from Hell, with the putative coke dealer living in the unit above me. I didn't dare grow anything in the garden plot outside that window - he'd have trashed it.) Anyhow, here I love this side yard, and the porch with the overhang. And the ability to have happy small gatherings back here. I love the front stone walkway and the back flagstone area my one-time housemate put in. The stones were free from a New England wall whose owner wanted them gone, and nearly all the flagstones were found in weird spots on this property left by previous owners. (For some reason, the walkway when I moved in was made of these flagstones, without steps, on a slope. Any time it rained, you'd risk your life walking on them. Out back we could lay them flat.) I only had to buy a few more to complete the look. My basement doesn't leak. We had some leaks when we first moved in, and my housemate and his boyfriend of that time helped dig a trench and put in the proper tubing to divert the water. I never had another leak from that direction. (We also planted wild pachysandra we'd found ditched in a wooded area nearby. It probably helped erosion issues.) In another direction, a slow ooze early on was something I was able to resolve by using a certain sealant paint - it never leaked again. No, I don't remember what it was. Oak floors on the main level. Not Loving: The Kitchen from a TV Dinner Nightmare. (No prep space, insufficient outlets, only one useful upper for the entire room -- 12 inch wide uppers are just plain useless). And the three doors that bang into one another during the times I didn't live alone here - the "half" bath, basement door, and back door. A good EnergyStar fridge won't fit in here. The "half bath" being right off the kitchen, and it being about 2.5 feet by 4 feet. Long steep driveway, with the steepest part inserted at the 90 degree turn that someone thought would give me a useful side-entry garage. However, when you come down the road from the north, you only ever see the garage, so I still don't get the issues about "snout" garages... (When you come from the south, you, and fortunately the Google Maps Road View camera, don't see the house at all...) Meanwhile that driveway angle is real challenging in winter. Laundry in the basement. It was really a pita both times I broke various leg/ankle bones. Getting stuff from the car to the kitchen. Actually, I don't use the garage for the car, not enough room, too many projects. And if I did, I'd have to take the bags up a flight of stairs, with the last step being a tall killer step. I walk the stuff around the house and up a hill... I'm used to it, but not in winter. (I have taken things in through the basement level den, but there's still that flight of stairs.)