They are the Venetian - 24 inch stools. They are really comfortable and clean up nicely. I spent a long time agonizing over counter stools and I'm happy with them! They have a bar in the front and on the sides - it's a good position for a foot rest. They look great with the soapstone. Even though the soapstone is on the perimeter and the marble is at the island, I like it a lot. I didn't want to try to match the island. Good luck!

Hi there, just wanted to share our walnut island top refinishing experience. We got our 2" thick, 72" x 36" walnut top unfinished. My finish carpenter cut the piece and routed the edges. I sanded to 320 with an orbital sander, and then finished with hand sanding. Did this outside on the covered porch because it creates such a mess (red dust everwhere). Took me a couple of hours to get it where I wanted. We then moved it into the garage (to keep smell away from kids) where I applied the waterlox finish (6 days, 6 coats). Lightly sanded b/w coats 2, 4 & 5. Directions say to get it fixed in place no later than one week after delivery to avoid warping (we did it at day 8). Make sure you do this b/c ours started to warp ever so slightly --you can only see it if you examine unerneath closely. (we live by the water and received this during a heatwave!!) I applied waterlox to all sides to further protect it from warping. After we did the underside, we flipped it and put it on boards with screws sticking out to keep it elevated while we finished the top side. It is a lot of work, but saved at least $1500 doing it myself. Here is the finished picture (we still need to do the final steel wool at the one month mark when fully cured) (excuse the mess we are getting ready for painting). we got our top at the hardwood lumber company $900 delivered. ($150 for truck delivery), but this was for 2" thick. PS I am a petite woman who is only slightly handy and I had help only to move the piece into place -- so if I can do it you can!! It was a little stressful because I was terrified I would ruin it -- but it came out fine. : ) Good luck and be patient. Here is a link that might be useful: hardwood lumber company

I bet the cabinets are built in place. Moving/removing might destroy them. You may end up saving the doors and having new boxes made. Then they can be any height you want. The sink will be a problem if you don't replace/raise the window, too. You need that sink for the feel of the kitchen if you want to keep the look of the cabs. It will probably cost the same to just buy new cabinets. But that doesn't solve the sink problem in the same foot print. And if you change the foot print then you've opened a new can of worms. Changing the window size would probably be the best thing to do.

Thanks - unfortunately they are unresponsive and the company no longer exists shortly after finishing the job (we had so much work done to an older house it took me a while to realize the little things that were done poorly - I've learned that lesson of how to choose folks to work on your home the hard way. I realize this seems like a glaring mistake but it was a gap that didn't bother me too much at first, but got worse when we recently had to shim up the counter which was also poorly installed. Thanks for the paintable caulk suggestion - maybe I should try a caulk backing strip (or whatever those are called) and drywall putty if needed for the gouged looking part, then caulk and paint?