I'm thinking of doing the same thing. I saw some bisazza mosaic blends at Home Depot (yep!) that looked fantastic with carrara (the mix was white/grey with a few iridescent tiles included) and it wasn't too pricey ($7.92/sq ft). the blend was "roma plus" - I couldn't find that blend on the bisazza website, but HD lady said many mfgs. have special products just for HD. I was also thinking of doing something similar - using the bisazzas on one accent wall, and running a strip of bisazzas around the rest of the room. I'd pay special attention to the undertone of the subways and mosaics & make sure they're ok with the carrara. whites can be really tricky. when next to stark white, the bisazzas had a grey-ish cast, which looked great with carrara and the almost black vanity. don't know what brand of subway tile you're looking at, but i believe the various dal whites have slightly different tones. also, the glass mosaics tend to be thinner than regular tiles, so be sure to take that into consideration during the install. I've seen the mosaic bands set between pencil liners, and that looked good.

Current situation: Old house, 2 stories plus kinda finished basement that will be gutted. 1st floor has guest bedroom plus a small full bathroom, shower/tub combo: www.flickr.com/photos/21596582@N00/2661353946/ Second floor will have 3 small bedrooms. There is currently 1 "full" bathroom. It has a toilet, pedestal sink and clawfoot tub with some weird shower mod. It's under the sloping roofline, so not usable as a full shower for anyone taller then oh, 5'2 maybe? I'm 5'4, the tub is to the right and the toilet is to the left, my back is up against the wall: www.flickr.com/photos/21596582@N00/2660558207/ Thoughts for future bathrooms: Upstairs: We were thinking of that (upstairs) being the 'kids' bath. We were also thinking of switching the location of tub and toilet for more standing room in shower, but that might be too costly. And I'd wanted a double sink. We'd planned to move the wall I'm standing against back a couple feet (and move door location). But that doesn't really gain us since the plumbing is all on the other side, so what's the point? Maybe we leave it as just a tub w/out a shower? The room upstairs on the other side of the sink wall will be our master bedroom (it's a kitchen right now). IF we can remove all or most of the wall to the add-on, we would like to have some type of master bath back to back with the other bath. Add-on wall w/door and window: www.flickr.com/photos/21596582@N00/2661388638/ But the room is small, so there isn't a whole lot of space. Additionally, most houses in our area have 1 or 2 bathrooms. What about just having a shower and sink bathroom? Would that be too weird? Really I just want my own shower. For the downstairs bath I just thought of today removing the old tub and vinyl surround (which are both disgusting) and having just a shower, since the tub is upstairs and do I need 2 tubs? Why not have another closet? Old houses are a bit short on those... Lastly, apparently there used to be a bathroom in the basement. Now it's just a very small room with some plumbing in it. A shower would be nice in the basement in the summer so I don't melt while drying my hair, but again, then we have way more bathrooms then is regular for our area. If we did this it would be way on the bottom of the to-do list. Now, we aren't planning to move for 5 - 10 years, maybe more. So, resale is down on the list of considerations, but it's still there. I know this was a bit of a convoluted explanation, but care to give an opinion of what we could do?

thank you all for your comments. Regarding the wall oven versus a standard range, I find a wall oven so much easier to use. Plus I have a gorgeous KitchenAid oven in the garage just waiting to be installed. :-) I agree that work tables look better without wheels and I probably would only have wheels if the clearance warrants moving the table. Thankfully I won't need to decide on the table until everything else is done. And by then I'll know exactly how much room I will have. Greenhaven, thanks for the excellent suggestion of getting a 30" cooktop and using a portable burner when needed. That's a perfect solution for me. As far as moving the powder room door, I can't see another place for it. There's a bedroom on the other side of the wall and the floor in the mudroom/office is 5 steps down so would necessitate widening the stairs ,and i am not sure that there is enough clearance for that, if following the building code. The way I'm envisioning the bath layout, the toilet should only ever be visible from the stairs coming into the kitchen. The sink would be visible when the door is open - would it look better if I use a nice bar sink instead of traditional bathroom sink?

Not looking at resale-looking to just upscale and refreshen. I'm in need of a change in my environment! I was reticent to paint the wainscotting, but frankly, it is such a yellowy color, I might just do it. When we first bought this place, I was all about color-all the rooms were so color drenched and it all looked great, but lately-I fantasize about everything being white...even the furniture! Never gonna happen in a house with four dogs and four cats! But this room is one that really needs refreshing. It's so dark, lamps just do not bring in enough light and it's open to the north and the east, so it really doesn't get much natural light except early in the day. I think a visit to the paint store for chips and samples will do me a world of good. I plan to do some major updating come Labor Day-my DD's wedding will be done and I should be healed up enough to start on the projects thru the fall.