Thanks Breezy! It means a lot coming from you since I tend to respect and agree with so many of your opinions and design opinions! I love your vent hood - wish I'd thought of or seen something like that when I was looking! I was just thinking earlier that I can't wait to see your finished kitchen! I know I will love it. Unfortunately, I do not remember the stain I used on the floors. I know it was a combination of two darker stains - one might have had a coffeeish name. They painted samples on our floors and I picked based on those, so didn't really pay much attention to the names! The cabinets came painted white. It was the brighter white that Holiday cabinets offered. This is the reason that my kitchen is STILL just almost finished. The paint job on the doors is AWFUL! You can't see it in pics, but where the stiles meet on the doors is splitting on just about every door and drawer front. Not just a line, but splitting apart. This is on top of numerous mars, dents, and nicks on teh doors in various places. We are getting all new drawer fronts and doors that the KD is ordering from a different cabinet company (Downsview), but he has TOTALLY been dragging his feet on it. Besides the doors, he STILL hasn't put in the little fillers around my appliance cabinet. I'm so mad - he has lied to us over and over again about whether or not he ordered it and why it was delayed - blah blah blah. Luckily, I have our builder who uses this KD A LOT and owes him a big check for another job. Essentially, he is not paying the KD until he shows him the proof of order for my new cabinet door/drawer fronts. I also am FINALLY getting all of my drawer inserts and organizers a week from today. I do have my shades, but b/c of the issues above I still have no glass in the top of my cabinets and don't feel fully done! I WILL post pictures when all is done. Thanks again Breezy!

Wow this is just beautiful! Love the way you laid the wood down in different angles, really gives the deck an extra interesting element. Great porch fire place! What kind of patio furniture are you thinking about using? I think wicker would compliment this patio very well! Good luck on the rest of your project!

Yes, the hood is a Zephyr Tamburo. 400 CFMs. A piece of sculpture! So yesterday I ran around looking at tile. I picked up 8 more of the bumps and kept looking. At one point I had a vision of medium gray glass tiles, medium gray grout, grass green walls. I picked up a quart of grass green, a couple of other paint samples, and came home. Taped a sq. ft to the wall. A resounding NO. They looked brown,which would be ok except that if the soapstone darkens (which it will, I suppose, eventually) the tiles will really not work. It just looked off. Bummer. Last night I was up till all hours doing a glass tile search to find something that was less than the $27-39/sq ft I had been seeing around here. Will report in at the next round. The handles and shelves went in today. The first thing I did was start to fill the bookshelves. that horrible Minidata notebook is full of recipe clippings I will never live long enough to try. Need to organize it and maybe do something with that ugly notebook cover. A shelf of art books and then we'll see. Second thing I did was put the tea tins back on the shelf over the sink where we are used to finding them. That shelf will be usable stuff, the ones above, display for my antique tins: a counterpoint to all the sleekness. I printed out labels for the 5 mailboxes: one each for DH & me, one for my mother - whose bills I take care of, one for outgoing mail, and one for random stuff. I will have to nag DH to sort the mail instead of leaving it in a pile on the island. Grrrrrr. New leaf. Two weekly papers came in today: the one I haven't read yet is in my box. Finally, I picked up the barstools I had ordered at Crate & Barrel. $89 each and they SPIN!! What fun! I can sit and read my cookbooks at the island while I contemplate what I am going to make for dinner, instead of standing at the counter and reading. DH can sit with his laptop or pay bills at the island instead of upstairs in the 2" of space on his cluttered desk. He will do this while I am on my teaching trips, no doubt. The kitchen table will be a while in coming, although we ordered it. Thanks for the input on the tiles; they work en principe - mais pas en réalité. On continue. Tomorrow, if we are lucky, the crown molding goes up and maybe the light rail. Off now to get a decent night's sleep - or what is left of the night.

lucretzia, I happen to love the color of your cabinets - I'm glad your planning to find a way to love them too :) I happen to like the terracota backsplash w/your other choices - and like that you trust your gut w/colors and materials the way you do - it will work out beautifully, I think. You're getting great recommendations for hardware - I found mine at Te Ma (by accident) looking online - turns out this small company is within 10 miles of my house (I'd no idea) and so I was able to take advantage of a their factory sale. I've a sense you might find their hardware attractive.