hobokenkitchen: Isn't it lovely? It is likely a marble but I'm tempted nonetheless. I wasn't even looking at the blue tones but they already have my brain thinking about the blue-grey paint that would go on the walls to accent the slab. Slab 2 had even more of the blue-grey crystals while Slab 3 was bookmatched to 1. kailuamom: There are a cluster of slabyards in Hayward (Pietra Fina, Bedrosians, MSI, several others), San Leandro (haven't been), and the South SF/Peninsula (IRG in Brisbane, DaVinci in San Carlos, Tez in SSF & Burlingame, Fox in SSF - plus a few more I missed). In the Sac area, Medimer is in north Sac, just off I-80 near Fry's. Bedrosians is in Rancho Cordova, near Arizona Tile (also in Roseville). Domus and Natural Stone are near each other in South Sac. Planet Granite is a remnant specialist in north sac if you need just a slab or partial. There are many, many others scattered in and around NorCal.

1) do my posts appeal to your (or conversely--repel you) I found your top posts, about the new line and English puns and sinks more interesting than the more reporterly one about the people in Wisconsin (or whatever--I wasn't into it). I also liked Dave's H hinges and Orien's kid's day at work. The personal style works better in a blog than reportage. 2) do you feel my content contribution is relevant to the company I am blogging for? I think by broadening the message to TKO concerns in general, and especially some of these arcane details about sinks, is right on target. I don't know anyone who is going to follow a blog that's exclusively about knobs without context. I do think that the Fun With Anglophilia was perhaps a little overdone, but this is a blog post, not an article, with all the lack of editing that implies. If someone doesn't care for the quantity of joking around, he can just skip down to the next paragraph. 3) do you feel you could develop a relationship with the blog/be a potential reader? I don't follow blogs in general. I sort of just hit them when I'm in the mood. I do think that from what I've seen from all of you that this looks like a fun blog to check into. In a content related blog, I really don't want to know about the writer's ingrown toenails and vacation to Tahiti. This blog seems to be light and fun, with mostly content, which is right on target. 4) what kind of material do you wish was covered or that you expected to see? I liked that one of the posts was sneakily about manufacturing the product, and also that your post talked about what's new at the company. I did expect to see more about the hardware, but I like that it isn't forced. I expect to see, in the future, more from you specifically about the new line. 5))whatever else you want to tell me Other than tightening up a little on the side chatter, which I already mentioned, I think you're doing great. I like your personal blog too. You have the touch. Many of my art colleagues blog, and their posts are pretty deadly. Being a bloggist, the new version of diarist, is a particular skill. Anyone can do it, not many can do it well. You're one of the few. Keep it up. :)

I can contribute some German perspective. The standard in Germany is to take your kitchen with you when you move, so most of their kitchen designs have a modular quality to them. Then there's that pervasively sleek Bauhaus influence that feels more historically "natural" in Germany, and less superimposed, than elsewhere. The Germans have a very strong tradition of functional/ergonomic kitchen design, going back to the socially-aware 1920's and efforts to improve worker housing. Read all about the famous Frankfurt Kitchen here and here. (Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky was Austria's answer to Lillian Gilbreth.) But then there's also the traditional German aesthetic of cuckoo clocks, carved wood, breakfast nooks and enormous tiled ovens. It's a class issue, as these things often are -- so you see far less of the cuckoo clocks and more of the sleek Bulthaupt in the kitchen porn mags. Germany has smaller habitat spaces than the US in general. Appliances are smaller than the US norm and the standard refrigerator is an under-counter model about the size of an American dishwasher. (This makes the perennial GW question of where to place the honkin' huge fridge irrelevant for most Germans.) Perusing the latest kitchen design mags for Germany, Austria, Switzerland (all one market), I do notice a few things of interest. --> They are not as in love with upper cabinets as Americans. And when they do have them, they tend to be the lift-open type rather than the side-hinged ones we're familiar with here. --> Germans are not afraid of color, and their combinations are not always what we see here. Check out the violet purple cabs with pumpkin accents: Or purple and black: Pistachio and gray: --> But when they do white, they do WHITE: --> Germans, like most Europeans, don't drink tap water. They haul bottled water and beverages home by the case every week, requiring kitchens to provide space for the cases: --> Tiered electric food steamers are the new appliance non plus ultra. Here from Miele: --> Small spaces lead to more innovation. It's like IKEA meets the '20's bungalow kitchen. Because they seldom use wood for cabinetry, they can do some interesting things with doors and corners: --> They're also inordinately fond of large walls of cabinets -- they prioritize storage over prep space:

You may have already made your decision but I just found this thread. I feel like you are doing my homework for me! My cabinets and granite countertops are so similar and I've been searching for seven months for the right tile/stone. I love your choices and just have to say that when I saw the French Crema my first reaction was Wow! Second to that the Heartland. I am going out tile shopping again today and will look for some of the choices you've shown here. This is the most difficult project I've ever undertaken!