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.

I can vouch that Kate's kitchen (along with the entire house!) is even more gorgeous in person than it is in the pictures! Her kitchen is my favorite by far (including my own, which I love dearly). And that bathroom....there are no words for how stunning it is. The tile she chose is absolutely perfect for her countertops and the feel of the room and it's going to be a design home run. It is, as bee said, an excellent backup singer. I had never seen that sparkly grout before and it is fascinating. I shouldn't say sparkly because it sounds too My Little Pony and it's not like that at all; it's a hint of sparkle, just enough to intrigue the eye. Anyway, we had a great time; Kate's just as much fun IRL as she is here online. I am looking forward to a return trip to see it all finished!

Thank you all, really appreciate your kind words! MareLuce, the range is a Frigidaire Progessional Slide-in Range. I love the look of it, but I am not thrilled with the cooking surface, it is much harder to keep clean than my Thermador cooktop was. Greenhaven, it is not induction, missed the mark on that one! A2gemini, the subway tile is From Daltile, the color is Bone. The frame is polished travertine. Lov_mkitchen, the spice rack is three 6" x 15" bamboo organizers I got from World Market. I also got the bottles there and cut the vinyl labels myself. I used a hot glue to glue the trays together and my husband is making a frame for the front as well as lips for shelves. As it is, it is not very stable, so it needs a wider base. Other than that, I love it! It holds 24 of my most often used spices with enough room to get them in and out easily. In this close-up photo, I have the jars turned to the side because I moved it to the big counter so my husband could take measurements, normally the names are in the front. I looked for a spice rack for 6 months before finally giving up! Spice Jars http://www.worldmarket.com/product/spice-jars-with-red-ceramic-lids-sets-of-6.do?&refType=&from=Search Here is a link that might be useful: World Market Bamboo Tray

So tired of hearing " but that will make it look dated" or "it wouldn't be good for resale" Everything is going to be dated at some point, the kitchen designers, cabinet companies and appliance companies make sure of that. Example: stainless steel appliances were just coming on the market 15 years ago when we gutted our kitchen for a remodel. It was hard for me to find stainless in my area at that time, I live in a small mid western town. So, have you noticed in the past few years appliance companies have been trying to bring out new colors, grayed looking stainless, now ice white etc. they are trying to make people think their stainless appliances are soon going to be "dated". But I have read in several articles that stainless is still the number one choice. I chose a cinnamon stained cherry wood for our new build. I thought about white because that is the trend right now, but I reasoned cherry cabinets will always be in style while the white trend Has just a few more years. I won't be a slave to trends. Just my opinion.