Hey, Fori, the repair guy called! At a reasonable time, and I was already gone to meet the cabinet maker and contractor. We had a very productive session. I'll call Mr. G. tomorrow. Meantime, I'm going to post about the cool factor in Appliances. I got 2" of countertop on both sides because the cabinet maker was making pretty frames around the ovens and Advantium. Instead there will be 1" nice frames. The ladder is too tall for the right of the ovens, and I wan't still more counter, so that's going to be a tall pullout like Gizmonike's, only with trays for spices, etc. The little cupboard over the ovens is only going to be about 8" tall anyway, so will have a flip up door rather than swing doors. Should be good for oven pieces. He can do rails and stiles with the bamboo, so the stemware cupboards in the butler's pantry will have inset glass (probably pebble) in the uppers and glass shelves. I think this will cure the bamboo forest problem, because it'll draw the eye away from the slabs. The only view I was ready to go all out Gumby for was standing in the prep area of the island. That, and my mother's jazzy hardware. :) No gumby ;( Glass would be too heavy and unsafe. There will be a message center with an 8" deep flip down writing surface in the center of the pegboard cabinet (on the right from the pantry. We also hashed out a lot of drawer depths, etc., and things look good. I came away feeling very good about the whole thing. I even might have found a top for the island. BTW, sorry for going off on the dye. I'm a fiber artist with respiratory issues so I took that literally. :D RIT's a different story. ;)

Thanks flyleft and houseful, houseful, I am sorry about your grandmother. 47 is too young. For most brain tumors, the prognosis is dismal, which is partly why I am interested in investigating them from a research standpoint. I have also always been interested in studying the brain. I just think there is so little we know about it. I love the refin tiles, flyleft. They are listed as being sold here in phx. at AZtile where I got my current tiles in the pics, but I didnt see them there. I will call and check this weekend. I had a licensed concrete floor contractor come by today. He also owns a business in CA and says concrete floors are very popular there, but not yet so much in phx. He quoted me $3k for the 400 sq. foot kitchen and 300 sq. feet of bathrooms, including removing the tiles. He does a technique called microtop, whatever that means. It comes with a 5 yr. warranty. If I go with it, I was thinking of a pewter gray, like in this pic.: http://www.lowcostplumbing.com/store3/bath-c-25.html He can even do lines in the concrete like the pic shows. What do you think? I know it would go with the dark cherry cabs., but not sure about the caramel maple cabs. It might look good, however with a dark cement or concrete caesarstone countertop (on sale 25% at great indoors btw). So these are my choices with wood everywhere else: 1. concrete floor in baths and kitchen 2500-3000 2. concrete floor in kitchen, tile in baths 3600 3. leave kitchen as is, concrete in baths 1200 4. leave kitchen as is, tile in baths 1800-2000 (for tile) The ultimate choice would be wood in kitchen (4000) and tile or concrete in baths (1800) = 5800+, but that is too much $$$. I posted a pic on the photobucket of cabinets from a mag. I modeled the master after. They may even be the exact cabs (Brookstone) in the exact color that I bought, according to the kd. I will have the same knobs and same faucet. I would put a cream concrete counter on them. flyleft, this is what I was trying to model the master after: http://s118.photobucket.com/albums/o87/jeschbacher/ I know you gave me the name before, but what is a good book to get again on remodeling? I will go to borders this weekend and get it. LOL on the chair flyleft! I know what you are talking about! I am sure those chairs are extremely comfortable, but they are not for me. Copenhagen is a high end contemporary furniture store in the south west. http://www.copenhagenimports.com/ Thanks for the compliment on the chair. It looks much better in person. Thanks so much for your help guys. Lynn has also been great and even came over and looked at the place! jenny

Momali, that is drop dead gorgeous. It reminds me more of cloudswift's in that it's a tealish blue; mine is blue-gray with cobalt veins. Here's the TMI: 1. For synonyms or closely related granites, try looking at azul do mar (cloudswift's) and azul imperial. I'll also attach a link to my granite yard website (equally hard to navigate); go to "quartzite" to find an azul macaubas with strong green, gray, and blue lines. On the same website, check out Caribbean blue, which is very close to cloudswift's and, possibly, yours. You are definitely in the land of exotics, where sometimes yards just slap their own names on stuff.... 2. ...and your slab will be priced accordingly. In Cal., we buy the slabs from a yard and separately hire a fabricator. I paid $40/sqft for mine. By comparison, the least expensive granites might be $10-15/sqft; the least expensive blue I ever found was $25/sqft, and the "you have to ask?" lapis and sodalite stones were $200/sqft. Prices varied wildly by both the yard and within the yard -- the "ugly" azul macaubas was $25/sqft and the "pretty" one, at the same yard, which came from the same quarry, was $115/sqft. It really pays to shop around. Fabrication might be $30-50/sqft more. YMMV. 3. Mine seems nearly indestructible so far -- no staining or etching from olive oil, lemon juice, tomatoes, bread dough. Geologically it's a quartzite. 4. I just posted pix yesterday of my 99% completed kitchen -- if it's not still on the 1st page, search for my name and "lotsa pix." 5. Colors for yours: because it has such a strong wavy pattern, maybe you do want to stay within the no-movement, just-speckles family. Black (absolut black granite is pretty inexpensive, I think; virginia mist and jet mist are soapstone-imitations), beige (yech! not my favorite! but it'll definitely recede), or if you're up for daring and different, copper (high maintenance) or zinc (not sure). HTH. Here is a link that might be useful: Marble Unlimited - exotic granites

Hi Erika, First, I love your design ideas and layout. The mix of surfaces is great (definitely not too many) and very similar to what I'd like to do. I do think your sink should be centered under the window, especially if you are concerned about it now you will not be happy when it is installed. We obsessed about this in the design phase of our new kitchen so much that we added a third window to that wall to be able to center our clean-up sink under it. My layout is similar to your's with the long island, although my sink (centered under my 3 windows) would swap places with your range. I have a lowered baking center in the same place as your butcher block area. So instead of moving the placement of your large sink - For your prep sink, have you considered putting it at the other end of your island? It might be nice to have a sink down at that end of your kitchen, for entertaining, serving drinks. I think it would look great down near your hutch as kind of a "bar" sink. I don't see where your fridge is but it's always nice to have a sink close by. And a sink at that end would be great for use as a "prep" sink for washing veggies etc for that extra person (guest or not). That extra person would then not be bumping into anyone near the clean-up or cooking center. Your larger sink (I call mine the clean-up sink) seems close enough to your baking center (which I also have in the exact location) and easy enough to turn around to get that measuring cup of water you need for your recipe or to pop a batter bowl into the sink for washing. At least that is my thinking for what would work for me. And did you also say you have a chef's sink close to the range. Sounds like a lot of sinks in that end of the kitchen, it would be nice to put one at the other end. Just my thought anyway, you need to do what works for you and the way you cook, prep, and entertain. On the mix of surfaces - I loooove it. So many KD and "cabinet people" I talked to told me similar things like "it looks like you couldn't afford it all at once" etc. I told them the point is to make it look like I did not get this brand spanking new kitchen all at once. I want it to look like it has evolved over time. I know that doesn't work for everyone but you need to do what you want, not someone else. I am mixing cabinet colors (painted periphery cabinets, stained cherry island) and also mixing door styles as well. My take is if the island is different (i.e. stained cherry) it might have been from a different time period than my wall and base cabinets around the kitchen periphery. I have seen kitchens like these and they are truly beautiful and very period looking. Hope this is helpful to you. Everyone needs to do what works for them. I can't wait to see your finished photos.