Well, of course you want to take your rocks with you! This is a hypothetical dilemma we have debated many times. We are not intending to ever move, but the thought of what would happen to all of the rocks we worked so hard to get here is devastating if we were forced to leave. (I was born here and the land's been in the family for over 100 years, hopefully they'll take me out horizontally) I can completely understand your sorrow over leaving your rocks behind. Do you have any idea of the approximate distance the rocks would have to transported? (i.e. will you be in the same state?) There may be some quarry related trucking companies in your area who will haul them for you; we hired a semi 'rock truck' last November to bring in our last 120 tons of flatrock from the nearby quarry for $60 an hour. Hauling cost for the six loads was $300, however the quarry was only eight miles away. Due to the sizes of the stones involved in our project, we were not able to hire a 'normal' dump truck, as huge rocks are hard on the boxes of the dump truck and their owners don't like holes punched thru them when the rocks are loaded. Rock trucks have rounded reinforced beds much better able to withstand the abuse of hauling the truly big stuff. There are also flatbed semis such as Gottagarden hired for her project. I don't know how big your stones are, but there has to be someone somewhere who would work with you, it's probably just going to come down to the expense. We have also hauled many tons of rock ourselves with our car and trailer, and it can be done (we also scavenge construction sites and road cuts!)depending, of course, on the size of the rock and how far you have to travel. I wish you luck with this and hope you will let us know what you decide to do. Karen

I understand flash photography and how it accentuates everything you don't want it to, not to mention the color shift, so, having said that AND having a "noticer" on steroids, I'd do one of two things. Leave it alone. You'll stop seeing it after awhile and I'm almost certain no one else sees it. Or, keep trying with the paint. I looked and looked at the picture, knowing something bothered you about the sink but didn't read what it was till after I tried to find it. If I even saw it I'm sure I thought it was a reflection from the flash :) Monica

Oh gosh I am so sorry I posted and then disappeared for a week. Ok lets see and thanks for all the responses I'll try to answer all questions best I can! I'll give verbal answers and then try to work out getting pictures posted sometime in the next day or so. Steam Oven info: The steam oven requires a single cold water plumbing line into the oven. So actually very simple, although its a lot easier when you are doing a new build than a remodel (a crawl space would probably help ease remodel pains.) No drain required! I can't tell you a cost because it was buried in our overall plumbing bid, sorry. I DID have to remind both the plumber and builder about 15 times to plumb it tho even though we noted it specially in the plans. Just not on their usual list of to dos. On the reliability front, we read and read and read and concluded (with some level of uncertainty still) that Kitchenaid had finally replaced the component that was burning out during the clean cycle of their ovens and that if you bought a new one, you should be ok. BUT we haven't dared run the clean cycle yet :-) and I still felt guilty buying their product when they had gone for years without admitting and fixing the problem. We bought an extended warranty for both the oven and for our GE Profile Fridge just in case. And we bought from a local well reputed appliance dealer who we felt would honor the lemon guarantee also. But we do use the oven almost daily with no problems 2 months in. As you'd hope! We paid $3200 for the single oven, which was a definite splurge, and cheaped out on some of the other appliances going the scratch and dent route with those. Advantium info: You have to switch from a metal tray to a glass tray when using microwave or oven. The trays have grooves and fairly easily catch on the metal turntable mechanism, and both trays easily wipe clean. We have a drawer under the oven in which we keep the tray not in use, and the stand you are supposed to add in to do broiling. So far, no one has forgotten to switch the trays, and the oven gives you a digital reminder when you set the cooking times to use the metal or glass tray. If you were only to buy this one oven, I'd be sure and get the 120 which has a larger size interior than the 240. Read through the dimension info carefully. This one was a craigslist buy, about half retail, you find them regularly on craigslist and ebay. We also got our gas cooktop (Dacor 5 burner) off ebay, one third retail. This one was a lower risk, since there is so little that can go wrong with a gas cooktop mechanically. Island info: Upper counter is 4'6 across and 8' long. The long side is fine, the 4'6 width is insane. The upper counter is 43" off the floor so to start with, if I'm standing on the floor I can reach about 2' of the 4'6. Even if I lean out while standing on the stool, I can't come close to the far edge. I think we should have held it to about 3' deep. On top of that width, there is another 2'5" of lower counter width which holds our cooktop and funny caboose sink/wet bar. So when standing at the stove, I can only just barely reach the edge of the higher counter to put something up there, and then its too far away for anyone to reach from the other side. However it does hold a LOT of junk. notebooks and scanners and mail and coupon clippings and pan lids and the dog treat jar.... you get the idea. (slobs? us? oooops.) There is also a lower counter on the backside which is the cutting and food prep areas wrapping around from the cooktop side. Imagine an L shaped lower counter wrapping two sides of the higher counter. The backside lower counter is where the cutting board is with the bins, and that section is actually another couple of inches lower than the rest of the L. So we have three counter heights on the island, 43" height eating/piling things surface, then 36" height with a corner "wet" bar, a cooktop, a prep area with the advantium below, and then a 30" height butcher block. The pics will come next. thanks for your patience. I hope this made sense so far.

That was written last night just as the library was closing, so I ended more abruptly than I intended. Our story was more give and take and a real discussion, less abrupt than the way I ended it here. It seems to me that we have as a society become more self-centred, less concerned with the welfare of others and of the community than was true in earlier generations ... and "locations", possibly, as I grew up on a farm near a village and our village and church was mainly long-term residents, so it had become somewhat like larger, or extended family. As a farmer I learned of the importance of being in tune with the earth and using resources carefully and with discretion, not wasting them. The fact troubles me that while small, single-horse-drawn covered wagons delivered milk, bread and ice to homes in cities, about 70 years ago, that they began building refrigerators about 60 years ago, that a substantial percentage of the ones that they built 50 years ago lasted for 40 years ... but that a substantial proportion of the ones that they build today last for about ten years. I feel doubly troubled: that we're wasting precious resources, of petroleum and iron ore, smelters, cutting and shaping machines and trucks to haul the parts ... including plastics, which are also sourced from petroleum. It took millions of years to produce it, and we've been using a major portion of the earth's supply in the last less than 100 years. It seems to me that our grandkids will be angry with us for our wastefulness, our profligacy. Secondly ... when the engineers, who haven't become stupider in the last 50 years, build a fridge and sell it to me with a smile on their face, that'll last about a fifth as long as they could make it to last ... ... I feel cheated ... sort of like being mugged (without a gun). That's without making reference to all of the pollution and global warming that are being generated by these wasteful ways that we've developed in recent years. And are guaranteed to become more acute, as millions in various parts of the world become more prosperous. Dad taught me that when I was doing a job ... that I should do it RIGHT! (And when I didn't ... I had to do it over again). Plus ... when you work with folks scores of thousands of whom have left their former lives and become refugees in another part of their war-torn country with nothing but the clothes on their backs, as you learn how the small things of life become precious to them, you learn of the value of all aspects of this, what I believe to be God's world, that S/He's entrusted into our hands and expects us to make use of as responsible stewards. ole joyful