Okay Mailman, Patrick, and George, here is a true story. It is not racist, it is the gods honest truth, I was there, and saw it happen. A number of years ago one of the drivers brought in a medium large dog crate that had the door and vent holes covered with paper. It was labeled, "Rush, Live Animal". The crate was so heavy it was all one man could do to lift and move it. Anyhow, some of the overally curious dock workers moved the crate and whatever was inside hissed! Well, one of them asked the driver, "do you have any idea what is in there," to which he said, "no, the office was closed and everyone was gone when he picked up the mail. It might be some sort of cat." So the dock worker went over to the crate and gave it a shake, and whatever was inside hissed again. His curiousity overly peaked, he decided to pull a little piece of the paper off the crate and looked inside. Upon observing the contents of the crate he instantly became several shades lighter complected and ran inside, refusing to return to the dock. Word quickly spread from inside what was in the crate, and most of the black workers made a bee line off of the dock, leaving us white folks behind. Inside the crate was an eight foot Burmese Python! As to the bee situation, what happens is many of the workers fear being stung, due to allergies. As you are aware some of the bees occaisionally escape from the wood and wire crate they are shipped in, and the workers fear the loose bees will sting them. I have explained numerous times to them that if they set the crate in one location that is open the loose bees will come to the crate and stay there with the rest of her pals. I further explain to them that the only thing they have to fear, regarding being bee stung, is if one of the loose ones gets caught in thier hair or clothing and stings while attempting to get free or if they were to crush one. I am seriously allergic to bee stings, and generally do not fear handling them, but those people who have never been around them do not understand how the domesticated bee acts, or how to treat them.

I hope it's totally normal to feel anxious and sick when ordering cabinets because I know I did!!! I felt that way on every major decision I had to make. This stuff is hard!!! You're plunking down a huge amount of cash on something that it's not easy to change your mind about later (at least not without another huge chunk of cash and having to live through it all over again). So no wonder it makes us anxious! That said - your kitchen's going to be beautiful! Whatever decision you make, whichever door style you choose, it's going to be gorgeous and a big improvement over what you had before. So really, there's no downside here. :-) Just take a lot of deep breaths. (And feel free to come back to us for emotional support!)

Hello Everyone, Thank you for your replies, they are all very helpful! Lukki, Thank you for posting that most helpful link to backsplashes, and for your suggestions and encouragement! The granite did look nice in the store, it's just shocking to see it installed, it seems to overwhelm the kitchen. I have convinced my husband to have the backsplash removed, that will go a ways toward reducing the green impact. We're going to hold off on the backsplash a bit. We went to quite a few places looking for tiles and actually purchased very pale green subway tiles, on the advice of a designer in a tile store. Fortunately, we found the exact tiles at a much more reasonable place, so it's not too disasterous to have to search for new tiles. But the granite will have to remain for years, as we're over budget right now. Positano, thank you for your encouragement! I will try to post pics this week. Arlene, Katmandu, Kara, Jim, thanks for your encouragement also!!!! The granite is growing on me a tiny bit, phew! (though I'm still not wild about it). Probably with the backsplash removed, it will improve. I keep trying to analyze what's wrong with it. One additional problem is it seems to be on the cool end of the color spectrum, whereas I was hoping for a warm shade. Arrrgggghhhh!

Would love to hear from anyone who used a white from the Hardie “dream collection”…I’m renovating a colonial and want a true white. The arctic white is very popular where I live and it definitely appears gray, especially next to white Azek trim and it’s not the e look I’m going for.