I was thrilled to see my 1960 kitchen gone when I came home from work the first day of house demo last week. Looked better already. What did I hate more--the tiny oven that took an hour to preheat or the sink installed 6" from edge of counter so I had to lean uncomfortably to wash dishes? Or perhaps it was the sqeaky white PLASTIC faucet? Now that the asbestos people are done today that awful VCT tile under the carpet in every room will be gone too. Our home had no cool Mid-Century charm that you see in magazines, except for one wooden slat wall that will be re-purposed. Good-bye Mid Century, hello This Century. I did not live in this home for even a year before we started our project so I never had time to grow attached to the chunky, closed off floor plan kitchen cabinets with doors that don't close. We bought it with a vision in mind so all the old stuff was just "in the way" in my mind of what the house was supposed to look like.

It wasn't clear to me in your post whether or not this is a home you plan to be in for a long time. If it's not, that would make me advise rethinking doing all that soapstone. It's a big investment. I have soapstone countertops, farmhouse sink and ss topping my bi-level island...LOTS of soapstone...in my relatively small cottage kitchen. It's my favorite part of the house, and I love working on it. My kitchen has white cabs, adjacent double French doors and a bank of windows over the sink, so even though it's not huge, it's open and full of natural light. If your kitchen has a lot of light, then you can probably pull off the dark stone. But, now I am remembering how great eandhl's kitchen looks with the deep red cabinets and the soapstone. Take a peek at her pics. Good luck in your decision!

Red- Can you post your kitchen plan? It would be helpful to see where the range is, the windows, etc. I don't think the marble (or marblesque) tops are going to work with the range...as mentioned earlier. But I'm not sold on all dark countertops. You said the island might be wood top...if I remember correctly, it's pretty big. Let's see the plan and maybe a combination of surfaces would be the way to go. Perhaps soapstone on each side of the range (depending on layout) with marble-type, lighter counter around the sink...under the windows. I'd love to see marble and wood on the island, if that's where you'll be baking. But only if you're really okay with PATINA. With marble, I don't think you can say patina (in a soft voice) if you know what I mean :) How's the build going? I miss seeing all your posts on the Building forum! Oh...pantry shelves. What color are you using in the kitchen? It might be fun to do something a bit crazy on the shelves of back of the pantry. Like red, if you're using red accents in the kitchen...or blue. Something that pops, but is easy to change down the road, if you change your mind. This post was edited by lavender_lass on Tue, Nov 18, 14 at 14:42

Hello everybody, Unfortunately, I am having a relapse triggered by a family fight I had today. As I mentioned in my first post, my relationship with my mom is not good and she is very disrispectful with my stuff and has thrown away very special things to me. Things that I really treasured. Today, I picked up a carped that my mom had removed almost a year ago. She wanted to throw it away, but the carpet was in good condition and I liked it, so I took it to a place to have it washed and storaged. Today I finally got it back home and put it behind a wall in my living room. It was well hidden and it wasn't taking too much room. My mom saw it and started acting like crazy and told me she was going to throw it away tomorrow. I got angry and she started telling me that I had my stuff all over the house, which is not true, and then mentioned that the fact I put my little dog's stuff, like his plate and little bones in the laundry room was a problem for her to. This made me get very angry and I went down the stairs because I wanted to make sure my dog's stuff were safe. suddenly, my uncle, who was at home for a visit, stood up and got between me and my mother because according to him he thought I was going to hit my mom, which is a terrible lie. He dared me to fight and I told him I was not going to accept his attitude in my house. Then he asked me to go outside and I said: OK. Let's go. Next, my brother showed up and my mom to avoid the fight. Then my brother told me he didn't want to fight because he was much heavier than me and that it was going to be easy for him. I said: Come on, let0's do it. And he refused it and said he loved me. Ever since my parents divorced he has interfered in many of my family's issues that are not concer of his and sometimes he has tried to act like the man of the house. Today was the last straw and made me lose my mind. He has brainwashed my mom several times, my mom almost always does what he tells her to do and of course, he usually takes my moms side. All this conflict made me have a psychiological crisis and miss my little dog a lot since I feel very alone again and I have no friend and partner at home to rely on. I really didn't need this since I was starting to feel better about the loss of my beautiful Guyton, to heal, to rearrange my life without suffering too much and feel more peace. On top of that, my Psychiatrist took the liberty to show my mom and my brother my diagnosis file after a visit my mom and my brother made to his office, which was a terrible violation to my privacy and to the confidentiality respect Mental professionals have to have. It's the most basic and important rule. Now, my mom is using this as a weapon and threatening me to send me to a mental hospital because my Psychiatrist also told her and my brother she could do that. It is just unbelievable. He betrayed me and put me in a very difficult position. Specially now that I am trying to overcome the death of my little dog and my mind is unstable. It just looks he also took my brother's and mom's side and they are their patiens not me. Now I am missing Guyton a lot again and their loss became bigger again too. I am lost and sad again. I really hope you can reply to me. Thank you very much in advance for your help and kindness