Thank you everyone for your nice comments. The hardest part is in the design, It's hard for me to visualize things sometimes ... I need a lot of visual aids. I'm not sure if I posted the original drawing, however it does look different and we also kicked up the molding a notch, by making it a little 'proud' for the overall plain design. The hardware link -- I got from someone on this forum :) I scoured all the stores on the Island looking for unique pulls. First, I want to show the 4 pulls (court jesters) that I snagged from a yard sale. They were 4 for 3.00 Can you imagine parting with these? We built two curios for our Living Room around these pulls, as well as a dvd cabinet for the den. They were about 2" longer and had a mounting screw on the end. We cut them down to the size they are now. For the Living room I bought fancy backplates and for the den I bought plain ones... pictured below... The DVD cabinet pulls: The Living Room pulls, with a fancy backplate: Here is the link for the pulls that we used on the Secretary Unit....I found the drawer pulls in Home Depot and antiqued them to match the pulls. It took me two weeks to choose the pulls, as they had so many nice ones. Here is a link that might be useful: Vandykes Hardware

I REALLY wish GW had better search features - like, a lot of people here know your kitchen plans, while others (like me), don't. Sorry. It sounds like you live on a farm and want a country kitchen. Well, I'm from the Northeast - and Soapstone has been used here - in farmhouses - for CENTURIES! Ditto wide plank pine floors. That being said, if you are going with dark cabinets, it may be too dark for your tastes. Personally, I LOVE retro tiled countertops, but a LOT of people hate them because grime gets in the grout. If you go with tile make sure NOT to use white grout - impossible to keep clean (even if sealed). I love wood counters too, but still I would never put them next to a sink or stove - I really want to be able to put a hot pot on my counter without needing a trivet. And, well, even though I am obsessed with Tung Oil, and yes, it has been used for centuries to waterproof boats, it will need to be re-applied too often if wet dishes are left on it - therefore it is more work than I intend to do in my new kitchen. My main countertops will be soapstone or concrete simply because they require the LEAST amount of maintenance in the long run and only get better with age and wear. If you like gray but soapstone is too dark, ordinary gray Portland Cement (no color added) works, but it is more modern. Ground / wet-sanded to a fine polish and dirt won't get stuck in the pores. I'm not even planning on sealing mine if I go that route - why bother - I have no intention of re-sealing it at a later date. And hey, if sidewalks aren't sealed and I'm not planning on walking with muddy boots on my counter, any "dirt" will only add to the patina! I also LOVE stainless counters with integrated sinks - but they are expensive. My Grandmother had this as the countertop on the sink side of her kitchen and butcherblock everywhere else - it was a VERY country kitchen with pine cabinets and brick floors and it worked! This is by far the LEAST maintenance countertop choice. I'm going to have to compare costs of this vs. soapstone with a sink cut-out - it might just work out to be the same cost, but I already have a lot of stainless, so it will probably feel too cold in my kitchen. If I go with charcoal grey base cabs, maybe, if I go with stainless base cabs, no way! As for sinks, do yourself a favor and get a big DEEP sink! But fireclay or porcelain enamel over cast iron is NOT the best choice - chips too easily. I actually have a giant antique Art Deco double-bowl sink with a drainboard that clips over either bowl; one bowl is 8" deep, the other is 15" deep - but I really don't want to put it in the new kitchen because it already has a couple nicks in it and I don't want to have to worry and carfeully "place" my dirty pots and pans in it. I think I'll just buy a big stainless farmhouse sink instead and not worry about ruining the finish.

We have white quartz. It's not honed but it's not shiny like polished granite, either. My husband is the cook in our family and he is NOT a neat cook. (He cooks and I clean up, so he likes to make as big of a mess as possible. He's a cad, but a good one.) Spills (or putting a spoon intentionally on the counter coated in spaghetti sauce) haven't been an issue at all. The beauty of quartz is that it doesn't really stain. We have had a few random marks that have shown up from the bottom of a pot and things of that nature, but they usually come off pretty easily with a little bit of scrubbing. We've only been in our house for a year, so it's possible things could change, but so far it has been great. I haven't seen honed white quartz before, but I have heard that honed quartz in other colors is more likely to stain than normal quartz, so keep that in mind before you get it.

Joyful, I agree, you should take the best of what is in those papers and save it as digital files. You are a natural storyteller. The joyful guide to living ( attitude toward life ) book would be fun to read. Extra things always makes cleaning more difficult. I find enclosed glass cases help if you don't like to dust objects. I have a large silver collection which requires attention but we do it every month one one weekend. If I got tired of that, I would sell the majority of the pieces. I don't think anyone wants to care for them so one day I will sell the collection. Fine furniture is the same. It requires regular care. I used to have more antiques but now I have fewer and it allows me to put my energy into the flower garden. For a time, I had too many clothes and the decision to let go of half of them has made a big difference. The dry cleaner babies, as beautiful as they were, went to new homes. Having an orderly closet is much better than clinging on to some fantastic stuff that was rarely ever worn. I clean all my own clothes and linens and care for the antiques. I like ironing and I put on music and use scented water and it doesn't seem like work. I have help for the baths, the floors and the kitchen. I like to air my duvet in the morning outside and clean the rugs in the bedroom, then after breakfast, I make the bed. I don't use a dishwasher. I use fine china and silver because I have several sets and that's what I like using. It gets hand washed. I now have storage where the dishwasher used to be. Also, I got rid of the microwave ( never used it ) and I gained space there. I learned that I'd rather have fewer nicer things. There is always pressure to get more but now I save those impulses for garden flowers. It wasn't always this way. I used to be swimming in objects. What i learned was if i could get the same feeling from looking at a picture of it as the real thing, I would photograph it and let it go. I do like good kitchen tools but my kitchen had limited storage. Trading the dishwasher for storage space made a big difference for me.