I had decided a while back on the BR-111 Brazilian Cherry Triangulo Engineered wood and got a good price from a local store that was close to an Internet Price except I have to pay sales tax. The installers they sent over here gave me a good price also and I was read to buy everything from the store until the store owner told me the installers changed their mind and instead of moving the heavy cabinets a little bit away from the floor and pulling up sections of the carpet (is on tackles on the edges but the pad and carpet are not glued down over the slab) and gluing down the floor and moving the heavy 42" wide 5 drawer Hon putty cabinets back on top, they want everything out of the two room home office (dining room and living room) and everything out of the family room (very easy to do since I have light furniture in there and not much but a sofa, recliner, small TV stand, TV, and end tables and coffee table that are very light weight glass with cherry legs). Then they have to seal the floor and I have to buy an expensive sealer and wait a day to put everything back. So the stress of emptying four 5-Drawer 42" wide Hon heavy putty cabinets, two 4-drawer 42" wide putty cabinets, five 2-drawer 30" wide Hon putty file cabinets, my 72" wide Cherry Credenza, my big 72" wide cherry desk, my small computer cherry wood desk that is not attached, the two roll out drawers (desk is easy to move since I paid more to have the pieces that are not attached), two supply cabinets in a putty color, has me stressed out. I had thought I could empty the cabinets but not move the furniture and then replace everything at once when the cabinets are moved back. If I need to move everything out of here, I have a garage and a backyard with a patio to put the furniture on. So I had other estimates when I just wanted the job done to see what should be done about my slab floor and a few others want to move everything out of here also but do one room at a time and glue down the floor with no sealer. One installer wants me to rent a POD to put all my furniture in until the job is done and that is my responsibility to move it in and out of the home. Another installer wants to float the floor and had me go to his wholesaler to like other woods telling me he feels I should go with a 5" wide oak or pecan natural wood so one day when I move my furniture I do not have patches of light spaces but agrees that the Brazilian Cherry looked wonderful in my home office an my family room with the beige furniture and glass tables with putty legs. The natural oak or maple clashes with the tile I chose and the file cabinets. I need a little bit darker. Right now I have a beige rug that is darker than the natural wood and it is hard to keep clean. I actually like the Auburn Maple but everyone tells me it is too boring. The other installer wants to float a laminate floor and tried steering me back to the Bruce Park Avenue Makore or Pradoo Laminate I was looking at. I wonder how sturdy this will be with all the furniture on top of the floor? Then the installers at the store came back to me and want me to buy the more expensive floating Mirage Lock floor from the local store they work with (Mirage Lock comes in only maple or oak ... now the store's price is a lot more than the Internet price versus the other product was a good price) or the Mullican floating floor (sliced cut Brazilian Cherry rather than the sawn face cut of the BR-111 or the Hartco Valenza collection I was looking at) that I can get much cheaper on line but prefer to buy from a local dealer if I get a reasonable price. They want to float the floor and say they can move the furniture a little at a time their old way and save me in installation despite the extra cost of the materials. Hence, I had a tile guy here today and the other day for estimates. I want the damage out of the foyer areas NOW. It has been too long. I have engineered Bruce Oak very thin veneer glued down there that got damaged from the water leak from my central air conditioner/heating system failing a few months ago. The wood floor is discolored, warped and has buckled up. I was able to pull up a piece of this 18.5 year old floor that came up in veneered pieces of and the cement floor looked dry to me. So if I do Porcelain tile (going with Lowe's Rialto Beige 5 Rating tile) in the middle foyer by the utility room, garage, coat closet and bathroom in between the two home office rooms and in the front foyer, I can get rid of one decision. :) I can choose a porcelain tile in the kitchen that will be easy to install since the linoleum floor can easily be pulled up. Then the three rooms downstairs can have the 18.5 year old light beige always dirty carpet (I have to steam clean often and this water damage was the last straw for me despite how great the beige carpet looks in my home when it is clean) taken out and I can put the engineered hardwood floors there or the laminate. I have little dogs that I want to put puppy pads in trays down in the middle foyer when I am not home so I prefer a floor water proof there after seeing what water can do to a wood floor. OK, this is long but I am stressed that the project is not getting done since everyone is trying to talk me out of the Brazilian Cherry floors telling me I will regret the decision if I move. I am open to anything that will work at this point. I am open to suggestions. I even thought the Amendoim samples looked nice with my furniture but worry if it will be too knotty since I can't see a floor in person. So should I float the floor with heavy furniture on top of it? Should I choose an easier locking floor? Would laminate look cheap in my professional home office that has clients visiting? Would it be best to seal the floor that I really feel is dry despite my townhouse being built on the wetlands since the glued down foyer engineered Bruce hardwood floors never came up in 18 years? I just want this job done ASAP and I am tired of not knowing what to do. Wish you lived near me since you seem to have knowledge and can do both the tile and hardwood/laminate flooring for me. Sorry this is so long but I am trying to explain since maybe you can steer me in the right direction on how to handle my project to get this over with already.

Mairin -- ha! It was a special birthday night, thus the lamb (and the commemorative pic). Okay, here's the copper counter info! (Copper: the Hardcore Version) I'll preface all this with the strong caveat that my tops are plain old roofing sheet copper with no finish of any kind except waxing. If you purchase yours from a fabricator like a normal person (!), chances are you'll have some kind of finish on them to preserve their factory-applied patina, like the darkened copper sinks one can buy. It's also insanely difficult to photograph it and capture the richness and color of the metal. It has a deep warm glow that doesn't come through very well. Copper is not not necessarily for the faint of heart. Here's the coffee station after my guy finished with it and left it overnight (hey, you wanted hardcore!): Yes, that is green where water was allowed to stand for hours. Obviously I need to wax that section soon. Here it is after cleaning that mess up: Here's what it starts to look like after lots and lots of use: all the blotches even out into one darker color: Here's another section: If you have any qualms about water rings, spots, etc., I'd strongly recommend getting a fabricated copper top that has a lacquered finish to protect it. We love the marks and spots, since it turns the kitchen into a living thing. My house is a modest little 1923 coastal bungalow and the "worn" look really fits right in. If that works for you, I'd say welcome to the ranks! As a material, it can take any abuse you, your kids, or red-hot pots can dish out - it's more a matter of how comfortable you are with the changing surface. And as I say, if you buy a table or top that's pre-patina'ed, I doubt you'll have any issues with green verdigris or acid/water rings as shown above. Kerry -- my finishes are a total hodgepodge! Wish I'd found Gardenweb before making most of my decisions. I have Moen copper fixtures on the main sink. Kohler's Vibrant Brazen Bronze on the prep sink. Vintage copper knobs on the cabinetry. My switchplates and doorknobs are the original darkened brass. My 1949 stove is white with chrome. My fridge is stainless steel. My DW is panelled with an antique copper handle. My light fixtures are from Rejuvenation in antique copper. Somehow, it all works. If I knew what I knew now, I might make all the fixtures darker or lighter. The Brazen Bronze looks particularly nice with the counter, although the Moen copper isn't bad - and the more the counters age and darken, the more contrast there is with the faucetry. Hope that helps!

I've been talking to custom cab makers about natural cherry cabinets and one of the things I focus on is how they match wood. They all use heartwood but they all emphasize that there are always natural variations (which I understand: even my Stickily mission cherry has variation/a few places where there looks to be a tiny bit of sap wood; I don't mind it at all) I've asked them things like whether they reject boards and they both said yes. If I went with a national company, it'd have to be towards the high end if I was thinking natural cherry. It starts out light but I'm so very happy with the way it ages (at least in my Stickley stuff.) There can also be a difference in aging between veneer (plywood) and solid wood. I've been leaning towards using solid joined boards for all exposed panels over any use of cherry veneer. Since I like A&C, I prefer the look of joined boards over veneer anyway. I have to get a final cost on it, though.

bmorepanic- I've know you're a frequent poster so I was pretty sure you were okay, but I just wanted to be sure! Getting the right tone can be so difficult online. I really like that 1/2 round table, BTW. Is that Scherrs or DIY? Angie- Skytrain, US Navy retired! Went on to fly GIII, but the handle is stuck. Mixed hardwood drawer boxes are one of the Scherrs options that's less expensive than the solid cherry. Here's one of the coolest things about working with Scherrs: I wanted that micro/convection combo wall oven lower than standard because I didn't want to be reaching up and over a hot oven door to pull out a heavy pan, like at my SIL's house. So I talked to Leon and told him about how high I wanted it, and then said, I want the cabinet above to be able to hold full-sized sheet pans (it's got those dividers for sheet pans and pizza trays and a pizza peel and cutting boards), and then make the cabinet above the size of whatever is left over. Then, however high that top cabinet above the wall oven turns out, the ones on top all along the left side have to match that height, whatever it is. Dang, I just remembered that I still need to get glass for those glass-front doors. Obviously I never use anything in there. Also, FYI, if you couldn't tell, the cabinets are all 30" deep with 27" pullouts, uppers 15" deep and set higher off the countertop than normal, 22", so that stuff would fit under them, such as mixer and coffee maker. The customization you can do with Scherrs is wonderful!