A few years ago I was asking the same questions because I wanted the iridescent glass tile look but choked on the price. I found the price on the Oceanside Glasstile to be pretty uniform and picking it up at my local Expo was the cheapest when shipping was factored in. You might want to look at Maestromosaic.com. I bought some very pretty glass tile from them for a different application and they were cheaper than Oceanside, though none of it is as affordable as ceramic tile. Home Depot is now carrying glass tile too, but in small sheets or strips rather than a 1 sf sheet. Do you really need a full wall of this? Could you get by with a decorative band? How about mixing the occasional glass tile into a field of stone or ceramic mosaic of the same size? If you wouldn't mind a more irregular look, you can get tumbled "beach glass" that would be great for a broken tile effect, and many tile stores now sell glass "pebble" sheets, at about half the price of Oceanside. A little creativity can pay off in big savings. Something else to know about OG and some other glass mosaic tiles: if you are thinking of DIY'ing it, be prepared for a lot more work than you would do with a mesh-backed tile. The Glasstile is front-mounted onto brown paper which you are supposed to wash off after the tile is cemented in, but it has some annoying drawbacks. Most importantly, you can't see your tile, which means that if a tile is out of sync with its neighbors, you won't know it until after the tile is mortared in and you wash off the paper. Ditto if you have mortar oozing up too high through the grout joint or onto the tiles themselves. Vertical applications are especially challenging because, even when dry, the paper tends to collapse and not hold the tiles as evenly spaced as a mesh backer would do. Compound this by 10 if the paper gets wet - like, say, from wet mortar, or a wet sponge or rag you use to clean mortar mess off your tiles as you go along. To get satisfactory results with a vertical application, I'd suggest that you use a mortar mix that is on the dry side, use the shallowest-tooth trowel that you can find, and insert 1/16" spacers into the grout joint lines at fairly regular intervals to keep the little tiles lined up well. Good luck.

I think it'd be too heavy to flip once you'd loaded it with knives, especially Wusthofs. I did stick a rotating knife holder thingy under my cabinet to hold some knives and it works okay, but doesn't hold that many. It has holes on both sides so you can stick two short blades in the same hole from opposite sides. I might move it to my trailer but I really shouldn't have that many knives for camping. You can also do this: Works great until you need to use the pan and have to get those magnets off. Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.amazon.com/Wusthof-8001-Under-Cabinet-Swinger-Knife-Storage/dp/B0000631ZH/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332264049&sr=8-1-fkmr0

Annac54, thank you for the Home Goods suggestion. lascatx - I know exactly what you mean! Oh why don't they keep making the same glass.... Have you looked at Replacements for either of your sets? You might find one or both :) carolmka - Thanks, I did try, but couldn't find the same one. Onedogedie - Thank you so much!! I have signed up to be alerted when they get back in stock. I too was inspired by the cucumber recipe (I'll track down and post next, from the Perrier website). I'd like to have some non-alcoholic fun drinks in my repertoire. Hi cal_quail - I like those! I'm still hoping for just one set. I need to bite the bullet and actually contact (gasp) the company from whom I bought them in the first place!! Perrier Cucumber Drink Recipe follows (linked with pictures, too). I didn't quite understand the reference to gelatin, would that be the knox gelatin I haven't used in years? For this, a straw, a knife, a little imagination and lots of Perrier bubbles are enough to create a flavour-enhancing technique, with the addition of a few ingredients for an overall balance of flavour. Preparation Step 1: Remove the ends of the cucumber and stand it vertically, holding it steady on a chopping board. A mini cucumber is easier to manipulate. Run a test tube along the centre of the cucumber and push through the whole length to remove seeds. Discard the center which can be used to make other cocktails. Step 2: This technique will allow you to create a cucumber spiral using the blade of a knife. Reposition the test tube in the hollow formed in the centre of the cucumber. Carefully cut the cucumber around the test tube by turning the cucumber in the hand without moving the blade of the knife. Cut steadily to obtain a lovely cucumber coil. Step 3: Place the cucumber coil vertically at the bottom of a tumbler glass and stick it down with a few drops of gelatin. Sticking it to the gelatin is important as it will prevent the powerful Perrier bubbles from causing the coil to float in the glass. Step 4: Delicately uncoil the cucumber spiral inside the glass ensuring the bottom of the structure does not become unstuck. Hold the coil in place using a pick stuck into a cucumber ball fixed to the top of the glass. Step 5: In a mixing glass, place a lemon zest, a lime zest and an orange zest. Add the cold green tea and stir with a spoon for 15 seconds. Add the chilled Perrier and stir again for 5 seconds. Filter the mixture pouring directly onto the cucumber coil. Place a straw in the middle of the spiral and present with the Perrier bottle. Here is a link that might be useful: Perrier D-Tox

You probably don’t need a steel frame. It should only be required if there is a concern about the load on the joist, so maybe if the hood sets under a bathtub or something. Quartzite is just not that heavy, it only seems heavy because it is rather thin. 2cm thick quartzite is about 12 lbs per square foot, which is really nothing significant. A wall cabinet with a typical load of plates and bowls will easily be more than that much and these days that is 1/2” plywood held to the wall with two to four #10 cabinet screws. A 36” stone hood in a room with 9’ ceilings is going to be about 312 lbs of stone… The shear rating of one 3/8” bolt is more than double that and I assure you, more than one will be used. The only real complication is the attachment of the frame to the joists or studs and that is going to require bolts in shear.