I just ordered today! I have to say it was a really hard decision. I had been unable to decide between the Celery, Riviera and the Sky. I was leaning towards Riviera , but decided it may be just a bit more blue than I wanted. I loved the Celery, but I just had a gut feeling I would tire of the green. My favorite that I always came back to was the Sky. It glimmered, had tints blue, green and when in bright light was pale grey. However, it was so muted and nothing seemed to pop and it just was lost. So, I put another tile up this morning that I had put back in the bag at the start of the week and it was perfect! Bali it is! I also ordered 1/3 Riviera to splash about and I am crossing my fingers it looks ok. I decided to go with the 2x4 tiles. Next to decide on is grout. They quoted 4 weeks production and 1 week shipping. I'm glad it's ordered - I just hope I made the right decision. It felt right at the time - fingers crossed. Will post a photo when it's done and thanks everyone for weighing in. I

That is a pantry next to the refrig. I didn't see the stairstep until you mentioned it. I'll call KD tomorrow and find out about the possibility of taking that to the ceiling. As far as functional features, the lower corner features a lazy Susan with pull outs. To the right of the range the uppers have built in spice racks on back of doors. Right now the lower 9" w cabinet between corner lazy Susan has tray dividers, but I'm considering asking for a pullout set up for bottled goods like oils and such. The cabinets flanking the range are drawers. KD put cabinets w pullouts under the steam oven and I didn't really object. I'm thinking that may be where some heavy items live like food processor, and I have an easier time lifting if I can get my hands underneath. He had tried to give me my prep sink where that cabinet is to the left of the steam oven. I nixed that. I'd rather live w one sink and have it in the island. There simply wasn't room there for cleanup sink and I'd lose too much counter space. Anyway, the cabinet base stayed when the sink came out. I could easily change that to drawers. The island has a 36" sink base, a dishwasher, a trash pullout, and on the end we fit a mixer lift cabinet. On the public side there will be close to 8' of 12" deep cabinets where I will keep 2 sets of fine china and serving dishes. We're going to put the push-to-open hardware there so that there isn't any shiny visible hardware under the seating area. I just moved all my Houzz pics and pinned inspiration kitchens to one pin board. There are over 50! Anyway, there are some consistencies that come through. I like balance, but I am comfortable with quite a mix of pattern and texture. I'm thinking about keeping the glass transom cabinets but making the glass front cabinet solid. I'm also thinking about finding out about building a cover and changing out the hood for one that is behind a cabinet-face front. I find I really don't care for big hunks of stainless, and that hood is center in my kitchen. Again, thank you for your input. This post was edited by mlweaving_Marji on Sun, Sep 29, 13 at 9:35

Now that's the way to spin it right and find that silver lining! BTW, I just saw the Corian thread you started: it's quite obvious I'm working backwards today! :) We're living such parallel experiences: we had white laminate forever -- LOVE that stuff! And it still looked great after all this time (a snap to spot any ants venturing across). Goes a lot to explain why I wanted to keep some large span of white in my kitchen: it's what I knew and loved. Came to a bit of a realization this weekend: I see so many pictures of non-white, dark kitchens that I think are just beautiful. They don't seem too dark in these folks' homes, so I'm not sure why I'm so worried that my kitchen will be too dark...maybe fear of the unknown? Dunno. But as we're approaching the end of the process (BS will be another matter entirely!), it's just time to prioritize over here. Still need to check w/ KD about cost for frosted glass for the two single uppers flanking the kitchen window...these days, I'm afraid to ask. Also need to get some representative pics of the glass to make sure it doesn't look cheesy, ya know? :) Maybe this means I'll need to upgrade to a white interior since the interior walls and forward edge of the shelves will peek through the glass. Cabs come standard w/ that light brown laminate surface, and I don't know how much of the light brown will show through the frost.

Our house is in the sheetrock stage. All windows covered with painted plastic due to priming. Hard to distinguish room placement and flow pattern without light. Rain is not helping with little light for photo opportunities. Will try today if the sun returns. Tile flooring expected next week, cabinets the 3rd wk of January, and quartz sub-contractor needs to order countertops. This is my second time on a forum. Last week I posted my first here on Houzz. I was extremely surprised with the wonderful responses. Posting photos might be my New Years 1st. challenge……will try today.