Hi! I had the same issue; all I could find locally was green stone and what I wanted was dark black. I couldn't get myself to be okay with the green stuff so I had my slabs shipped to my state from a soapstone specialist (Dorado) and having a local fabricator who does a lot of soapstone fabricate and install. Leaving aside the issue of getting the stone you actually want, which is very important but only you can decide if it is worth the extra $1275, you have the question of having a soapstone expert do your fabrication & install vs the local company. In my relatively inexperienced opinion, I would think it would be worthwhile to have someone who does a lot of soapstone do your install. FWIW, my price was $28 a square foot for the slab material from Dorado Soapstone plus $400 shipping for the slabs; my install cost was $55 a square foot plus something like $125 each for my sink and cooktop cutouts. This is in the same price range per foot as you're talking about at $83 per foot. Compared to many quotes for soapstone I've seen on the board, I think this is a pretty good price. Anita

Yikes! I've been busy and haven't checked in and missed all these questions. Sorry! AilsaM - we left our "feet" off the floor a bit so we wouldn't have to cut around them. They are completely fake and do not support the cabinets at all so structurally it wasn't an issue to do that. Actually, our tile JUST came in today. YIPEE! Lake Girl - we have a sample of a hand made 3x8 subway tile ordered. I ::think:: that will be the one, but I'm not 100% sure until I see it in person. The sample is supposed to be here on Friday. I LOVE my recessed lights. My dh jokes that it looks like a spaceship has landed when they are all on, but it is such a bright and wonderful space to work in now. I don't regret them AT ALL. If you're having issues with Dorado, call Premier Surfaces. They have an Atlanta location. I can't recommend them enough. They have been WONDERFUL! Pupwhipped - the tin ceiling came from Lowe's. I love it in the small space of the pantry, but I'm afraid it might be gaudy in a larger space. Proceed with caution :) We had to use some special glue (came in a caulk tube) and small finishing nails to put the tin up. Somewhat of a pain, but not too bad. HTH! mtnfever - The breadboard on the ceiling is actually meant to go on the wall. It is quite thin (we didn't want to lower the ceiling since they are only 8' to begin with). We used an adhesive on the back, and used a crown stapler to secure them to the studs. Can I tell you how long it took to fill and sand all the staple holes? @@ kevinwl - no worries on the bare feet. I can assure you, no one was hurt in the demo of the kitchen floor. They are in much more danger of being hurt when going to feed the cows. Having a 1200 pound cow step on a bare foot is a very unpleasant experience (speaking from experience!). I guess farmers just have tough toes :) MIssyV, ejbrymom, SK97232, celineike, clg7067 - thank you for the compliments :)

Just a quick reply about the drainboard...we ordered our counters from Bucks County Soapstone and decided to go with what they call their "Franklin" drainboard. It's basically just a hand-sanded slope. No sharp lines or cuts; you can't really tell it's there from a distance. We liked the "worn" look of this option. Yes, it's an incremental cost on top of the counters (at least for us). A few hundred dollars; can't remember exactly. We just got our water turned on yesterday, so haven't really been able to use it yet, but it looks nice!

Your first 2 sentences could have been written by me word for word. I found some more tile yesterday for a feature for our backsplash and that means a new plan for countertops (I think we are on our 5th countertop choice now). Luckily, we had not actually bought the counters so that is more of just a "digesting the new info" switch. I did buy a pop up venthood when I was told our proposed ceilings over the island stove would be too high. The plans have been revised and could work with an island hood (which I also bought since then). I also bought a dining nook set when the layout was different. It has been in the box for almost 4 years and won't be used, but is beneath other stuff so will be sold when we dig it out. Oh, and the luxury shower unit with all the gizmos and gadgets to make dh happy. Then decided that when we redo our master bathroom, we will only have a half bath so that we can have more closet/floor space since we use the current master shower as a closet (don't worry, we have 2 other full baths in the house). I think our problem is having too long a time period to learn and make changes. I suppose that is for the best as we will end up doing the kitchen more knowledgeably, but it makes for lots of changes. Just yesterday we realized we can't do the laminate counters with chrome edges with the new tile look we are going for. I guess it is an easy change as the laminate was only in the plan for a few months. The granite switched to soapstone, which had become light marble then dark marble before thinking laminate, so we seem to have considered every choice and are circling back to granite or quartz/quartzite. New trips to the yard are in order, lol. Construction will start in approx 2 weeks, so this merry go round will end soon!