Beware of All Marble if they are tied into Marble.com. We have one of their sites here in my town, all I can say is eeewww, sceezy experience there. Eeeewww, can't tell you how bad it was to shop there, can't describe. Shop around, find a REAL granite place. Marble.com wanted almost 3 times what we paid and it was the yuckiest experience of my very long shopping career - won't give you actual names of granite unless you really push, have to fill out a form and sit through a VERY long sales pitch before they will take you into their granite 'showroom', can't just walk around, need a salesperson who shows you the samples that you pick out along their wall, and this of course, only after you have signed their sales agreement outlining payments which are out of line versus other places. They have lots of granite available, but all as a number and a colored price - you have to know your granite to price-shop there since most don't have their granties numbered instead of named. Yes, tehy can get granite in your house incredibly fast, but at a HUGE mark-up! Sceevy, sceevy, sceevy if it is the same company that has places in NJ, NY, and, CT.... We visited a location in CT - a true buyer beware situtation if it is....

Thanks for replying and offering advice! ! I ended up painting it all bright white. Since all of my furniture is white, it fits nicely. Now here is my next question. I bought a cedar chest yesterday for $75. I already bought two antique end tables for the living room that were two-tone. The legs were gray and top was white. I repainted them basically the same. ...used my gray wall color on the legs and white semi gloss on top. Now I'd like your advice...paint cedar chest the same? White lid, gray sides? All white? Black?? Thank you! Beth

nancy_east -- thanks for your nice words! How exciting about your kitchen -- this will be fun to watch develop! The widest walkway we have is 36 1/2" (countertop to countertop), with it going down to 34 1/2" where our apron front sink "jumps" out. From our cooktop to the widest point of the bowed island countertop is 35 3/4". The only times (or rather, areas) our aisles feel tight are when the dishwasher door is open and there's only 12" of clearance (between the open door and the island cabinetry). But so far, no barked shins! We're careful and aware. The other area is our refrigerator (which is 30" wide, all refrigerator so it's a wide door): when it's open the only one who can sidle by (and then it's just barely) is our two year-old. But neither of those conditions are permanent (meaning, the dishwasher is mostly closed and the refrigerator door is mostly closed as well). While 36" for an aisle isn't "ideal," for us it's working out fine. Our only alternative would've been to give up the island and that wasn't an option! We need the storage space. Your aisles will work out fine; if it there's an impediment in the 36" aisle (like a dishwasher), then you all will learn the same careful two-step we and many others have as well! Good luck with your kitchen-in-progress! (and whole house, too!)

I have both 1% and 5% white solar shades in my house. 1% in bedrooms for privacy and light control. 5% in living room to preserve some of the view and to reduce heat gain. It's a neat concept to be able to see the view through the 5% shade, but as soon as the sun is no longer an issue, which is much of the time (overcast days, trees leafed out and anytime after mid-day), I roll the shades up, because that's the view I really want to see. The sun shines through the 5% shade so much so that it hurts my eyes, so I have to position myself somewhere in the room where it is not an issue. I'm not sure how different black would be, but I've noticed that a lot of restaurants have black. I considered black, but I sort of prefer light and bright. I'm not sorry I ordered white, the view may be blurry, but the mind fills in the blanks, if that makes sense. I ordered mine from blind.com.