You are all, as always, so nice. I hope that your kitchens all finish up where you'd like. It's a nightmare when you're in it but, like childbirth, fades when it's done. Denim Insulation. First, your project has to be down to the studs since this rolls in like typical fiberglass insulation. Then, the cost is about 10% more than standard. For us, it came out to about $200 more. In the grand-scheme of things, $200 wasn't much. We bought ours at Greenmaker Supply in Chicago, because we live just to the west. We also went with FSC certified wood from them. Granite Cost. It think it comes to about $75/sq. ft. installed and fabricated, but keep in mind that's for a remnant, so it was cheaper than the full slab I had quoted. Red Painted Cabinet. Alas, no, it's new. I bought it at a reproduction antique shop in Wisconsin along with the photo above it. I really did look ALL OVER for a vintage piece I could repurpose in that space, but couldn't find anything. Originally, that piece was supposed to be a tall pantry. Maybe some day I'll find something else I love to fit there, but I'm happy with the kitchy red cabinet for now. "Stubby People in Yellow Kitchens" That's me! Love it.

Although my house was built in 1900, it's a very simple little vernacular house in an old mill town, and here at least the vernacular "unstylish" houses like farmhouses and factory workers' houses didn't change much at all in the decades before and after the turn of the century. Both upstairs and down the trim is all very simple butt-jointed boards and I really like the way it looks. The plainness suits the house very well but the width has some "oomph" to it so it doesn't look pitiful. The vertical bits are 5" wide; headers are 6 1/2", a hair thicker and about half an inch wider that the verticals; the window aprons are 4". Baseboards are over 9" downstairs (ceilings just short of 9') and 7" upstairs (8' ceilings). Upstairs baseboards are three-part, a wide flat board topped with two smaller moldings, upstairs they're just a plain flat board. The living room has a skimpy picture molding that's about 2" in profile; even if it is original it doesn't look in proportion with the rest of the millwork so we will probably replace it with something a little wider but still very simple. Here's a picture of one corner of the living room from before we moved in, since the house isn't very presentable right now. :-) It's not too easy to see with the white-on-white paint scheme, sorry; try not to see the vinyl windows! All that millwork has to be stripped since there are so many layers of paint built up and previous owner also painted right over chipping and peeling areas after just brushing off the loose stuff so it looks terrible (he was also daft enough to use a FLAT paint, too, so if you look at it wrong it gets dirty and doesn't clean for crap). We've also been told by someone who lived here decades ago that the trim was dark when she was a girl, and we've found dark stain under a few chips. In our previous house, which was fairly new but soulless and in need of a bit more old-fashioned flavor, we used a flat casing backbanded with a simple piece of square stock. Had it been an older house I would have used a wider casing on the doors and windows but I didn't want to go overboard. The only photo I can find with a real close-up of how the casings were done is this one from the bathroom: If you want a fancier top to doors and windows like in items 1 and 2 in the OHJ article linked above but aren't into piecing the thing together yourself, Vintage Woodworks has one nice simple header that would look great with plain-stock casing.

If you're questioning whether you'll get sick of two different granites, my guess is you will. Some people like that look, which seems to be popular, but some people don't (ahem,.... me. no one get mad! :)) Since the SW is outside your budget, stop considering it! In addition to budget concerns, I don't think the tones work in your space. (I think SW is gorgeous, but just not in this application. Also, if you had two different countertops and two different stains, I think it would be way too much.) Because your floor and cabinets have two different stain colors, I think a solid black would look good. biochem gave a good example and rtwilliams has a gorgeous kitchen with solid black counters. Did you throw out Cambrian black as a choice because of price? I will say that I have that counter in a leathered finish and, after 2 years, it is flawless. I don't know how Labrador compares. Is Labrador strictly black/gray or are there other colors? I thought it had variation, but I don't remember... I also think the newer choices, BA and others with some brown in them, would look very good. I agree they tie everything together. With that said, what do your inspiration photos or kitchens show? Have you saved particular kitchens you really love? If you saved 34 kitchen photos with black counters, do not be swayed to get BA! If your inspiration kitchens had a mix of counters, then that's another story. :)

Larisa - Thanks for posting this. I think you do have to take into consideration that a company that receives an “F” has got to say something in response. Their explanation, that Borax takes up 1% of their formula and they don’t believe EWG takes that into account, is not correct. I just read that on the EWG site, that they definitely do take it into account when giving grades. Have you looked at the review of Puracy on their site? They do list Borax [sodium borate] as an ingredient with an F. It is reported to be HIGH concern, because it causes developmental/endocrine/reproductive effects. And based on their explanations of what they consider in their grading, that 1% that is in the formula still ranks enough to cause high concern. Perhaps the company is saying that due to not wanting to give away trade secrets, they do not want to reveal how much borax is in their product. But - they just did. So it doesn’t add up that they didn’t want to tell EWG how much was in the formula before the grade was given. For me that category of concern about developmental and reproductive toxicity is really on my radar, so I don’t even want to use a product with moderate concern about these effects, let alone high concern. Here is EWG’s position on Borax… https://www.ewg.org/enviroblog/2016/05/watch-out-borax#.Wl5yCa2ZNGU Look at the whole review. This product has one F ingredient, 8 ingredients that get a C, 9 ingredients that are a B and 5 ingredients that get an A. That’s a lot of ingredients. The company in their statement, said “there are ONLY 19 ingredients”. [g]. That is a lot to me. Compare that to the products that receive an "A". They also have Benzisothiazolinones which are of moderate concern for acute aquatic toxicity. They have 4 ingredients that have no data on them. They do have a good rating for ingredient disclosure, which is a good start. I’ve noticed a number of recent reviews have upgraded some of the grades on products that changed their formula to remove some ingredient that was problematic. Or provided EWG with better information. The company is claiming that there is no exposure to these chemicals. That they are completely rinsed away from clothing in the rinse cycle. I don’t think they can guarantee that. Nor does that address what happens to them when they are dumped into the waste water and the effect that eventually has on the environment. If the chemicals that are of concern are not in the product in the first place, then there is no concern. The company is saying to you - as these companies have for decades - we have done OUR OWN testing and we say the risk from this product is a 1 or a 2 on a scale of 0-4. I’m sorry, I am not going to rely on what the company that makes the product tells me is the risk. They have too much at stake to be an objective source of that kind of information. The only way to have a chance of getting objective information, is to have an independent organization like EWG. If a company disputes their findings, then they should have their scientists meet with the scientists at EWG and work it out. Instead of getting their PR department to make an attack online of EWG and what they do. In this response from the company, they criticized everything that EWG does and didn’t take into account anything they are doing right. It’s a one sided, PR effort to avoid the consequences of a bad review. I'd be interested in seeing EWG's response to it. They explain that you have to have borax in a product that has enzymes in it to stabilize it. Yet Grab Green Pods has enzymes and no Borax and many of you here are happy with that product. So, that’s not right either. That's just my take on it. I know you use the product and like it and it's not simple and clear cut to weigh everything. But, I really support having an independent organization like EWG to protect the consumer and I don't think a manufacturer should criticize what they do, in defense of their product, especially when their defense has some inaccuracies in it. EWG is not singling them out. They are very anti-Borax, no matter who is using it in their formula, including DIY recipes.