Its hard to believe that so much time has gone by, but I finally came back to check out Gardenweb and kitchens. Didn't even know it was part of Houzz now. I wonder if any of my awesome helpers are still around, Rhome410? Just to let those that are researching know how things have held up or any what I would have done differently thoughts. Actually, its all been great. I was told a few times during planning not to do an island sink with only that much room, but I really wanted it. It has been very nice and have not felt any issues with it. I was also told I shouldn't put the huge Wolf range and although it works fine, in retrospect I wouldn't get such a big range. My fireclay sink has been fine and not had any issues, which I was also warned about. My pantry works fine, it holds so much! In the last 7 years since Ive been on, our daughter was married, I have 2 grandchildren and been so busy. Coming back on and reading through posts reminds me of what a great place this forum is, so many wonderful, helpful people here. We may be downsizing and need to start another renovation, who knows, but its great to know that there are so many resources available here. vic

Hi there, have not been on in a loooong time! Sdkath: do you still need the photos? I can probably dig some up if you do. The whole pool photo here where the water is riplling a lot is a good approximation. I have noticed that the shallow end water is slightly bluer in the summer (as shown in that photo) than it is in the winter when all the surrounding foliage and colors are gone; in the winter it is a shade cooler, a bit gray, absolutely NO GREEN. We keep the pool open all year not to swim, just for the aesthetics. Hate those black covers ugh, and my pool sparkles all winter long. kgolby: We have NO REGRETS AT ALL!!! Love it more all the time. Love that the color is just a bit differentthan everyone elses, too. Love that when we have people over they look at our pool and say, "I thought Pebble pools only came in black or Tahoe?" Because all you EVER see around here are those 2 colors. It is just a fantastic color, I could not be happier and I only wish my pool refinisher would tell people about it and let them come and see my pool. I am convinced it is the name "Majestic Plum" that flips people out. iswim: i will submit it, I just don't have a completely pristine photo yet where there are no toys, dogs, or hoses in the photo! :-) My pool is a 30+ year old pool, and the PebbleTec and flagstone updated it miraculously!

I really don't know why I didn't think of this earlier... about storing all member photos on the FKB server. I guess I figured it out be outrageously expensive to host all the photos. But the cost of storage has gone down tremendously (an extra 20GB on picasaweb costs only $5 per year), and I am making small change from the ads on the FKB. So it's definitely do-able. I replied back to gellchom with a message similar to this. Please feel free to mention this when you send out your emails (although it's probably too late for most of you). Sample email: There are a couple of options for getting your photos back onto the FKB. Option#1: Upload your kitchen photos to one of the online photo management applications (photobucket, flickr, picasa, etc.). Remove password-protection from your kitchen album or members will not be able to view your photos. Email the link to me. (Many members choose this option because they like managing their own photos.) Option#2: Email all your kitchen photos directly to starpooh and she will upload them onto the FKB's photo album. Her email address is: starpooh@gmail.com. They will be put into a separate folder (similar to outwest's kitchen): http://picasaweb.google.com/starpooh. If, in the future, you decide to remove your photos from the FKB just send an email to starpooh and she will take care of it. (Some members are choosing this option because they don't want to worry about keeping track of their kitchen photos. They also do not need to worry about password-protecting their personal photos.)

Lisa , sorry for the long reply these are just to hard to answer on threads. Thats unfortunate you had a bad tech support experience the issue with your shower and the internet is Im not in your home, either is any tech support. were going down a rabbit hole here on a computer and no one is in your home, knows your shampoo habits, your grout , every single cleaner youve attempted, the actual material of floor, etc etc etc etc. Im starting to repeat myself here grasping at straws for you. You have an impregnator (as you should) on there now you said 511 that means you need to stick to it and you could try 511 enhace/seal. I cannot tell you how it will look so your on your own if it doesnt look good your back to stripping before removing the MYSTERY "IF" stains.. If you truly have marble which i just cant verify still. acids can etch it , continuing down a path of acids and etching will lead to stripping grout color further and may require a mechanical polishing process to fully repair. as such its not wise for me to advise and further damage your floor, like i said above, now that you shared your use of acids, You may have stripped grout in areas. You may Like Laticrete said be dealing with a stain and low spots simply in the grout/tile/mortar if not the preslope causing saturation over time with oils,, and as such all your fatty oils in soaps reside there as the shower drys. There is no worse shower floor choice than river rock or marble rocks. Last bit of advise Again if its truly a stain, if your Aboslute 100% SURE the only sealer or coating in the shower is miracle 511 and and and you didnt already strip grout color out with to much acid I would myslef A.Strip the floor first. Buy this and follow instructions. Call them to make sure its ok on your grout and rock/marble B. After the stripper is cleaned washed and removed. I would be renting the vaporlux 5000 at about $75/day if you can find one in your town. C, I would again call miracle and ask the best heavy duty cleaner with a good PH for your floor material, in combination with the vaporlux steam unit and possibly consider another attempt at a poulstice and let the liquid poulstice set over the stains under saran wrap for a night then Id start attempting to clean with heavy scrubbing and finishing with the vaporlux process. I do use sulfamic acid dilutions followed with steam vapor cleaning but its a truly a caustic health risk and hard to advise a homeowner to try that so id try really hard to avoid acids read MSDS sheets and be careful. Many people do have good luck with steam vapor and oxy clean but As ive said I stick to Tile specific MFG products and like to stay in one family. When you start mixing chemicals you need to talk straight to the MFG. You are persistant most folks would already have A professional grout service in there.... You may spend another $100 on cleaners, sealers and $75 on a vaporlux steam cleaner and hours of your time and stress and still be stuck which i why i suggested removing a chunk of grout to see depth of discoloration. A true grout pro might fix it gone for $500 who knows. But you need a real Grout pro. I would already have removed that floor and replaced it for around $1K !! Holy long winded posts batman.