Thank you all! It is a real pleasure to be able to share a years worth of decisions and fussing with you all! Thanks also to whoever fixed my whackadoodle pictures in the first post! It is a smaller house, only 1000 sq ft in the 2 stories. Since I like to stock up on things I use a lot when on sale (canned soup, for example, which I take for lunch at work most days) it is nice to have room to keep it handy instead of in the basement, plus now I don't have plates, mugs and glasses stacked to the max in one cupboard. I could actually have made the new window bigger and the cupboard between them narrower, though -- I really didn't realize how much storage I was adding and the upper shelves are fairly empty. Romy thanks for the compliment on the molding. It was actually not what I asked for -- I wanted something simpler, but by the time it went up and I saw what I had, I just didn't want to go through the fuss and wait for a replacement (I was ill at the time). So it is nice to hear that it looks good! I did change the trim around the windows; the carpenters just put in quarter round and it looked both cheap and unfinished. I replaced it with the cove molding which I think looks much better (did it myself, too!) My favorite thing about it all would really be hard to say; of course just having enough counter to work on without balancing things on the stove should top the list! But, every time I pull open the base drawer to get a pot I smile!

marjen-what a fantastic kitchen. I am also installing American Woodmark-Savannah-Maple-in a Cognac stain. I decided against the glaze, but yours look absolutely stunning. Wish I would have had the guts to go with a different color island, but I was a chicken....cluck, cluck. We have been working in increments, so I can still have a usable kitchen until the absolute end. Have done the pantry/microwave/wine cooler wall and the refrigerator wall. Now starting on the stove wall. I hope ours looks as spectacular as yours.

Thank you for the input. I agree that the ceramic looks softer and seems to bring out the colors in the listello better. Chris, I also noticed the stripe effect near the edges of the glass tile. It turns out that if you cover the edge of the tile (as the grout will do), the stripe disappears. It is light coming in the side of the tile. These glass tiles have the color applied to the back, it is not colored all the way through like the tiles you use in your mosaics are. BTW, I could see that the piece you used to show how grout changes the look of the piece looked different after the grout, but I could not quite tell what was grout, I think the light shining through the clear portions confused my eye. What color is the grout? Maybe I can figure it out if I know that. It sure is a beautiful piece. I love looking at your work and I find myself looking at old used furniture and thinking, "Chris could put a real cool design on that piece!" ML, it is good to hear you and DH have arrived safely at your southern home! I have to say that you had more confidence than I did about where that door was. I figured I would be cleaning out the garage to find it hiding behind a pile of wood products.

Thanks again to everyone else who has posted their kind comments :) Rhome, I do not have plans. My old boss, drew up and informal before and after. Just enough to pass through our building department, who did not require an accurately scaled set. In fact, I was allowed to "sign and seal" the set on my own. We never actually lived in the house with the "old" kitchen - what you see was how it was when we looked at the house. The prior Owner wasn't living there, but left all his stuff in the kitchen while living elsewhere. I mean, there was even some things in the fridge! It was kind of weird if you ask me. We left the sink and oven in the same place for two reasons. One, I didn't want to move the plumbing and liked having the small window above the sink. Second, again, I didn't want to move the gas service, trying to keep costs down where I could. I couldn't get a 36" in due to a structural situation (that beam runs across the room right there and, the waste stack goes up inside the wall there also - would not have been cost effective to move that since we were not able to address the bathroom above yet). The refrigerator, we had to move and wanted to. It's old position made no sense on the back wall at all and since a sliding door was going in, it had to go. Putting it across from the sink and stove, was a much better solution, along with the microwave. The kitchen, flows well in that I don't have to walk very far to get to any of my appliances from each other at all. I designed the cabinets to hold what I need near each appliance. The two lower cabinets at the stove are all pull-outs and hold pots and pans (surprisingly a large amount of them fit into these). The large lower cabinet to the right of the sink on the corner is a double trash bin, easy to dump out leftovers before they go into the sink. Most dishes (and pots/pans) are stored right over the dishwasher and near stove. Glassware and serving pieces are over the counter where the toaster and coffee maker are 0 LOTS of space in these two. Pantry items are easily accessible (the one near the fridge is mostly dry goods; cereal, pasta, tea, coffee, cookies, etc.) and I included 3 drawers under the largest one to use for a bread drawer, a drawer for bags/foils/wraps and the last as my junk drawer. The cabinet under the microwave holds canned goods and the one next to it holds medications (I don't keep them in the bathroom) and some other miscellaneous things which I like having at hand in the kitchen. Under the sink is a pull-out, which houses the usual stuff. I have a cabinet specifically for herbs/spices and one specifically for oils/vinegars/smaller baking needs. I have 3 glass front cabinets for some of my Fiestaware and other decorative items and one other large pantry, as I mentioned, for larger cooking items, baking pans, and other things. The triangular end cabinet is a kind of catch-all for chopping boards, measuring cups, what have you and the lazy susan has colanders, plastic ware, casserole dishes and some other stuff. Oh, and the large cabinet over the fridge holds roasting pans, my huge lobster pot, and I'm not even sure what else right now lol. Eventually, the sort of empty space where the table now sits needs to be finished off somehow. I envision more cabinetry on the wall, probably with a TV inside it. Perhaps some more storage at the bottom with a counter coming off the wall. Or, a very small table, with cabinets. Just not sure yet. Ok I've blathered plenty. BTW anyone that has ideas for a backsplash feel free to toss them out for me. I just really haven't seen anything which has wowed me yet.