I like the second one. It's more architecturally pleasing to the eye with the tile setting on the diagonal on the upper part of the wall and squared on the bottom. :) You may also want to consider using a large "metal looking" (kinkd of bronzy) tile for the center vs. the little onyx tiles. I saw it done in a Parade of Homes house and really liked it as it gave a little extra flair and focuses your attention on the detail with the decorative framing you've done. I looked, but couldn't find my photo of that particular shower, but I found 2 similar ones. Unfortunately, I couldn't get them to upload. If you'll send me your email, I'd be happy to send them directly to you. Another idea I saw was to have your cabinet guy build a decorative shelf for the area between the tub deck and the shower wall. You can then use it for a TV, stereo, towels, bubble bath and/or just pretty things to decorate the room. In the pic of your neighbor's bath that area seems to be a "dead space". I really like the way they used the tub deck extension to make the seat in the shower, however. That's really neat! Good luck tomorrow!

Soft close glides and hinges; 170 degree opening hinges except where doors are blocked from opening past 110 degrees (we've been told they are better hinges and they allow doors to open out of your way fully). Full extension drawer glides. Adjustable shelves and pull-outs are good. I don't know that I'll want to adjust mine in the future, but during the "putting stuff away phase," we did need to have some pull-outs moved so they could accomodate certain items (same with the shelves, but I did those myself along the way). Pull-outs under the sink. Shallow lipped pull-out at the top of the pantry for short cans and jars. Wood (tiered) insert for spice drawer if you'll have such a drawer. See the thread re: storing a large amt of spices. "Found" space, often in an island, behind other cabs or drawer banks. Cabs and drawers are often standard depths (from front to back), even in semi-custom and custom cabs. In our 30" wide island, we had 6" deep by 27" wide or so "dead" space behind the drawer bank on the opposite side of the island, and another 6" deep by about 15 or 18" wide space. We put those shallow spaces to good use--the wider one for our step-stool, and the narrower one for some storage and wired it for our kick heater switches, too.

i had wanted the dishwasher to the left and another KD that i had met with said i could put it there. the KD we are using with our cabinet maker said there wouldn't be room to keep the sink centered on that run if the DW is on the left. I'm not sure if having it centered is that big a deal to me though. The only problem i see with having it to the left will be during clean up, if i keep the dishwasher open while loading, it may be harder for people to help me. i'm going to have to ask about that overhang. i think it was put there because she likes to have some room behind the faucet. BTW, she doesn't like my idea of pantry next to fridge on range wall.

I guess background information would be helpful :)! This is a new build and is almost framed so walls and window must stay. We have 5 people in our household - 2 adults and 3 boys ages 10, 8 and 6. With boys, lots of food is a priority and I buy 4 or 5 gallons of milk at a time, hence the need for lots of fridge space. We will have a separate freezer in the laundry room (down the hall past the fridge) so we don't need lots of freezer space - just a spot for frozen berries for smoothies, waffles and a half gallon of ice cream or so. The rest (meats, pizzas, leftovers, etc.) will be stored in the upright freezer in the laundry room. I would prefer not to have an icemaker - seems wasteful to me to make so much ice and not need nearly that much. We do need ice in the kitchen though and because we are doing a built in fridge one option is a 36" all fridge, which necessitates an icemaker of some sort and fridge or freezer drawers (these are VERY expensive to get all freezer and the room in the fridge freezer will probably be fine). I am concerned about the ergonomics of spreading all these appliances around and also would prefer having fewer rather than more, but sort of shy away from the huge mass of a 48" fridge. Very open to options in this area though! I am the main cook and almost always the only cook. However, my husband does cook his own breakfast (always uses microwave for either turkey bacon or oatmeal or both), and often we overlap. Other than breakfast, I am the cook and the clean up person. As far as the two dishwashers go, my boys (and husband) seem to eat constantly and on a particularly heavy day I end up running the dishwasher both before and after dinner. Two dishwashers would be used for entertaining but also because it would be nice to be able to run one during the day and still have a place to put the dishes. I am a creature of habit so I run it at night and unload in the morning and to have to break from that routine to have a place to put the dinner dishes throws me off! As far as entertaining, almost exclusively informal and almost never catered (i.e., with a catering staff). The exception is holidays, where we are the usual gathering spot. I don't have a need for a baking center (almost never bake - although I enjoy it), nor do we need a coffee center (we will just put the coffee pot on the countertop). We have a wet bar (with pocket doors) in the den so we will put all water, sodas, beer, etc. there but a snack center if we do the refrigerator drawers would be helpful. Oh and one more thing! Realized recently that there is no view of the TV from the breakfast room. This is not a real issue because we don't watch tv during dinner and I will have a small countertop tv in the kitchen viewable from the island so I can watch tv while I clean or cook. I am a little concerned about the times where tv is watched during a meal (the Masters, college football, etc.) and thought about putting a small 19" flat screen on the edge of the island by the breakfast area, hopefully with a cabinet door or tambour door or something so it can be closed away. Not necessary I guess and won't be used tons but it might be helpful to keep food out of the den! Hope this helps! and P.S. There will be no barrelling through the dining room :) I have cured them of that habit in this house so I am not worried about the oven opening into a path (the fridge would worry me more as that is something they are in and out of all day long).