Very surprised to see this come back up, but so happy to be able to share and help! kathec, I'm so glad my kitchen could be of help to you! We have decided we love our 2nd island. It is a great buffet surface that allows for easy flow of traffic even with groups of people. roseofblue, thank you for all your kind words. The ceiling fan is not in the kitchen but in the living room which is open to the kitchen. Unfortunately, the air does not get to the kitchen at all. That is one thing I regret, not putting some means of circulating air into the kitchen. It gets pretty hot with that induction range going. (Since you asked, I think it was about $3200 before a rebate of 10% in the form of a cash card.) I still absolutely love the color on the walls, and still amazing to me that a blue can actually feel warm. The fun memories have already started with the weekly pizza-making and bread making and menu planning and school work (oh.. well, I guess that's not so much fun, memory making, but definitely the kitchen is a central part of our lives). firsthouse, I hate that you haven't been able to enjoy that gorgeous kitchen/house just after you've finished it! I guess it's better to have all that travel after it's finished rather than during the process. I have 3 monthly calendars, a weekly to-do, and a magnetic bulletin board, all from Storables.com. If I have two months in advance right in front of me, I'm more likely to write things down and not forget them. So I have Sept/Oct/Nov right now. They do get erased when the kids try to write things on them, but overall I think they work well. They are definitely not glamour items like the Pottery Barn ones but I just needed functional. The bulletin board is, though. I love it; it has a layer that takes pins, covered by a metal layer which consists of pin-sized holes all over. I also mounted some metal strips from Storables, under the shelf, on which I have hooks for keys and magnets for grocery lists, etc. On the weekly to-do chart, I transfer the week's events from the month calendar. That's really my brain. I also got a pocket for mail; if I remember to put it there instead of on the table, it works well. I don't know if ebse ever posted her finished kitchen to the FKB, but hers was my inspiration. I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much money until I saw that I was using such a system. I am still in training, so not using it consistently yet, but working on it! phoggie... thank you! The granite is Impala Black in a leathered finish. It is a fairly common stone, I believe; it looks darker leathered than polished.

i think the switch is super easy to use and go back and forth between spray and regular stream with most every use. one of the reasons i decided delta vs kohler or grohe is i have a very builder basic hiuse and called up delta with no receipts and no part numbers for a finish issue on my 15 year old cheapo shower knob. they were super nice and sent me a new part with no hassle at all. that decided it for me since nothing in life is guaranteed to be perfect and having great cs is a big deal!

People seem to want to pay up to $399 but resist going to a higher price. OTOH, you use a kitchen faucet 10 to 20 thousand times in decade. (my estimation of number). A kitchen faucet is the one thing that doesn't fit into the decor by hiding along with the other lines and trim. It stands out. It doesn't blend in. It's round tubing, bent into a praying humanlike shape. I think it is worth it to spend more. " Does anyone have them, do you like them and how have they held up? " " I was leaning toward the Grohe ... I think this style has an on off button for the spray ..." Call or email Grohe about getting a model with a spray button that stays on spray once you press it. Call or email Delta about getting a model with a spray button that stays on spray once you press it. Some of the spray "wands" have a button you press once, others have a need-to-hold-down button. A spray button that stays on spray once you press it is a feature that I would like to have, and I would want to know about it on the main page describing the faucet. But, all too often, this is detailed feature information that the marketing people everywhere don't highlight on any web site of any faucet maker. I've heard them say to me that they prefer to hold back on this information so that the customer has to ask; it helps the showroom salesperson add value and play a more meaningful role. Hmm this might have been true back in the day when glossy brochures were the only text information available. The world has changed since then: participant discussion forums are now the key to getting informed. Terms vary. One fancy faucet maker has a term "mousseur" for a certain kind of wand, and they don't apply that term consistently across the line (!). Grohe is consistently high quality, and Grohe supports you if a problem happens. Delta is consistently medium quality, and Delta supports you if a problem happens. I may be too generous towards Delta. But, millions have them. Grohe is well known worldwide. Asia is where all the parts are made. There is no point trying to "manufacture" faucets inside the boundaries of any country, although it is possible to do some of the assembly (and call it made here). In Australia faucets often cost less, because it is too easy for any hardware store buyer to get on a plane and go negotiate face to facem and bring back a small batch (smaller than e.g. 5000 units). We are too far away, and nobody seems interested to place orders to bring small batches halfway around the world after using photos or video conferencing as their only way to see what they are talking about. -- Chrome can be very good looking when a high end manufacturer makes it. Chrome in medium quality faucet (the kind you can see in a hardware store) can be less than attractive. Stainless steel plate finishes can vary in hue from one maker to another. There is a range, from industrial gray to attractive light nickel to beautiful. If quality and looks are both important to you, broaden your search to compare KWC faucets. See them in person. Livello is available in 100% solid stainless steel; Ava in plated. A beautiful bent praying shape can be had in the Eve and Sin models, with a small pulldown wand that hides in plain sight, being housed inside the tubing. Of the four Sin models, I got the one with a Highflex memory hose that springs back to reset itself. Its wand has a press-once button to switch to spray. This is good for my Silgranite sink because it's much easier to rinse Silgranite sink walls down with a broad spray than with a narrow jet.

If you think the California Faucet's matte white finish would be an improvement over the current bonnet cap and possibly blend, then I wouldn't hesitate to contact them and ask what it would cost to have them repaint one of the replacement bonnet cap pieces you received with their matte white. I'm not sure how they operate: if they do one-offs with their coatings or if you would need to wait for a production run of other matte white pieces. For example, with my kitchen renovation, I ordered some Belfer recessed light fixtures, and the manufacturing system involved powder coating per piece. Normally the turnaround time would have been a few weeks for that, as they sent pieces to the powder coating contractor only as they were ordered by customers, but the powder coating schedule had been slowed down by pandemic restrictions, so it took about 4 months for me to get them. That's why I mentioned sending one of the replacement bonnet caps you have so you can still use the faucet in case it takes a while for the coating. Brizo doesn't actually use powder coating to apply its finishes. Its process is more robust, but I wouldn't be surprised if California Finishes has a process that is less technical being a smaller company and with some of the finish flaking problems I have read about with them. The bonnet cap is likely to be more protected than other parts of the faucet, however, so as long as the plumber can get it replaced without damaging anything else, it might be worth a try to see what California Faucets could do for you. Another thing to keep in mind is that you've only had this faucet for a few months, and I've read so many reviews about Delta's and Brizo's touch technology faucets failing after a relatively short time that I might be hesitant to drop money into a custom paint of the bonnet cap. A popular product on some of the older Houzz posts, especially way back when people were posting under the website GardenWeb before it merged, was a third-party foot lever that turned a faucet on and off. People back then loved this! While I think products like that still exist, they have been largely made obsolete by built-in touch technologies. Just be aware that the faucet may not last as long as it would otherwise without the smart touch feature. Yes, Delta/Brizo will probably send a replacement part to fix it if it malfunctions, just as has already been mentioned in this thread, but at some point you may want to evaluate whether you would like to continue paying a plumber to repair a faucet on which you may or may not have been able to resolve the color discrepancy. My Brizo faucets have regular handles without touch features, a decision I made after reading touch technology reviews, and I have become adept at operating them with a thumb or pinky finger in order to minimize contact with wet hands. I also use a sponge to wipe down any water that gets around and on the faucets after each kitchen session. There may be no going backward for someone who has used and likes touch technology, but if you do need to make another kitchen faucet decision in the future, you may want to do more searching at that time to see whether the longevity of touch technology products has improved. Looking again at Jason Wu for Brizo products online, it seems to me that you can almost see that darker finish on the bonnet cap in the promo photos. I don't know if that's just shadow or if it is a paint defect in the prototypes. Whatever the case, it's a terminal aesthetic flaw in the faucet. I'm sure plenty of people have called in about this problem before. It is frustrating that Brizo hasn't taken steps to fix it since it's just that one piece on the faucet, apparently. I'm so sorry you are dealing with this. If you do find a solution, you might want to start a new post for "Jason Wu faucet color defect" here at Houzz with some photos to make it easier for other people with the same problem to find out what to do.