The Kohler faucet we have currently is TERRIBLE and therefore we would never buy a Kohler again. We have noticed pull-down faucets dangling in the showrooms - and they've never even had water flowing through them. We've heard that side sprayers leak. And pull-out faucets don't have the look we like. We're willing to pay a few hundred dollars for something we like and that has a good warranty. Oil-Rubbed Bronze is the finish on my cabinet pulls. I had considered the Grohe Bridgeford in Oil Rubbed Bronze (33 870) until I read igarvin's experience with a dangling sprayer in the "Regrets" thread here. My husband wants only ONE hole drilled in the soapstone. That also means he wants me to find an alternate solution to the dishwasher's air gap. So...what I'm questing for is a "cottage" or "farmhouse" looking spray faucet that's many years old and hasn't leaked, dangled, or become unusable due to hard water deposits. Oh, and it will have to be able to be mounted on a deck 2" thick because we'll have 3cm soapstone over plywood. It's easier to find faucets that have a cottage-y design without a sprayer. I may have to consider another finish - perhaps nickel - that could work with my color scheme but a KWC stainless faucet (which all have modern lines) would look out of place. It would be nice it it didn't cost an arm and a leg and that actually worked. The Kohler let us down so we're severely gun-shy when it comes to faucet selection!

I have both soapstone(Black Venata) and butcherblock(cherry.) Black Venata is supposed to be one of the softer varieties, but I do not baby it at all. In the few months they've been in, I've gotten 2 dings in the soapstone. One was from DH dropping a diamond bit and the other was from DS1 and a titanium shafted lax stick. Not bad considering that at any given time I may have half a dozen stick weilding teenagers running through the house. Neither ding is detectable without running your hands across them. I've oiled the soapstone a few times and do not get water marks or any other marks on them. Cherry is a relatively soft wood and I do baby them. I use the same mineral oil/beeswax on them, but I do treat them more often. I also am ready with a tea towel to swoop in and mop up anything on the cherry. If I was going to rethink either surface it would be the butcherblock. I'd go with lyptus instead of cherry. Same beautiful color. Hardier wood. GC's don't want you blaming them for any possible scratch, but if you go in eyes wide open and let them know that you understand that the counters will develop a patina they should get on board.

I am having a lot of anxiety over this area and am really hoping for some guidance from all the experienced and gifted posters out there - please! We decided on absolute black honed for the counter - now need to decide the thickness. This dining room butler's pantry in the expanded dining room was suppose to appear like 2 independent furniture pieces. KD's goal was nothing like a kitchenette (or the adjacent kitchen) so he did not want 10 feet of a counter - hence the brown "china cabinet" piece steps back from the black "buffet counter" BUT he also planned for the counter heights to be different. The china cabinet has a thick (almost 4") of a wood slab between base and uppers. And he planned for 2 cm for the buffet. I know it is hard from these pictures (I'll try to get by there to get better ones today) but if we use 2 cm granite as recommended by the KD there will be only like 3/4 of an inch difference. If we use 3cm it could be shimmed up slightly to line up with the base of the routed edge on the dining room piece and seem in line. I don't want the 2cm to look like a mistake - a just miss BUT if the design with the step back already commits us to "mismatch" pieces I don't want to do it half way. HELP. I am at the end of a long line of too many decisions and just want this done and moving forward. Any help, suggestions, questions etc. would be GREATLY appreciated.

magsnj, first off, sorry for jumping down your throat with my initial comment. I guess you couldn't know that we're dealing with a seriously ill DH here, and to have the first comment bring it all back, on a post that was meant to be something completely different, just hit me wrong. Please accept my apology. Now to the more fun stuff :-) Autumn4 & chrissyb2411, yes they last all week with no problems. In large part it's due to the newer refrigeration technology and partly re. bagging them and getting as much air out as possible. I'd say it's 80% fridge technology though. My old 17 year old GE wouldn't keep anything fresh past a few days, but our recent bosch and now this kenmore pro both keep veggies well past a week, and many veggies up to 2 weeks, and fruits easily for a week or longer. ck_squared & scrappy25, thanks! mlweaving_Marji, it's a Kindred sink and the smaller (prep side) bowl is 16" x 10.5". akchicago, I so agree! I love prepping facing the room; it's such a nice change from my old kitchen where my prep space was in a corner between sink and range. It was a nice big expanse of prep space, but facing the corner wasn't exactly conducive to socializing. The fridge is the Kenmore Pro all refrigerator, which I believe is a rebadged Frigidaire (or Elux .. not sure, I've gotten different answers each time I asked sears). oldbat2be, LOL on the melodrama!! Are you sure you aren't my long lost twin sister? :-) PS. we'll eat those pears no problem ... that's only one a day each for the week, and we tend to have fruit for breakfast and lunch, and sometimes even after-dinner snacks. The miracle will be if they actually last out the week. JessHS, just keep at it and you'll see it will eventually work itself out. You have a much tougher job to 'systemize' because the youngsters can be so picky. For us, I just buy mostly whatever's on sale / in season and make them into portions for the week. The trick for me is not to cut them up in advance. A portion might be an apple & pear in a baggie, then a snack-sized baggie of grapes for lunch along with a banana. If I'm on the road that day I'll just grab them up and stick them in my lunch bag with a bottle of water and it's as easy as that. If you have to cut up the apples or pears for your little ones, you necessarily have to leave it to the last minute. :) One thing you might at least try is getting those individual snack-sized baggies (they're smaller than the sandwich bags) and portion some baby carrots, grapes, cherries, etc for the week.... then see if your kids might eventually switch to eating whole fruits instead of having them cut up. I know, easier said than done, lol. illinigirl, you will love the layout, i just know it! My measurements are 42" countertop edge to edge on the range side and 43" countertop edge to fridge door on the the fridge side. With handles factored in, it's 37" at the narrowest point where the range handle is across from the dw drawer handle, and 40.5" at the narrowest point where the fridge handle is across from the countertop edge. romy718, OMG I am the total opposite of you. I wish I could garden but I just look sideways at a plant and it seems to wilt. And I know this sounds very weird but I actually like going grocery shopping ... somehow it's just my nice alone time if that makes any sense, haha, and I do get a little thrill out of getting a good bargain. You know you're getting old when the big Friday night excitement is checking out the flyers LOL!! kaysd and ali80ca, I used to think that washing and prepping veggies would shorten shelf life, but experience has told me otherwise. Perhaps it's because I do baggie them in small portions, so it's not like a single stalk of rotting broccoli could affect the whole ... or a single moldy strawberry can't ruin the entire pint. I do "baggie" almost everything in sandwich bags or in medium-sized freezer bags (the latter are better sizes for broccoli & cauliflower so I use the freezer bags for those and sandwich bags for the rest. Things I don't put in sealed ziplocks are mushrooms and asparagus ... though I do pre-prep those. The mushrooms get washed and put in baggies but don't get sealed and they last a week no problem (I know you're "supposed" to leave them in paper bags, but with the newer fridges they can be pre-prepped no problem in my experience). I wash asparagus and put them in unclosed baggies with a wet paper towel around the bottom on the stems ... then at dinner time I just have to grab a serving, break the stalks, and go. Pretty much everything else except for squashes and the like gets baggied up and sealed though. lavender, thanks for the nice comments and I know you'll get your dream kitchen one day, and hopefully sometime soon. Meanwhile you have your DH back and that is truly priceless. :-) a2gemini, agree about the berries. No issues as long as there's no sugar added. They keep very well as long as they're bagged in smallish portions.