pepperidge_farm - Thanks for the picture! That is exactly what I was looking for. I wasn't sure how a 6" head would look on a 90 degree arm, but proportionally it does work. I think my husband would prefer a bit of an angle too, and I found a Hansgrohe arm that has a 67 degree angle instead of a 90, which I think might be interesting - would still be able to angle it straight down if we wanted. Sort of the opposite of the 90 degree situation. But, I'd be curious to see if anyone has seen this in person or installed it. Thanks everyone for the help! I think we've come full circle - "modified" rainshower (as I'm now calling it), like a 6" Grohe Rainshower or HansGrohe Raindance, mixed with a good all-purpose handshower on a slide bar. Here is a link that might be useful: Hansgrohe shower arm

What a great thread. I love reading about all your renovations and will be studying your photos on a larger screen I’m back here after using this forum extensively when I remodeled my kitchen in 2000 to 2002. I really still love my kitchen both functionally and aesthetically. It was awarded second place in the NKBA large kitchen category in ( I think ) 2002 or 2003. I’m back here as I need to remodel a kitchen in a second/vacation home and a lot has changed. This is what I love from my now 16 (!!!) year old kitchen. It still has great looks with beautiful maple and bubinga Lots of display space and artist designed inlaid wood refrigerator panels and blown glass lighting. Love all the functional art touches and beautiful stained glass doors on one cabinet which is inlaid with quartz, amber, crystal and semi precious stones. I love the granite which has a lot of movement in the Pattern The kitchen is very functional with lots of counter space, a huge island ( it’s more of a continent than an island ), storage space, pullout trays in the cabinets and tons of drawers. Everything is in the right place with 2 clean up centers; one for everyday and one for entertaining and baking. Great pantry space with pullout pantry cabinets in deep cabinetry and shelves in the shallower pantries. 2 dishwashers ( I need to replace the fisher paykel dw drawers but my Bosch dw still works great. I love the Thermador convection ovens and the GE advantium mw/ halogen oven. Use my warming drawer all the time. Love the different zones: everyday prep / e terrain I gotta storage and clean up and baking zone. Love the shallower storage on one side of my island for small appliances. Love the great room concept with it open to the dining room and family room areas. Love the huge deep clean up sink and the large everyday prep sink (( 22 inches ) I loved be the extraction and have a down draft. Love that I put in electrical outlets all over the island , in the cabinets and power strip outlets and lighting under upper cabinets I have great lighting which works off one central panel. Also love that I pulled out one undercounter area by 6 inches so I have a deeper beverage service area with an undercounter refrigerator. Love the built in subzero refrigerator/freezer which is now 27 years old. . What I I would do differently: As much as I still like the ease of cleaning the glass top cooktop , the one I picked has only one large burner and 3 smaller ones. I need at least another big burner. Now I see there is a steam/ convection oven so that would be something I’d go for. That’s about it. But I’m here to see what new developments there have been in the last 16 to 18 years !

Hi again, In the washroom, if you flip the locations of the toilet and shower, is there enough room for a larger shower with its long side backing onto the kitchen and the short side where the toilet tank is now? I just feel like everything is smashed against one wall in the washroom. Your plumbing layout wouldn't have to change as you have water supply and drain for both toilet and and shower with the current layout. I know you've said the layout cant change, but I'm not clear what is in the way of the bedroom walls. The smaller bedroom is quite small. You'll have trouble getting much more than a double size bed in that room. Is it possible to move the wall between the smaller bedroom and the closets over closer to the other wall? That could maybe give you a 10 X 10 bedroom and smaller closets. It would give you just a bit more room to have a bed and dresser or maybe a chair or small desk in a bedroom, since the rest of the space is open concept. In any case, I think you are in good shape with your plans and I think making it bright and clean looking should be your priority. Inviting and comfortable but easy to maintain finishes. I'd get a nice comfy couch (If you decide to put in a pull out/sleeper type couch which many rentals have) then make sure it is really comfortable to sit on. Some are so hard due to the fold out mechanism.

We just picked our colors with our builder this month. I’ve always wanted a kitchen with gray cabinets. But after pairing with our flooring, wall color, carpet, and granite color choices, we decided to go with a cabinet color that’s actually a brown/gray looking stain. The gray with being an open concept home really looked pale and washed out in models we viewed. My husband loves old school stain colors. I would love to chalk paint my whole world. This was a way we both liked our choices. We also chose not to go with any of the backslash choices we were given. In my eye I can not have a patterned backsplash that will compete for attention with the granite. I’m leaning towards a backsplash of white shiplap, or subway tile we will add ourselves