My mother is a hoarder too. She was born in one house, got married, still lived in that house with Grandma, her husband (my Dad) and 4 kids. Around 1963, her mother died, she inheirited the house (an only child) , sold it and moved to a bigger house in the suburbs. Time went by, us kids married and/or moved out. Then Mom's aunt died, left everything to Mom, who took all the furniture out of Auntie's house and fitted it in among our own furniture. Then brother got divorced and came home, along with half his marital furniture. That got stuffed into an upstairs bedroom. The furniture in that room is so heavy it's cracking the ceiling below. Mom has three sets of kitchen cabinets in her kitchen, stacked up and down, every which way. She has a twin bed set up in the kitchen so she can watch TV from bed. She bought a new hutch for the kitchen-lord knows why, she already has tons of cabinet space. I told her the new one looked good, what did she do with the old one? Did she donate it to charity or throw it away? No, she laid it on its side and dragged it into the living room, where it's been for at least 15 years. My sister bought her new kitchen curtains but Mom said, the old ones are still good, take them back. Sis sneaked in when Mom was out shopping and switched the new for the old. Mom was mad when she came home. Sis had taken the old ones with her and threw them out. Did I mention Mom is a heavy smoker and there's a brown nicotine film on everything? I dread when Mom dies. We'll have to clean that house out and get it ready to sell. I'd like a few of the old photo albums, maybe some bowls from the kitchen. But there's nothing else in that house that interests me, nor any of my siblings, as far as I know.

Anita, From what I remember, Cobra is very hard, and has very little veining, and is black (not much green). Does that sound right? If so, your seam, should you choose to put it in, would be a much easier project than ours. I wanted soapstone that was very veiny (active), with lot's of green as well. Due to the size of our island we also needed a seam to go down the middle. We do not have occupancy in our home yet, so I haven't lived with the seam, but I thought you might want to take a look anyway. One important issue that came up was whether or not you plan to oil the soapstone. That will determine the seam color. We plan on letting it go dark, so they used a black seam for ours. Our slab is butterflied. The two polished sides faced each other and opened like a book. That is why the pattern repeats on each side... as close as we could get. This was a fix due to a different issue. This is what we ended up with. These photos were taken right after installation and with fresh oil on them. They are not that dark today, however, we haven't oiled them in several months. Here is a more recent photo without being oiled for a long time. I am sure others will chime in about soapstone seams, but I have to tell you, the seams that folks have posted here are almost undetectable. It is an amazing material. I think I have one of the worst case scenarios with so many veins and color variations. I am not concerned with it at all, but that is me. What really is important is if it will bother you. THAT is what matters!

Well, if you've decided, you've decided but frankly, because you have a small kitchen, the 18" would, I believe, be more fitting both in terms of scale in that space and would not be a detriment during resale. The 18" does give you better storage options - you're not going to be able to store tons and tons anyhow, so what's the point of having the provision to wash tons of it. And realistically anyone who looks at your house isn't going to come in with the requisite 2.3 kids, so the 18" just is not going to be an issue. Personally, I'd get the 18" DW, make provisions for an end support for the granite at that end, and then put two 36" cabinets on either side of the stove. I don't know anyone who would want to go marching about their kitchen with an arm full of variable sized loads in a variably-weighted DW rack. It just wouldn't be safe. And if you want to do that, I'd say the 18" DW is by far the safer configuration to do that with ;-)

Dorothy - if you're putting in a 2-bowl sink, then I don't see how you can possibly fit a decent-sized one in the corner and still only take up 42" (not counting the pullouts) on each side. 2-bowl sinks should be 36" wide to have decent sized bowls. If you're putting in a 30" single-bowl sink, then 42" is about right. A cooktop or range of 30" will take up around the same space as a 30" sink. is that a 30" in your plan? I thought it looked like 36" (it wasn't labeled). The difference is that you will spend far more time at the sink than the range/cooktop and it is very rare that more than one person needs to work at a cooktop/range at the same time. Kitchen work studies show: 70% or more time spent in the Kitchen is spent preparing a meal or snack - uses the sink 20% or less is spent cleaning up - and that includes not just sink work (hand washing a few items), but also non-sink work such as loading the DW (if you don't pre-rinse your dishes), unloading the DW, clearing the counters & table, wiping down the counters & table, and sweeping up at the end of the day. - uses the sink 10% is spent cooking - stirring, adding ingredients, watching food cook Based on the above, no more than 10% of your time will be spent at the cooktop while 90% or more will be spent at the sink - so it makes the most sense to have the range/cooktop in the corner where it's used much less and the sink out on the straight run where it's more accessible and easier to use and allows you to have a wider sink base & overall sink size. This is how a 30" range would fit. BTW...how wide is that "south" window and exactly where is it located?