Thanks for all the excellent feedback! To answer your questions: - EAM: the perimeter counters will be IKEA gray laminate with the metal effect edge; the island will be beech butcher block; the tile grout will be white. - robot: the ceiling is actually low vaulted so the 39" cabs wouldn't fit :( The house is an old rancher that I am trying to turn into a calm, sleek mid-century modern. The kitchen is 14' wide by 12' long and is open to the living room (which faces the cooktop wall). So the kitchen decor will effectively become part of the LR decor. I looked at a few zillion mosaic backsplashes on Houzz yesterday and they almost all have full tile from counter to cabinet. But...I must admit that some of them look *really* busy to me. I was originally thinking of a low backsplash just to add a bit of bling to the kitchen. If I do the full 19", will it be too much? Here's a pic of the tile I have chosen -- what do you think, wise GWers?

mnerg - thanks for the pics. Can't wait to see the finished kitchen. I NEVER would have guessed that your cabs are maple? They look "too nice!" Are they custom? I guess I tend to equate maple cabs with "stock" or "cheap" cabs, though yours certainly do not look that way at all. We had stock maple cabs from Home Depot for our first house. A 8x10 kitchen we "remodeled" ourselves for around $4K when we first got married. We replaced a metal sink base and 3 metal uppers with some and while the "new" look was a HUGE upgrade, they still screamed cheap, which they certainly were. Anyways... brickeyee - thanks for pointing out cheaper ways to find the metal. I figured there had to be a better way than the ones that come with the stove...but wasn't certain. I could still drill through for a pot filler if I wanted to, right? Sabjimata - thanks for your "flip side of the coin" POV. I do worry that someone who really fries a lot (like us) would make a big mess...I am not sure what we are doing for counters yet. I like the look of a soapstone without a lot of veining (matte, black, nice contrast with cherry cabs and lighter maple floors which we plan to use - also will work with the rest of our very open downstairs floor plan). Hubby equates soapstone with the "oily" stuff he used in chemistry lab and thinks the streakiness will drive me crazy. KD has also tried to steer me away from soapstone, saying he does nothing with it and it is not in our price range. We have zodiac now in our current house, and while I do (mostly) like the look (we have a black with some light speckling) and the ease of maintenance, we have chipped it in multiple spots and broken several cups/dishes on it as it is unbelievably hard. We only met with KD once, but he was trying to push us into granite. I need to do more research I guess...we haven't even broken ground yet, so I still have time. idrive65 - did yours come with the stove? I like the baskets. kitchenaddict - your idea of using a cookie sheet and subjimatas of using foil make sense. I can see myself needing to do something like that to keep it clean. Though I wonder if I clean it down right away, while still warm, it would clean off well enough. If they sheets from a metal fabricator or Home Depot are cheap enough, I guess they could be replaced every few years too, if needed. Carrie - every time I see your kitchen i drool over those counters. Beautiful!! Wow Shannon - that quilted look IS very nice! I really like it. Though I will have to look into it more, bc on quick glance it says it can't be used with warming shelves and I wonder if I could drill through it for a pot filler. But thanks for the link to get me started. Laura - love all the glass! Wish I had the balls (and OCD) to do that and keep it looking that nice! Though our plan does not call for a lot of uppers, so I have a feeling my cabs will be full! We are hoping to do 12inch cabs at the top of 42in (9ft ceil) and those will be glass I think. Thanks to the rest of you I did not specifically mention by name. It is very helpful to get your opinions and/or pics.

senator13; I loved your kitchen all of it. I have been looking for several years for a way to install an apron front sink in my existing laminate countertops. I'm not talking about the Ikea Djomso sink. I've been looking at the Kohler Dickinson. And I was so excited when I came across yours. How did you ensure that the the laminate edges that butt up against the sink are waterproof? Please share any secrets/tricks that made it possible. Also how is it after this amount of time? I have an extremely busy kitchen in a family of 8. Thank you so much, I look forward to hearing from you.

Hi erin. Yes the other wall is factored in to what we spent. We have two walls that will have the tile. The first one is shown in the pictures above. The second wall this one (this is the view looking into the kitchen from the opposite end). We're thinking it might be fun to have this as a feature wall, so we got enough tile to tile it all the way up. (The wall with the sliding glass doors will be replaced with a nanawall--one of those systems where you have long expanses of window walls that you can open up and expand your inside living space to the outside.