I want to thank you all for participating in my Round Robin. I hope you all had fun. Maybe we can do it again sometime. I know I have enjoyed reading what everyone was receiving. Treasa, Fedex ground probably would have been cheaper than US mail. Diene, Yes fedex "ground" takes about the same amount of time as Parcel post...but most times costs less if shipped from a fedex station (not a mail boxes etc type location) and the tracking on fedex is much better and the insurance does not cost anything. Where USPS mail charges for both tracking and insurance. FederalExpress (not ground) is really fast but costs much more. I love the new USPS flat rate boxes. A specially marked flat rate box is only 7.50 priority. Cant beat those prices.

I had DuraCeramic (grouted) installed in 2007. They removed the old vinyl floor and put down lauan (spelling?) underlayment. So seven years later, it still looks quite good except ... there are a few tiles that have hairline cracks (not very noticeable) and some tiles have been damaged by having things dropped on them. (I dropped one of those metal, retractable measuring tapes on it the other day and it left a dent.) Also, I don't find it especially easy to clean, compared to my old vinyl floor. If you get something like black heel marks, it requires vigorous scrubbing with a scrub sponge. I think the cost was comparable to having ceramic tile installed. In spite of those negatives, I am still happy with the look and would probably do it again.

Used/antique Iranian rugs on ebay. A real bargain bin, if your eye can sort through the real garbage. This one was about $300 with freight. Odd-size rugs like this one are bigger bargains, this is 5x11. Casey

Too early to tell but the one piece of advice I have clung to, I got it out of some kitchen magazine, is that less expensive materials can look much more expensive when they are installed well. I always remember this kitchen (see link) not for its' soapstone counters or beautiful lacquer\painted off-white cabinets which are lovely (and important to the overall effect of the room) but for that composite vinyl tile floor. The custom pattern, the great colours it's fantastic and I am sure many have spent more than 20 times as much on their floor to not achieve 1\2 the impact. What I take from that is while $$$ dictate that you may have to compromise on materials to stay on budget you don't have to lower your standards in terms of the quality of the design and workmanship that goes into the kitchen your working on. One of the reason I chose the box store I did is because the installer is excellent and he gets paid the same to install my stock "Instant Kitchen" as he does someone elses Kraftmaid semi-custom "Venicia" kitchen that cost 4 times as much. So I suppose you could say that I saved on the cabs and splurged on the labour. Time will tell if it was a smart trade off or not. Here is a link that might be useful: pics of mjsmama's kitchen