"I can’t remember the last time someone was loading or unloading the dishwasher while someone was prepping or cooking. I usually load after dinner has wrapped up and unload in the morning after it has cycled overnight." Are you the only person in your home? Then you probably won't have an issue with it when you're alone. Just don't run it while you're working in that space b/c it's not pleasant working over a running DW. If you're not the only person in your home, are you saying that every single person never tries to put a dirty dish in the DW while you're prepping? No one ever gets a drink of water or has a snack and tries to put the dirty dishes in the DW? Are you also saying you always unload the DW in the morning before any new dirty dishes are created (including from an evening snack)? You must have very a disciplined family and be very militant about it! I know that neither my DH nor I have time in the morning to unload the DW and since we both get home rather late, either we're finishing up the dishes from the night before or we're finally unloading the DW -- while someone else is preparing that night's dinner. I guess we have very different lives. (It was worse when the kids were still in elementary/middle/high school -- we had even less time!) . This is your Kitchen, we can just advise you of good/best practices and design...what you do with your Kitchen in the end is up to you. At least you're making an informed decision with as much information as possible and, if there are issues later (I hope there aren't for your sake), you won't be taken by surprise. Good luck with your project!.

Matt, I hate to be a Negative Nancy, but if you have sinking driveway slabs....you may need to do new concrete first. Check out the drainage from the roof, etc. to see if you've got an unwanted water feature somewhere. Any other material you may use on the patio (and stone would certainly be pretty) is going to need a solid subsurface. Yes, concrete. You'd probably need to demo the existing concrete before doing an overlay due to its instability and the fact that the drop from the doors to the patio is not very high. One concrete treatment that is common is washed aggregate. We did our driveway in this, and had the concrete tinted so it wasn't just gray with rocks poking out. And no, we did not tint it green. There is also no requirement that you do expansion joints in strictly rectangular fashion. We did a random pattern of curves instead, so you could make it look more designish (the new word I just made up) by using that sort of technique. As far as features go, give the kids what they want. They won't be there forever. You can do what you want later. :)

I really like the last forged piece that your posted. Did you look on the Cosanti web site? They sell accessories - bars and chains to extend the length, replacement fins and a wall bracket for $21.00 that can be mounted to a post or wall. https://cosanti.com/collections/parts-accessories/products/wall-bracket I found a photo of our bell when we first hung it from a tree at our new home. At our previous home it was in our family room for 20 years so it still has the burnished bronze. I mentioned on your other Cosanti thread that it's hanging in our garage while the house is power washed. Ours is nicknamed Fred and Ginger - this is Fred's side. From the top of the bar to the bottom of the fin it's nearly 3' and is one of Soleri's signed Sculptural Bell Mobiles. DH is thinking about mounting on the side of the house on the patio where we can view it from inside.

Ask your PB if you can look at some of their completed work and check out the plaster colors. We use products from CL Industries namely Hydrazzo, Krystalkrete, SunStone and SunStone Select. Many choices. Something in the gray range would work well with that tile. Use a light gray grout, not white.