Jacqueline5, thanks for posting the color. I thought it might be Revere Pewter. I was going to RP with my bathroom but thought it might read too dark, in my low light. So I was going to use it in a sitting room, but decided against it and used something else. I actually have a gallon on hand. I dislike the color I ended up using. I am thinking of using the gallon of RP I have to paint up a sample board, and see how it looks in there. The sitting room has a fair amount of west light. I don't know what's going on, but I keep seeing pink in my colors and I was afraid that the Revere Pewter would have a pink cast too. I'm glad to hear you say that it is olive. I love green and blues. Your counter is beautifully installed. Is it 2cm? It looks like it is at the sink. If it is they did a terrific outer edge. The edge must have been mitered, right? I see the section of the stone from where the counter was taken. I love it.

Don't get me wrong, we love wood floors. But 10 years later they look bad...very BAD. I mean it's embarrassing to have people over it's so bad. It just seems a shame to put something in that 10 years later will require my parents to move all the furniture out of their house again so that the floors can be refinished! We definitely like the marble floors with minimal veining - it's way too much for us to have all those gray carrara stripes going in all directions. She actually was thinking we'd have to get the heated flooring. I guess we just need to look for a warmer grayish floor that won't clash with the carrara counters. We also thought of marble floors in the kitchen and wood everywhere else? It's a total open floor plan, though, so we would need nice transitions. Anyone ever used these metal edges you see in the tile stores (link posted below)? I just held the marble tile up to the store display...you have to imagine a matching wood floor on the other side. PS - How do I paste in an actual photo? The instructions/help indicate there is supposed to be a "browse" button on the "preview" step of posting my message. Am I blind? I don't see anything indicating posting a photo when I preview... Here is a link that might be useful: metal edging

Hi Everyone, Thank you all for your very wonderful and positive postings! I've appreciated your suggestions too! Yes, it is a wonder when I wake up and see it in the morning sun, and yes, we finally are getting some sun up here in the NW - it's been a long winter! You all have made me feel better about spending the extra money for this material. We had no idea when we picked it that it was 4 to 5 times the cost of Carrara material only! But, my husband and I both knew we had found a special lot and when we received the pricing back, he was the one to say -"we need to go for it!" In his mind, he felt we would be crazy to spend less money and think about what was missing (what could have been) every time we walk into the kitchen. We plan on staying here at least until we retire and probably longer, so we could pro-rate it in our minds. taliaferro, egganddart49 - As for the origins of the stone, here's what I know from the professionals who've worked with me on this project and what I can remember from Arch History.... Wikipedia "Carrara is a city in the province of Massa-Carrara (Tuscany, Italy), famous for the white or blue-gray marble quarried there." I was told that Calacatta comes from one particular mountain and that the Gold is quarried in one area and the Classic in another. The Classic is what was used for the most famous of the "white" Roman statues. It typically has a white background with black and grey veining. Mine has a little more of the gold-brown tones and the fabricator thinks through the years the Gold and Classic quarries are getting a little closer to each other. It is not from the same quarry as Carrara - it has the pale blue-grey background that the Wikipedi definition mentions - and that was why we spent the extra $ for the Calacatta. mustbnuts - I think we may have found a hardware solution, but I'm going out today to confirm. The finish we selected is called old silver and it looks like a well used piece of silver with a bit of tarnish. As soon as I know, I will post a picture. Claybabe - "next to it" syndrome, understand that, we lived it for 16 years at our old house - and, I'm in the business! No, we actually have the rest of the main floor done. The kitchen was the last piece after moving here three years ago. I was really only referring to some furniture in the family room that is a mishmash of a couple new pieces with leftovers from our last house. The remodeling "c'est fini" on the main floor, but I need to spend some money on the interior goods. Oofasis - Yes, I will post photos of the stained cabinets soon. I have some good points racked up with a client of mine who is a prof. photographer and he is going to shoot the kitchen when done. Oofasis, jkom51, amanda-t - I have selected the backsplash, even before the slab and we are going to stick to it. It is a Thassos (white sparkly marble) 3" x 6" brick with beveled edge. http://www.pentalonline.com/swatch/akdo/akdo.html They also carry it in Calacatta, but we want the focus to stay on the counters and cabinets. It will be clean and simple. RMKitchen - Brooke, are you feeling better yet? Hope so, 5 days is too long! Thanks for your comments, as always! If you ever make it out to the Seattle area, you are welcome in my kitchen anytime! rachelen - We got rid of our nook - that's where the bay window is, they were tall windows and we raised them up to counter depth. I love looking out at the backyard instead of the front while I'm at the sink. The overall dimensions are about 12' x 19'6" and it's wonderful! The island is plenty of casual dining area for us and our dining room is really going to benefit from being used more - regular weekday dinners are now going to be in the the dining room - fancy that! lagrant - LMAO - kitchen porn, now there's a potential thread title for you! The cabinets came from Canyon Creek in Monroe, WA. They have grown to a fairly large company and may be available in other locations. We also looked at Omega and KitchenCraft, but I also didn't care for their distressed black look and the charcoal stain was too transparent for what we wanted. The Canyon Creek is an ebony stain on maple and is available in a solid body stain with satin finish, burnished and distressed. In the end, we chose to go with the burnished, which is almost solid black, but a small amount of wipe through on the last coat of stain. We figured it would be a bit more forgiving of dings - we do not and will not live in a museum! The only other option we considered was a custom paint grade cabinet and painting them ourselves - my husband has some history of painting and we did it before at our last house, first painted the kitchen white - then 9 years later painted them ruby red. But, we really didn't want to take on that project if we could avoid it! kitchenkelly, houseful,jaedwards, trudymom, lnersesian, marthvila (plain brown paper wrapper - LOL), cat-mom, loves2cook4six, napagirl, nuccia, susan4664 : Thanks all of the kind words! You can't know how many of your posts on other threads has helped me make decisions on my own kitchen !

I was very confused as well between all he different white options but what I learned is that Quartz is a man made product and honestly it looks to me like Corian. Quartzite is a natural made real stone and very different because its apparently a kind of more durable marble and its so beautiful it looks like sparkly crushed glass. Yes quartz is sparkly but again quartz is not in any way quartzite but people use the two names interchangeably when they are as different as night and day. Quartz its not nearly as desirable or expensive or rare or unique.Quartz is ore durable and has no maintenance at all so thats good but for me i wouldn't put something inn that looks like fake stone. I ended up getting Carerra marble because I wanted something very classic however I am being careful by having it sealed regularly and not putting things down without a coaster and always trying to protect it. Its worth it to me. Also look at Calcutta marble in my opinion its so gorgeous but my husband was afraid id get tired of it like I'm tired of my ugly green granite I put in 8 years ago and now am changing in my kitchen, Don't get quartz get quartzite or marble it will make your counters beautiful and chic and trendy and perfect. Good Luck!!!!!