Oh the culling of one's books thread. How many variations of this topic have we had, and almost all with the same results. If one is a bibliophile, it's really, REALLY hard to part with those books on the shelf. Josh, how could you get rid of James/Jan Morris? His trilogy (written when he was James) on the British Empire will be in my library forever. I'm pretty brutal about the fiction I keep. If a novel doesn't really speak to me, out it goes into the boxes that go either to the library's used book store or into the boxes of book that I'll donate to the AAUW used book sale this fall. My downfall is the noon-fiction. Gardening books cascading off the shelves & ditto for the books on history. And yes, all this information (or most of it) is on-line, but I know which book it's in so it's easier for me to take it off the shelf than to wade through 1,000 Google search results. Right now I've gotten hooked on a series called The Modern Library Food - a set of books edited by Ruth Reichl that cover all things gastronomic. I just finished Endless Feasts a collection of 60 years of writing about food from Gourmet magazine & now am into Remembrance of Things Paris which is a ditto only covering that magazines essays about food in France. It's a little bit of fantasy: how to have the perfect French christening party (with recipes), the utter joy that was the old Les Halles market, and little reminders about inflation when I read that a dinner check at Maxim's in 1947 was $16.00.

I use American Express for all major purchases because they are so good at resolving disputes in favor of the consumer. If you really want to try to get out of the contract, then you should write a nice but firm letter to the company today. Do it today, because some states allow you to rescind a home improvement related contract within a certain time period (it could be 72 hours or less, if your state has such a law). Send it via both fax and certified mail so you have proof of how soon after you ordered the product you canceled it. (The fax guarantees they receive it today, but the formality of certified mail sometimes carries more weight.) I would use language like the following: "Dear _______: As you know from our conversation in your store this morning, I am very concerned that the Kashmir White granite I ordered from your company will be too susceptible to staining to use as kitchen counters. I appreciate that you gave me a sample of sealed Kashmir White to take home to test. I took the sample home and promptly tested it with food samples. Unfortunately, certain food products stained the sample easily; therefore, the product is not suitable for my stated intended use as kitchen counters. As I told you this morning, I would like to cancel the contract for Kashmir White counters and request that you reverse the charge for my $________ deposit. Because I am canceling within 48 hours [change time period if necessary] and before any templating or other work has been performed, I believe you should return my entire deposit." If you have to dispute the charge with Mastercard, the letter and proof of when it was mailed and faxed may help your case. The letter establishes that you promptly notified the merchant that the product would not be suitable for your intended use before the merchant did any work, and you had the slab on reserve for a very short period of time, so the merchant is not harmed by your cancellation. There is no guarantee this will work, but it is what I would do. Good luck.

We here online can't pick your color because our monitors are not calibrated to your house. Additionally, some folks here prefer a paint that contrasts, and some like one that blends with the tile. What do YOU prefer? It's your house and you have to live with it and not all us anonymous folks online. :) And even look at the different photos you posted and how the color of the cabinet looks different in each photo! Live with all the samples for several days being sure to see it in all different lights and then choose. If you have a trusted friend who can come over, that would be a better way to do it because that friend will be seeing it in real life and not on a computer monitor.

Hanging that painting in the dining space is an interesting idea. The dining space is right off the living space, it's just one long wall. But it just might be my solution if I can hang it high enough so as not to have the dining table take away from the view of the painting. The dining table is a glass top rectangle with a marble block base. I plan on finding low back dining chairs (white & wood) and adding a bench for sitting closest to the wall. How does that sound?