I only bought Toto toilets for my bath redos since my sinks were to be undermount in granite. My contractor did notice a large scratch on the side of one of the tanks similar to what you describe: under the glaze. He asked if we wanted to bring it back to the local dealer I got it through, but since it was (luckily) on the side facing the vanity, the shadows don't make it noticeable, and since we had only one working toilet at the time, we just accepted it. If the 6" long scratch was on the front of the tank, I would have taken it back. I noticed that both toilets were made in Indonesia. Let's hope Toto's quality won't be diluted by this global manufacturing.

My husband was against a white kitchen, because it shows dirt more than any other color. Would that rationale work for yours? You could also do your uppers in white and your lowers in the pearl gray. I see a disconnect between the shapes and sizes of your cabinets and what your dream kitchens look like. With that beautiful window that goes to the ceiling, I can see why other posters want you to move your upper cabinets up. That would complement the window and feel complete. Right now, the upper cabinets are like a band of brown around the perimeter of your kitchen. But moving the cabs up won't be very practical that high, unless you and your husband play for the NBA: You will need a stool to reach them. I think rather than uniformly moving the cabinets, you should customize them. 1. Take down the uppers on both sides of the window and next to the refrigerator. (Loss of 5 upper cabinets) 2. ReUSE the double-door cabinet currently to the left of the window over to the left of the refrigerator (now you've only lost 3 upper cabinets). 3. If you do want more storage, have a glass door cabinet made. Based on your dream pix, I suspect you are yearning for a china cabinet that goes down to counter height. One cabinet like that is $1-2k? by a local cabinet maker. You may have to hunt for him. 4. Open shelves are a more economical alternative. I myself took off half the cabinets that go over my peninsula. I had a cabinet with glass doors on both sides built for the other half. It was big change, and yet I didn't miss the cabinets I took out. Unless you have an upper lazy susan, I suspect that corner cab is deep and hard to use, anyway. Removing those cabinets will give more focus on your window, your one Victorian detail, and open up the kitchen. Together with your paint color, it will all look more true to the house and less show-room. Your other option would be to keep the existing cabinets, but maybe take off some of the doors. Replace one set with glass doors. Maybe install a wine rack or display shelves in another one. It would be ideal if you could remove the backsplash. It sounds like your walls will need a bit of patching and smoothing before tile installation anyway, so this would just be a little more area to cover. Regarding the chips in your granite, some edge details are more prone to chipping than others, and especially so around the sink, where pans and dishes keep hitting against that edge. So, the install itself may have been perfectly good; just a poor decision on that sink edge. Good luck!

We just went through this with our white appliances which are different brands for our new cabinets. It is impossible to get an exact match. It will be a compromise. Best to get paint samples and at least an 8X10 cardboard canvas from a crafts store. We created 7 samples from all the whites we tried and then narrowed it down. You have to look at the samples at different time of the day, sunny days, cloudy days for a good results. Good luck as there are so many shades of white that fall either on the cooler side or warmer side. The cooler side is where you want to be.

Pussywillow SW