I love #1 and that cute little girl! Please post picture of your kitchen when the cabinets are installed since I want to see Polar White inset cabinets in another kitchen and not just the show room. I only saw one other poster with the Polar white. I still have not given up yet on the Shiloh Inset Cabinets that I love and if I can save enough for them, then I am not sure between the Polar White and the Soft White. In the showroom the Polar White seemed to be a touch darker than BM Cloud White. In pictures, it seems to white. I loved it in the show room.

twogirls -- keep breathing......you're getting there and it is all going to be gorgeous! I so remember the grip of my stomach for days when I was in this decision making phase and it can seem like agony, but......there is light at the end of the tunnel for you. In an attempt to re-cap: You are keeping your chosen soapstone slab and will oil it. Have you done that and does it change the color of the slab that you are posting pics of much? Does it go more green or more black once oiled? New marble slab - you are attracted to but worried that no one else is. You mentioned that the black may tone to grey when honed -- I would look at a sample of that honed, I'm not thinking that honing will significantly change the color and it will still be black, just not shiny, but I'm certainly no expert on that! #2 - I don't hear you "loving" this one much, but only tolerating it b/c it is calmer looking.....please LOVE, LOVE, LOVE what you ultimately choose. #3 - You like the strong veining on this but are worried that the white is too white with your cabinets. I agree with others that if the slabs are at the same yard, they should be able to put them next to each other for you. Also, could you take a cabinet door sample, butcher block sample, etc. with you and set these with each of the choices to see which overall combination you like the best? I know that it really helped me when I did this, I stopped considering each element individually and it was much easier for me to visualize the whole. I ended up with 1st and 2nd choice slabs of marble, leaning heavily toward 1st choice. As it turns out that one didn't work and I was heartbroken to have to go to my 2nd choice. But.....it was truly divine intervention, b/c once the kitchen came together, the slab that went in was truly the "right" one and I love it now. Hang in there, deep breath, glass of wine and remind yourself what a wonderful job you have done on other decisions......this one will work out, too.

Would try and discourage you from installing flagstone, especially with mortar, over a patio that is cracked and separated. If you mortar and the crack widens or deepens it will cause separation of the flagstone above. If you mortar or glue just the edges and set the middle in sand it may work for a short time but will almost assuredly disappoint you later, with the same 1/4 section that is now sunken, progressing in its failure. The 'best practice' in this situation is to fix the underlying problem which is the existing patio itself. Fixing probably means removing the patio and re-pouring a new one before you would apply any material topically. Good luck!

We did something similar. We didn't lay tile, and although the patio was your typical small one that comes with most houses, we wanted a much larger area attached to it. There was also a sidewalk we had to incorporate into the design. No concrete matched any concrete due to stains and age differences. We hired someone to pour a new concrete patio next to the existing sidewalk and old patio. Then someone else came and painted all the concrete light gray, laid strips of tape to form stones, used 3 colors of stain, lifted the tape, sealed it all, and it is gorgeous! One big flat patio! Our job totaled $10,000 here in Southern California. Here is the ugly stained patio and the sidewalkHere it is after the work And here is the long view of the entire thing: