Whew, you'll get lots of help with the colors question, don't worry. My question re: appliances. What color is your fridge, I didn't see it mentioned. Also, can you post a pic? I learned that is so helpful to everyone to be able to see what you've got so far. You know, the whole thousand words thing...

Rebar is essentially what you described in your post. It is a thin strip of metal, maybe about 3/4" wide. It can be steel, zinc, iron, a metal that does not bend/inflexible. When used outside the glass, the rebar is placed on its side and is soldered to the joints/solder seams. Rebar from these materials can be challenging to solder since they don't take solder well. You can tin a thin wire (like a paperclip) to soldered seams to hold wire in place and then twist the wire to the rebar. I couldn't see any metal rebar on the piece, which is why I suggested. Where is it located? Usually it is fairly easy to spot since, especially in your piece there are not a lot of straight lines. Rebar can be unsightly since often it goes across the entire piece (in a straight line) and can be visible to the naked eye. Depending on size of the piece, there are often several rebars added (all going in same direction). One can see them in a lot of old stained glass construction, like in church pieces, etc. The preferred method today is to plan reinforcement during design stage and hide it within two pieces of glass during construction stage. Did the fireplace screen come encased in metal channel framing around each piece? When screen was dismantled, was the metal frame around the pieces left in tack? I would think so, since each of the perimeter glass pieces are attached/soldered to the metal framing. Metal framing also helps keep the piece together. I would not recommend using plexiglass. It's too flexible, so I don't think it would not buy you anything. The glass piece is much heavier than the plexiglass. Following your thoughts, a better option than plexiglass, *might* be clear glass. Glass doesn't bend, per say, it just breaks. HTH!

We are completely ripping out the basement down to the studs so that won't be a problem at all. Maybe at the same time we could just rip the entire kitchen out and start from scratch as well. Maybe that would be not much more costly? I was hoping to rip out some of the wall, anyway, to open the space up into the great room. Of course I realized that there could well be wiring or pipes in that wall that I want gone. So maybe we just rip it all open and it will be easier to move pipes and wires that way, rather than having to try to keep some stuff in tact? I'd actually LOVE to rip it all out and just start over, but was fearing that would be more costly. But maybe not? Maybe it would be easier for a plumber and an electrician to move a few things when we're down to the studs?

Because you will be acting as your own General Contractor, you will need to know all the relevant "things" about each and every project. It will be like learning a whole new career so that you can live with a torn apart house for a month or more (always add 30% more "time" to your estimates and 30% more $$$ over estimate for unexpected events). You can remove the counters and backsplash first. You can then have someone come in and stain/paint the cabinets and doors (doors will be taken off-site and finished properly in a workshop and allowed to cure properly for the full "time" (can be weeks and weeks without doors/etc). The boxes will be dealt with "on-site". It is SUPER EASY for the cabinet professionals to do all the sanding/stripping/prepping/finishing when the counters are removed. While the boxes are exposed, you will go to the stone yard to pick your stone(s). You will then sign/date the stone and take pictures (remember: you have become the GC and are responsible for all steps that a GC would take). You will have the fabricators come into the house (boxes are still exposed) and have them take measurements (make sure you are on site and make sure that they use a LASER to do the measurements). You will then follow up with the fabricator and VIEW the slab(s) with the LAYOUT TEMPLATE in place. You will APPROVE all the 'cut' placements (ie. where the veins will sit when installed). And then sign/photograph the slab prior to being cut. You can have the floors demolished and the subfloor left exposed sometime BEFORE the cabinets are finished...thus reducing the possible damage to the freshly finished cabs because of the jack hammer removing tile, etc. You will allow the cabinetry guys to finish. Once they are finished, you can then allow the counter tops to be installed. You will then INSPECT the installed product and before anything else is done, you will sign-off on the project (you need to inspect seams which means you have to be EDUCATED in seams and know what you are looking for, industry standards, etc). Once this is done, you can then look forward to adding a backsplash either now or at a later date. Backsplashes can come as last or second to last...depending on how your decision making has been going. I like to see the floors finished LAST. The subfloor prep for the floors can be done BEFORE the cabinets are finished or AFTER. It all depends on the preferences of the cabinet refinishers. Some are picky about dust on their newly finished cabinets, others are not. Once the subfloors have been prepped, you can bring in the tile setter. At this point, the tile setter should be the only professional on the job site. S/he can also be the person to deal with the backsplash...and s/he can decide on timing. Some will do it while waiting for thinset to dry, others will do it first, and others last. Whew. Fun isn't it? If you are new at this, I suggest you sit down with ALL of your trades and ask their opinions of how THEY prefer to see things done. Again, this is where YOU have to understand the business of General Contractor. Of course, a well trained Interior Designer can act as Project Manager as well as design inspiration. Everything listed above becomes the headache of the Designer, and not you. Ask yourself if you have the time to deal with about a MONTH (could be as much as 2 months if your trades are busy or things are "out of stock" etc, etc, etc.) of running around and "inspecting" things and making "on the fly" decisions and be able to run to the space to deal with issues that WILL arise. Not to mention the fun of waiting for trades who have been delayed on another project and can't get to your site for another 3-6 weeks. You will need a back-up plan for that.