xc60 posted: "Interior lighting and clear glass doors on the uppers of my double stacked cabinets. I wanted to display pretty things up there and light the cabinets up, but could never get the glass to look streak free. So I never turned on the lights or put anything up there. It was also expensive as the cabinet interior boxes had to be stained to match the exteriors. New house will also have double stacked cabinets, but solid fronts and no glass or lighting." This makes me feel better about our choice. Oh how I loved that look but my GC appealed to my practical side and disuaded me and I'm glad. He pointed out, not only do they have to look tidy, but only the first few inches of depth is viewable so you either lose the back half by leaving it empty or fill it up, negating the pretty display purpose. Onto the question - I never remember to turn on my UCL. It's almost too much light and I'm not doing that much detail work to need that much light. We put very little specialized cabinetry and that has been ok for us. I sometimes see things on here that I wish I had but only when I see them, not when I'm in my kitchen working, lol. I do wish our spices were better organized. That is probably my only beef with our new kitchen. Still looking for the perfect system to organize in our upper cabs. We like them where they are vs in a drawer, but we haven't found a way to organize them neatly.

Thanks a2 - You probably saw most of these in the original reveal but there were a few new ones. Any progress with Photoshop? I know you are going to have a lot of fun with it. Ginny20 - Thanks!! We've been surprised at how well it turned out. The nicer it gets though, the nicer we want it to be. I'm thinking about redoing a few things here and there.... Angie_DIY - wish you would and wish you were closer so I could come see your kitchen in person. Hi Renee, so glad you like the tile and kitchen. I always smile when I see your name and remember the help you gave me on my hose reel thread. (I really like the ones I ended up getting by the way). How goes your lovely garden? kristi-stl - I'm so sorry I didn't reply earlier. The Island is Cherry with the cordovan stain. What I'd do differently with the door is to have a flat outer edge (ours is raised). Also, the cordovan is pretty red. In hindsight, I was looking for a more traditional, honey cherry color. kateskouros - Thanks for the kind words! While it may not look like it, your gorgeous kitchen was one in my inspiration file. Obviously I am not very good at copying elements:) We are very much enjoying the layout and new space. seosmp - It's 8.75 inches from the wall to the start of the window trim; just about 12 to the actual window glass. The bumpout shelf was an afterthought. I'd wanted one but forgot to specify to our architect. When our builders started framing the window, I remembered. It was a fairly easy adjustment. I question sometimes whether I should have continued the bumpout at countertop height but in our case, the window is visible from the front of the house and I don't think I would have liked seeing objects on the countertop from outside (if that makes sense). I planned originally to have plants on the shelf but it looks a little messy from the outside so usually I leave it clean. I am planning on a Torquay shelf in this space at some point.

Any standard size basket strainer will work. The Kohler is a good quality one.

@Deana I totally get It! I have my drying dish rack in my sink so it actually ended up working out better for me. I wash on the left, I also have a small tv under my left cabinet to watch while I’m washing dishes and I put the clean dishes to the right. I do have to take out the rack and rinse out the entire sink since food does stay under the dish rack (which rests on top of the grid) but it’s not a big deal at all. It is also convenient having the drain on the side when I wash my dishes that have touched raw meat. Im a nut job when it comes to cross contamination so it worked out wonderfully. The grid also helped with that because the dish rack is resting on top and I carefully pour out the raw juices through the drain hole and no dirty water touches the grid/dish rack/dishes. Love everything about it. My sister has had the single bowl Franke for a few years now and she loves it! Have you seen the Rohl and the Franke in person? My husband and I made our decision after seeing them in person. Sales person said we can’t go wrong with either one but the look and feel of the Rohl definitely won us over.