THANK YOU so much for all the wonderful feedback! I'm sorry I've dropped off the face of the earth but btwn going back to work after 2 weeks off and having a sick kid at home I feel like I've been hit by a fast moving train... I wish I knew how to hyperlink back to specific people so I can respond directly but I will try to address a few questions that I've seen! Table -- we definitely had to replace that sucker! It was Pottery Barn circa the mid-90's, and was very "well loved"!! We did have a smart idea that actually my PAINTER suggested -- we painted it (the same color as the island, b/c we had a lot of it left over and loved the color - Black Fox), and moved it up to our playroom to use as a game table (took the leaves out). It looks like a million bucks, and it's so nice to be able to reuse it! I do love our new table (which was the last thing to arrive, just last week!). I definitely wanted round so we had more space to navigate, but we were torn btwn 60 and 54"... Went with the smaller one which is perfect for five, but might be tight for more people! But, I do think any bigger would have been a little crowded down at that end of the room. I had to keep reminding myself to think about our day to day needs as opposed to much more infrequent entertaining or hosting situations. Day to day it is perfect!! And yes we did just keep our existing chairs and reupholster. Tried to tie in a couple of "pop" colors (turquoise and orange) so it was not so monotone. We also had considered painting the chairs to match the table more closely, but I like the contrast of the wood! Here is a close up picture (with one chair removed): Hutch -- definitely was a great idea to hide clutter! Funny story: My 11 yr old took one look at it once the glass was installed and was horrified! "Mommy did you actually PAY for it to look that way? It's all spotty!" :) Very funny to see things through the eyes of a child!! Here's a close up of the mirror: Oven/Range -- I hope I love my griddle some day! I'm really intimidated by it. I actually bought steaks to make on it tonight. I wish I could find a griddle cookbook!! Please lmk if anyone knows of such a thing! I need to just keep trying and hopefully the love will grow... :) My husband uses it for breakfasts but that's about it so far! Outlets - we did include just one pair of outlets at the hutch, and tbh we have not really plugged anything in except the phone. So we have an outlet and a phone connection in there. Otherwise, we put an outlet on each end of the island (facing the window wall). We do not have any outlets on the other side (facing the pantry wall), which sometimes is annoying but mostly I would use it for my laptop, and I can just reach around. Aesthetically it would not have been the best. Also, for some reason my GC was very down on installing plug mold under the cabinets. He did not want to put it in, and I did not want outlets on the backsplash. Ultimately he put regular 2-gang outlets (?) up under the lip of the cabinets, mounted against the bottom of each cabinet -- genius idea. So now I have two plugs (if that makes sense) under each of the three cabinets. Definitely more than I need! And we put a couple of outlets in the coffee bar, and had a couple on the walls. So far so good! Floors - One more thing I'm really glad we did while we were redoing the floors, which I never would have thought of, is to replace our old metal A/C registers with wood ones that are flush with the floor. My GC suggested it, and I think they were like $10 a piece -- another genius idea!! They look SO great compared to the old ones! I love the small updates that end up making a big difference! Microwave - this was a tough decision as well. We were going to put it in the island, but I was worried about it being too crowded wherever it went. We really only use it for popcorn and an occasional reheat. It's definitely not a super convenient location, but I thought it was the lesser of two evils! (ie in the way, or out of the way!!). It is also nice to be able to close those doors and not look at it, too. TV over fridge -- someone on this site gave me that suggestion, literally at the very last minute, and I'm really glad we did it! Funnily enough, my husband wanted to put it between the two windows by the table, but then I realized we would not be able to see it b/c of the light fixture. So then he wanted to put in recessed cans, which I briefly considered, but I really like having a hanging fixture there. So over the Refrigerator it went. Here is a picture of it taken from the family room with the TV cabinet open. A great side benefit, which we did not plan for, is that apparently my husband can sit on the sofa and watch two football games at once, since we arched that doorway -- he can clearly see it from the other room! While I'm at it, here is a pic of the kitchen from the Dining Room (other doorway). I was hesitant to put the oven against the wall b/c this is literally the view you have as you walk into my front door -- you can see through the dining room and into the kitchen. But, I figured, it's a beautiful appliance, and at some point you just have to make the best decision you can with what you have. It was either on the island (I was not crazy about having a ceiling-mounted hood), or against the wall, so the wall is where it ended up. Last thing -- this is pretty much off topic, but I wanted to share my favorite "score" during our reno!! Unfortunately we had some scope creep, and since we were redoing the floors, we ended up redoing a couple of bathrooms and the laundry room - partially... Husband did not want to rip and replace cabinets b/c after all it's just a laundry room! So we kept the boxes, replaced the ugly doors, repainted inside and out, installed new floor tile that we found at Home Depot (previously had been linoleum), got new sink/faucet, and then I was left with what to do about countertops. I looked and looked at builder-grade granite, but it was all speckly and just not what I wanted. There were so many great options but all were more than I wanted to spend. One day at Home Depot I happened upon the laminate area, and lo and behold, there was a laminate in the SAME PATTERN as my quartzite - Mother of Pearl! I ended up spending $325 on the countertops, which I think look AWESOME, and coordinate w/the rest of the house really well! I'm afraid that if there is such a thing as over sharing, I crossed that boundary LONG ago... Sorry for such a long post!!!!!! Oh and the pig - I do love that guy! He is a pitcher actually. Still need to do some work on "accessorizing" a rather monotone kitchen... I admit that I had to google towel pig and now I must try to find one!!! :)

Awesome remodel! I had to go back and forth a few times to see what changed where.. lol. The fridge wall is much more usable and you added a wall dividing what I think is the living room, which really made a nice eating area and the brightness is so much better in there. Very nice!

mrspete - I love the cooktop on the range but despise the ovens. It's a Maytag Gemini we purchased in about 2012. I had an older (1990's?) Gemini double oven in my last house and loved it (which is why I bought this one), but I can't get it to bake evenly and it sucks at preheating. It will say it's preheated, then I'll insert food to cook or bake and then it says it's preheating again and it never gets back up to full temp, and then cooks/bakes unevenly and burns the bottom of everything. I'm pretty disappointed with it. If you can find a model that works well, the top smaller oven is super convenient. If I was a better baker, I think I'd have to swap it out - but this week I decided to treat myself to an Instant Pot instead...I hear it makes great cheesecake :) My cabinet guy wasn't too happy with my choice of cabinets over the fridge. I wanted the top cabinets to all be the same depth, but he insisted that I wouldn't reach them if they didn't line up with the front of the fridge. I'm not even 5' tall and told him all fridge cabinets are useless to me - even if they do line up with fridge. Also, my parents recently had to hack into their over-fridge cabinets to install a new fridge, so I wanted to leave some space to update the fridge later. I can reach the baskets and use them a lot for hauling meals out to the field. Ian Mac - laminate floors were from Lumber Liquidators: Warm Springs Chestnut Joe - Nice acreages are tough to find in our area, so when we found a house with a decent foundation and shelterbelt, we grabbed it. 3 weeks later we got hit by a tornado and it wiped out most of the outbuildings and trees, but the tank of a house didn't move - must've been the weight of all the plaster with 97 coats of paint built up on the walls over the years? Living through the reno felt a lot like living through The Money Pit movie. The mudroom/laundry and garage additions were worth the pain though! Here's some before/after pics: Iowacommute - here's a couple of closeups of the sink - the first one is with a few weeks of daily use grime, the second one is after I scrubbed it for a couple mins with a Scotchbrite. Wilsonart recommends using Ajax too, I use that about once a month and it really helps to spiff it up. I'm not super happy with the sink, it was recommended by our cabinet maker as the only option for an "undermount" (integrated) with Formica, but it's kind of a pain to keep clean and I've noticed some small cracks starting in the corners and around the drain. When I brought it up to kitchen guy, he lectured me for not using a grid in the bottom, I suppose that would help. I don't remember the name of the color of this sink, but it's not the white one... since our cabinet doors were Pearl, we went with the offwhite sink. Before cleaning: After cleaning: Cracks :(

@ahiastate without meaning to offend anyone, I think there is a bit of stone snobbery that closes eyes to really knowing today’s Corian products. My builder would be one of those with that bias. Stone is truly beautiful to look at, but I don’t like the busyness and care, and the cold hard surfaces. My daughter has it. I also have no visible seams (there are two). There is nothing wrong with loving stone (or quartz) and there is nothing wrong with loving Corian. Personal preference. My husband used a red permanent marker to leave me a note on a thin paper napkin yesterday. It bled through in a spot on my corian cutting board. I didn’t panic for a moment. It took me less than 5 seconds to be rid of it. Turmeric? Bring it on. I just don’t whack things on the edge or put heat on it. It is widely used in commercial settings, so maybe you are looking in the wrong places. The Corian website will show if you have fabricators in your area. Big Box fabricators have an interest in keeping their jobs, and all Corian fabricators have to be trained by Corian. That may be one reason it’s hard to find. Many old fabricators chose to leave it rather than be retrained when it was required. And note, I have the new product that just came out in 2018.