Hi craftylady, Nice looking kitchen indeed. I thought I asked a question yesterday, but don't see it up there. Oh well. Anyways, it looks like you raised your cabinets above standard height based on the height of the stove and dishwasher. Is this just because of the lack of floor at the moment or was that planned? If planned, how do you plan on dealing with the different heights (countertop to stove etc...)? My wife and I are tall and are considering this at the moment. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks, Dan

Yes, I believe they are a fad, and I'll tell you why. They're virtually impossible to screen and recoat. That's basic maintainence every 5-10 years. You bring in a heavy duty buffer and "rough up" the floors and then reapply a finish coat. With hand scraped, you have to do all of the screening by hand if you're going to get "down in the hollows" as well as hit the high points. That's a lot more maintainence intensive, as well as expensive. If you don't do the screen and recoat, and now you have to refinish, then you have to machine sand, although I suppose you could pay exhorbitantly for someone to hand sand the whole floor. Sanding will take off the high spots and even the flooring out. That hand scraped look will be gone. They'll be flat and smooth--which was the goal of most of our forefathers who put in wood floors. Rustic plank floors weren't meant for upscale homes. THose were workman's homes. They were just waxed cheap pine boards that if they were lucky got stripped and rewaxed every couple of years. Nice wood floors in more upscale homes, such as oak or mahogany, were sanded smooth, shellaced, and waxed, and kept buffed to a high shine by paid help. It's a peculiar reversal of status to have hand scraped and rustic floors now rather than smooth high shine ones. It's much like during the old days when pale skin was considered beautiful and desirable by the elite and if you had a tan, that mean that you had to work outside and thus were of a lower social status. Then that reversed, and the social elite were the only ones who had the leisure and money to travel to exotic locations to acquire a tan, and the pale folks were the ones in the factories out of the sun.

Sorry I missed the questions and thanks for bumping. Marble - It was sold to me as carerra (I never know how to spell it!), but I've been told that's not it, given that its coloring is primarily white and not gray. It has gray and brown veining. Whatever it is, I love it. It is 3cm. It's holding up well, but is developing the patina I expected. We weren't careful on moving day and big, heavy boxes full of kitchen supplies were dragged across the marble (my parents did it; how could I yell, "not on my marble!" when they were so graciously helping us move in?) and there are places where you can see drag marks when the light hits it just so. And DH allowed the A/V installer to use the island top as his work station one day; it's pretty dinged up where he was working. Hubby's response, "You wanted it to have a patina." Well, yes, but not intentionally! No staining yet; a couple of etch marks, but nothing drastic. The biggest shock is that I have a crack in the marble, where I took a heavy stock pot full of a double batch of chili off the Berta, turned around & plopped it on the marble. I don't know if it was the heat, the weight, or both, but CRACK! It's about four inches long running into the marble from the edge. Geez! I don't think marble is normally susceptible to cracking, so I don't know why mine did. Sharp Micro Drawer - We love it. It's the best micro I've had and it's very convenient for us under the counter, though my parents' first comment was , "You know your kids someday will be cooking their toys." Thank you; that's why it has a kid lock. I purchased it online from one of the appliance places that is discussed with frequency on the appliance forum. I don't remember which one ... just who ever had the best price at the time. I would suggest getting the manual open and close. We went with the style that you have to push the button to open and close. That's not intuiative, especially for guests who always grab for the handle. Sink to Fridge - I don't know the measurement offhand and I'm writing from work (shhhh!) so can't run and measure. It doesn't feel cramped to me. There have been times, though, (i.e., Thanksgiving) when I've had too many dirty dishes that I wanted to wash by hand that just didn't fit in that space, so I used the island behind me. Day-to-day it is plenty of room. DH has asked numerous times if he can set up the coffee maker in that space (since it's right next to the fridge, which is right next to the pantry). It would be a very convenient place for the coffeemaker, but I need that space free. The fridge is counterdepth. It's a GE Profile. Love the fridge. We continue to enjoy the kitchen immensely and are cooking more than we ever have!

Final thoughts on this carpet: very pretty and much softer under foot than I expected. I could not clean this carpet without it “distorting” the loops. It was obvious I had cleaned it even if I could get the stain out. I ended up with Shaw Tranquil Spirit which I like the look of better and I can clean without issues. Not nearly as soft, but since we have an old cat we need to be able to fully clean the carpet.