I second that motion!!

Good Morning Kind People! Thank you both so much for thinking of us. That feels great.

Our countertops will be installed Monday (3/31), and I'm pleased. I like seeing progress! (Our kitchen was demoed 1/2 with the entrance to the dining room moved down the wall -- nothing structural. Our cabinetmaker is genuinely nonplussed as to why we're frustrated with the "speed" at which the kitchen is going. ??? I'm pretty sure it's the end of March and not a single cabinet has yet been fitted with its innards [dividers, etc.]. There were nearly three weeks there where neither he nor his installer were in our space it just was vacant. Work was being done by others elsewhere, but nothing in the kitchen.) We'll have three petite runnels to the left of the sink (for draining produce) and a dishdrain to the right (for holding our dishrack). Those took a little time. The backsplash (which will also be the marble slab) will be installed Wednesday. You can bet I'll post some pictures! I hope it makes me smile, because right now that kitchen looks like a graveyard of white cabinet boxes -- no doors / drawer fronts installed until after the countertops. I like the wall color, though (a grey-blue, or a blue-grey), and the wainscoting looks tremendous!

The interior was painted over the past fortnight, so that's fun to see, although I'm not 100% about the color we (okay, I) chose for the family room -- looks kinda fleshy. I'll wait until after we've moved furniture back in before making any decisions. They'll be back, though: I've already used a mile of blue tape highlighting their missed spots. Starting 4/7 (supposedly ...) we'll decamp so the floors can be refinished (and finished in the kitchen, as we had hardwood installed there). Just about a year ago, before we moved in, we had hardwood put throughout the main level as well as wood treads on the stairs: the floor guys did a beautiful job with installation but we had a severe misunderstanding about the color. I guess it turned out for the best because the floors have been abused during this process so now we'll have fresh floors to go with our fresh house! Now where can I get a fresh me?

We'll be staying in a local suite-hotel, and I took my children in with me to make the reservation. (It's across the street from the post office, so it was a spur-of-the-moment visit.) They were really nice and gave me an open-ended reservation (in case the floor project takes longer than a week) but with a fixed-reservation price. Phew! Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a full kitchen and daily housekeeping (they even do the dishes) sounds kinda like a holiday!

The schedule is a bit farchadat, though, because the floors were supposed to be the v. last thing done and my lay-person's eye can see a cavalcade of things yet to do. It is what it is. On the bright side (and it is v. bright!), with the floors done we can have a) our appliances installed and b) our furniture moved back in. Boy-oh-boy will it be nice to live in our house again!

Thank you for asking after my Little Angel. He is getting better and better at standing on his own (still for mere seconds); yesterday was an exceptionally fine day so he and I were in the backyard with his puppy, and he was, all by himself, taking a step between the ottoman and my knee (which was bent as I was sitting on a chair). I'd say eight times out of ten he went ker-plop and landed on his bottom, but he kept trying, never got discouraged. I really think he is a phenom, because I would've gotten sooo frustrated. And he's so jolly, too!

I think that whole incorrect slab issue concomitant to Ruffin standing / taking a step was an enormous gift for my psyche. I just let go of everything and focused on the children. Ruffin's step put everything back in focus for me: I was getting a little stressed about the house project (runaway costs! runaway schedule!) but the thing is, I shouldn't and I can't. It's hard not to though, right? But the house will eventually get done, even if it means waiting to tackle our other projects or doing them in more increments (due to how much more we've spent on this phase). I need to be in the here-and-now for my children: what if I'd missed Ruffin's standing and step? What if I didn't keep exercising with him? Now that's what matters, and I've got to keep my eye on the prize.

But that doesn't mean that I won't be excited to see those countertops go in tomorrow!

Can't wit to see pics of your marble installed! The cabs look very nice so far--seems like you've got a fairly large kitchen, how nice!

Glad Ruffin is taking those steps! How exciting!

PS love the shot with kitty!

I CANNOT wait to see pics!!!!!!! BTW, everything looks STUNNING!

Wow, rmkitchen, it looks amazing so far. I can't wait to see all that marble, and ultimately, the finished product!!! As I am still just in the planning stages (overwhelmed with cabinet and appliance options knowing I need to get those chosen before we can truly move forward!!) I hear these remodel stories with some trepidation - but I am glad to hear you have had progress of late. It really looks like it will be gorgeous!

Hey, are your cabinets white-white or creamy-white? (I can't recall - are you doing inset or overlay?? Perhaps I should be able to tell from the photos but I can't.)

So glad to hear Ruffin is persevering!! Good for you reclaiming your perspective. Kids will do that for us.

Post again with those marble photos when you can!

Brooke,

Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait to see your slabs....oh yes, I guess I'll have to...

I love your color choices on the walls and cabinets! I always appreciate a white kitchen! It never ceases to amaze me why contractors don't recognize how slow everything feels when continual forward progress isn't being made on your home, especially the kitchen! But, it is going to be beautiful.

How wonderful it is to hear about Ruffin's progress and perseverance! And, to hear how it has healed your phyche and you've been able to turn it into a positive!

When we first moved to this house, our son got to the point of saying he wished we hadn't moved (after he first loved the place) because he felt left out as we worked on project after project. Talk about re-focusing --we definitely refocused and held off on projects for quite a while after that episode.

So, a couple more questions for you, have you chosen cabinet pulls/knobs yet? Which sealer did your installer use?

I'll be checking back for pictures!!!

mindi

P.S. Just to keep you posted, in a spur of the moment, I called the number of a slab fabricator who had installed a polished Calacatta kitchen in a magazine (found his number in the resources pages) just to ask him about the job and what his opinion was on the honed vs. polished and sealing. He was so kind and spent more than 20 minutes on the phone with me! When all was said and done, he didn't scare me away from keeping my slabs polished. He said that either way, it just depends on your ability to accept the etching and I could always hone them later. Hmm, now my DH wants to keep them polished, or perhaps go back to the island staying polished and the permimeter honed. I still have about 10 days to decide as our cabinets arrive Wednesday. I really still don't have a problem with mixing the two finishes, after all the kitchen really only needs to please us, right? And, I think the pendants over the polished would be really beautiful. But, I think I might miss that soft honed feeling - yikes, thinking too much!

the sink -- raised dishwasher is to far right

left of sink and around corner -- refrigerator drawers will be in hole on bottom, left of sink

left of cooktop -- to far left will be double wall ovens

details of the marble -- some "gold," some black spots but all in all, practically perfect!

photo on the left is of the runnels (or "flutes") which are only 10" long and just the three of them, centered on the sink. They're there for us to drain produce. Photo on the right is of the dishdrain, which is about 15" x 15" and will hold our dishrack.

We didn't laminate an edge (to make it look beefier a la mnhockeymom's super-dreamy 5cm) because we couldn't match the veining, and in last month's issue of House Beautiful there was a San Francisco kitchen (of people who work for Williams-Sonoma / West Elm corporate) with marble (I think Carrara) with a laminated edge and it jumped off the page at me -- the veining didn't match at all and, to my eye, looked horrible and cheap, two things marble isn't! This month's issue of HB also has a SF kitchen, again with laminated marble, this time Calacatta. Hers, though, has a super-elaborate carved edge (don't think it's an ogee) -- it's v. flowery but not for me.

I am having a really hard time formatting this message -- I apologize for the jumble of photos together with no accompanying parole. I've done it in the past but this time html is getting the better of me!

So the countertop is here and let me tell you what I like: it's icy! Once the wainscoting was painted white and the walls grey-blue, the ceiling a paler grey-blue and now the countertops, I realize what I was really after was an icy kitchen. I love it!!!

That may seem really dumb given that our kitchen has no window (the window and sliding glass door are in the breakfast nook portion) and is due north facing. At no point in the year do we get direct sun in there. When I see pictures of others kitchens with those glorious windows I confess to envy, but this is what I have and now that it's coming together I like it. It's really cool (as in cool tones, not cool as in hip). I can't stop saying "icy"! Ruffin likes saying it "ici": my francophone son. What a nut.

katmandu_2008 -- the cabinets are white-white and overlay. My inspiration kitchen was a Christopher Peacock inset kitchen. So yummy! The more research I did the more I realized, given our kitchen's size (it is not capacious -- our CA kitchen was easily twice the size but we never could've afforded to redo it so never mind!), we could neither afford the loss of space necessary for inset drawers (we're an all-drawer bottom) or, of course, a Peacock kitchen! (We could've afforded inset from another much less expensive place, but we'd already realized we really wanted those few inches.) The door / drawer fronts have an exterior bead to help "mimic" that inset line. I believe the door and drawer fronts will be installed over the next few days. Hallelujah!

I'd been really clear about wanting white-white until ... I saw some gorgeous creamy cabinets earlier this year here on GW. They were so warm and inviting, and at that time our cabinet carcasses had just arrived and were sitting so forlornly in our family room. They looked like that particle board melamine junk (I know I sound harsh, but that stuff breaks if you look at it cross-eyed) and I felt sorry for myself. (They're not melamine -- they're finished inside but it was just so much white!) But I've since realized it was good I trusted myself in the first place because if it were a creamy kitchen I wouldn't be happy: I'd grow bored and be resentful.

But that's just me and my circumstances! I still think those creamy kitchens are to-die-for gorgeous. Did you see mrslimestone's? Wow. There's another kitchen currently being done -- cannot now recall the owner's GW id, but she (he?) is also having a creamy kitchen with soapstone perimeter and marble island (or reversed) -- the pictures s/he shared were just beautiful.

Mindi -- it's none of my business, but I love polished marble. LOVE IT! I don't know if they didn't do a good job honing or if this is what a honed surface looks like, but there is a slight sheen to our bar top (no picture) which definitely made me smile.

If you and your husband are happy with polished then I want to tell you that I can't wait to see it! I really do love polished marble ....

On the drawers we'll have polished nickel bin pulls (the cabinetmaker calls them "scuppers," a name I like)
{{gwi:1727739}}

and on the doors glass knobs with a polished nickel base.
{{gwi:1727740}}

The refrigerator, freezer and broom closet pull-out will all have rectangular polished nickel pulls.

Thank you all for your nice words about Ruffin! I think all your sweet, encouraging and generous thoughts are helping him right along. I am so grateful to you all.

I forgot to tell you that cat is Emily, one of our wedding cats. (Two girls we gave each other as our wedding gift to ourselves.) Thank you for noticing her! She doesn't come out of hiding much (unless she hears my husband making their dinner) but she has really been enjoying the new kitchen.

Absolutely gorgeous!

ahhhh, rmkitchen, it's truly beautiful!!! I love it! Really inspiring me to keep with the marble, at least on my island. You must be so excited!!

Just like you, my dream is beaded inset white cabinets. I am having trouble justifying both the extra cost (although I haven't actually had it priced yet and decided to do so today, but keep hearing 15% more) as well as the loss of space. I too have preliminarily decided on an overlay cabinet with a detail around the edge of the door that mimics that inset look. But I am still torn - was in a friend's the other night and she had my dream kitchen with beaded inset and such a striking color - not white white and yet not cream - hard to describe - but I know she spent a lot so other to inspire envy, not sure where that gets me. Depending on cabinet maker though, I'd be limited in paint color. Post again with your door/drawer fronts installed for me!!

Love your wall colors. I think your project is going to be stunning. Even with all the headache, the marble is breathtaking!

It looks just dreamy! Sooooo happy for you that it's coming together!

Brooke - WOWSY!!!!! Oh, I love it so much and cannot wait for you to be living in it!!! Did you touch it over and over? Did you make a goof of yourself as they put it in? Did you lie your face down on it? Did you try to hug it? Did you cry? OOPS, sorry, that was me the day mine went in :oP

Your jewelry, er, I mean hardware, is fabulous - are you doing anything fun with lighting? I feel like going shopping with you!!

Okay, I have to say, I have serious sink envy - I wanted SO SO SO BADLY to go with a SS apron front but my GC, closest friend, neighbor and DH all talked me out of it - I love my Shaws a lot but there was just something so enticing about the SS apron w/ the Calcatta - I'm in lust!

Have you moved out yet for the floors? I bet when you do you'll visit your marble every day ;-) ENJOY it all!!

(by the way, I have to tell you that as I sat in a freezing cold hockey rink for 2 hours tonight, my only thought was coming home and checking for your pics - aren't we pathetic??)

katmandu -- I know exactly what you're talking about that -- not quite a bright white nor a creamy white. Are you familiar with the cabinet line Cuisines Laurier? They have just such a color (although, of course, right now the name escapes me). If there is a CL dealer near you, maybe you can look at it and see if it would do it for you.

I know many here on GW love Benjamin Moore's Dove White color -- it is white but without the starkness nor the undertone of yellow (which makes it "creamy"). There's a Sherwin-Williams color ... well, I'll have to think of its name. This brain of mine is not working! Anyway, it's another good "warm" white -- not yellow, not bright.

About the inset, I know what you mean. It is so beautiful! In truth, we only could've afforded it if we hadn't gone with all the other bells-and-whistles. And you know what? Even without doing inset I still wonder how we're affording it!

This is not the best picture (the color isn't true) but here's a picture of our door.

It has an outer bead and an inner cove.

I took a little break and think the SW color is Dover White. I think it is, but I'm not 100%. We went to visit a kitchen painted that color and it read as white, but a warm white. Not a creamy white (no yellow), not a bright white. A warm white.

Your friend's kitchen sounds fabulous! I have a v. strong feeling your kitchen is going to give hers a run for the money ....

-Brooke

Beautiful marble! Instead of icy, I see classy! Wonderful choices all around.

Love, love, love your marble! Your cabinet hardware is going to look great once you get those cabinets in. Wishing you the best as you wait to move back home again!

I took so long thinking up that Sherwin-Williams color I missed everyone's encomium. Thank you so much!

An esp. thank you to mnhockeymom: you really have been my inspiration. I know you'll understand because of how you feel about momto4kids' countertop: that's you for me!

amcofar, what a nice thing to say -- your kitchen is lovely! I have shown so many people the artful way you displayed your plates; thank you.

Robin -- you are so dear to check in on us, your Rocky Mountain admirers!

neesie -- soon it'll be you! (I read in your sink post about just a few more weeks for your countertop. Hip hip hurrah! Can't wait to see your pictures.) Thank you for all your nice thoughts -- you made me feel great.

Of course I check in on you! You are such a sweetheart, I have to make sure you're doing okay! Besides, how could I miss out on seeing the first pics of that marble--yowza! That is really beautiful stone you have there. I keep scrolling up to take another look. I am really happy for you.

PS DH was out in Colorado Springs last week. Closer to your neck of the woods than home!

Classy! And, beautiful! You are right about the pieces that they templated, I would not have known they weren't from your original slab selections!

It's going to be a beautiful place to cook and entertain! The 3cm edge looks just perfect too!

Love your hardware choices! Especially the appliance pulls - just enough substance. I can't convince DH on cup pulls, so our search goes on. Thanks for showing us yours!

Mindi

I love, love, love your kitchen!! It screams timeless elegance while remaining a true family space. All of your selections true Classics. I can just picture cold winter evenings or spring weekend mornings in there. I know y'all will enjoy for years to come!

WOW! Your kitchen looks fantastic so far! The marble turned out beautifully. I love your choice of pulls and knobs too. I keep imangining that my kitchen will turn out a lot like yours but we've got a ways to go before that. The house is stil being framed. Please keep posting pics as things progress! Simply gorgeous!

rmktichen, thanks for the info on paint color and PICS of your cabinets! I think yours is going to look wonderful! Met with yet another cabinet desinger/rep today - think they are going to be outrageously expensive - I can just tell - but hopefully by end of April I'll narrow in on cabinets and be ready to proceed. Hard not to get bogged down in the process but feeling like I must do my due diligence and not take the easy, first choice.

mnhockeymom, couldn't agree with your more, I've become obsessed with this website and wasn't too happy to have to log off midway throught the updates on this thread to go to son's baseball! : )

Both of your marbles inspire - hope I can live up to it!!

Hi Brooke,

Any updates for your fan club? It would be great to see and hear how things are going now! ~mindi

wow. i just wandered into this topic for the first time. i'm anxious to see pics of the finished (or closer to finished) product. marble looks amazing!

how's it going these days, rmkitchen?

Another Brooke fan here...awaiting more pictures and updates. Love, love, love your kitchen...it was you who "introduced" me to that gorgeous marble which I am hoping to use in our master bath...if I can find slabs as beautiful as yours and Mindi.

Also hoping that Ruffin is continuing to do well!!

bump

Brooke, have mercy on your readership and show us some stuff! :)

Susan

Thank you for all these positive thoughts, Friends! I've not been online much -- our puppy is having difficulty recovering from her spaying (yesterday she had her third surgery in nine days -- she'll be fine, her incision doesn't want to heal and so a vessel keeps popping out, which means we are on our toes monitoring that sweet little thing!) and both my children have a flu with all that super-fun blow-out diarrhea and explosive vomiting. I feel so bad for them -- I wish it were me who were sick in their stead! But on the bright side, my youngest (Ruffin) is doing so well with his gross motor skills. Still no walking, but a lot of exaggerated standing unassisted and "free" steps from one stationary object (table) to another (sofa). Of everyone, he has benefited the most from having our house back. It is just phenomenal.

So what a beautiful way for me to start off our update -- oozing guts and poop. Ahem.

freezer closed

fridge open

my soon-to-be four year-old "cleaning" under the sink
{{gwi:1727755}}

We are living and cooking in the kitchen, still feeling a long way from being done (not everything is put away). It is beautiful, which makes me happy, but I'm still getting the hang of its function. I wrote, now where did I write it ... anyway, on another thread I wrote that when we moved into this house last year we never bothered to unpack all our stuff (inc. kitchen) because we knew we'd be redoing the kitchen and I just dreaded the thought of unpacking and then repacking within a matter of months. Big mistake. Huge, although not fatal.

So there's a bit of trial-and-error on where things ought to live. I'm frustrated because this kitchen was so ridiculously expensive (someone [me] didn't add it all up until a fortnight ago and then I had a heart attack!) that I feel it should be "perfect" (whatever that is). We just had no business spending that much money on this kitchen -- our neighborhood cannot support it and it makes me want to spend no more money on the house (and we've still some work to do -- backyard and the master bedroom / bath -- DIY to the rescue!). I'd imagine (and you can bet I'm hoping) my reaction(s) is normal, that when all is said-and-done the homeowner feels as if it could have been done differently / for less.

The cabinetmaker still has a few odds & ends (missing drawer, missing toekicks, missing furniture feet, one door which wont close on its own) before we can call it a day. A la pirula I painted the toekicks black (they were white) so they would visually disappear. Love it! The paint store made a mistake with the formula and when I opened the can it was a beautiful deep plum. I shook it like crazy, stirred and then put on a coat anyway. Someone came over and said I was so bold for doing purple toekicks. So back we went to the paint store to get black!

The electricians are due to come back Tuesday to (fingers crossed) finish their portion! Once they rework the undercab lights the over-the-counter microwave can be installed (it's our only "missing" appliance). Not sure what / how it happened, but our cabinetmaker "misunderstood" (more likely forgot) that the microwave was to be built into the cabinets so the light rail would run underneath it. Instead, the microwave bifurcates the light rail. It's not a big deal but it does mean that the undercab lights I'd purchased (and the electricians had installed) will now not work. (had to get shorter units and some rewiring is also necessary given the lower placement of the microwave) The exhaust system is also waiting on them, and we could use it! Not so much for the exhaust as for its lights. Our hood is lovely (I think) but huge, so no ceiling light reaches the cooktop. Also, as the pipe is open up to the roof (remote blower), it can be a little noisy (listening to the wind rattle it). Hey, whatever it is it's still better than cooking on a single induction burner on top of the washing machine!

Last night I baked my first sweet. Hip hip hurrah! (Ive been feeling spent with the three littles that finally I succumbed to my drug of choice: chocolate.) While I still think the Gaggenau 30" double wall oven ought to have those deliciously smooth gliding racks (a la Electrolux) for the prices they charge, it's proving to be a great oven. It is so quiet! Holy cow is that a slice of heaven. And those side-opening doors -- how have I lived these past thirty-plus years without them? Seriously, they just make sense!

The raised dishwasher is freaking fantastic. Again, it just makes sense. To think of my pregnant self stooping over to load / empty a traditionally-placed dishwasher, and now I'm not even pregnant! Almost wish I could hop in a time machine ....

As I wrote my marble buddy Mindi I had the flu a few weeks ago myself (which was terrific because it got me to a number on the scale I haven't seen since before kiddos!) and when I came down to the kitchen the light was hitting the marble backsplash just right and it looked like Roquefort cheese and I nearly threw up then and there. So I'm a vegan and I had this horrible feeling I was going to live surrounded by stinky cheese. Oh no! But luckily it must have been flu-induced vision because now I just see the beautiful marble. To non-vegans I'll sound ridiculous, I know, but any of you who don't eat dairy (for whatever reason) will understand how hard it would be on the system (either GI or psyche) to be faced with this enormous slab of cheese. Talk about vomit!

Thank you for all the wonderfully kind and dear thoughts and comments! I appreciate it so v. much. I really do.

Hopefully by the end of this month I'll be able to post "finished" pictures. Fingers crossed! Can't wait to see all of yours, too ....

-Brooke

Brooke, nice kitchen. Would it be possible to get a closeup shot of your Woodhood ? I love the look. TIA

You bet, sheilaann!

Oh my--Brooke it looks terrific, awesome, beautiful....!!! The granite (cheese or no!) is scrumptious, and your little boy is just too cute!

So glad it's coming together for you (sorry the boys and puppy and YOU have been under the weather). Glad you are getting to enjoy the new kitchen though!

Hi Brooke!

I hope your little ones are on the mend now! And, your poor puppy! Glad to hear Ruffin is motoring right along with the large motor skills! You've had way too much on your hands to worry about your little fan club here - but, I really am glad you found time to post!

The kitchen is very beautiful and looks so functional and welcoming, I'm really happy for you! Also, just so you don't feel alone on the money thing, we actually doubled our original budget for cabinets and slabs when we started. It really worried me with the economy on the brink and both my husband and I relying on the same industry - construction/design! However, when we got right down to it, we just couldn't see going cheap on something we plan on living with every day for the next 20 years. Maybe your neighborhood doesn't support it today, but by next year or the year after, it will even out and by then you will have enjoyed the beautiful space day after day!

Also, you have classy, classic taste and that never will go out of style!

As for the fromage bleu, I know from whence you speak! I was vegetarian for about a decade, so I can commiserate with that very nauseous feeling when you don't feel well and you see something (in my case raw meat) that you don't eat! I tried to cook my husband a turkey one Thanksgiving and having to pull the neck out of the cavity was more than I could handle - never again!

Sorry it took so long to respond, but the wait was worth it, your kitchen is truly lovely, stunning, tres magnifique!

Mindi

Beautiful and adorable!

Your marble reminds me of my grandmother's marble-topped dressers. It's a nice, friendly feeling.

Ah! rmkitchen! I LOVE it! It looks soooo good! Sorry I haven't seen it for a couple days! It really and truly is gorgeous (so worth whatever you paid : ) ha) and I believe you'll be happy there for years. Glad it's working out to be so functional as well!

You, mnhockeymom and mindimoo have inspired me on the marble. I am pretty decided to do it (just on my island, but that was all I was considering).

Mindimoo, if you are checking this, I notice we live in the same town and was wondering where you got your marble and who installed it? Yours is really gorgeous. Funny because when I saw you photos, I thought the view out the window looked like "around here" - the PNW, then I saw you to someone else ... mysterymachine I think? and said where you live.

Anyway, I am sure I'll post again with more questions for you all (marblers) but so glad to see such a lovely kitchen Brooke! And hope the kidlets and pupper are healing (I am playing nurse today as well - DH post surgery and one kid with fever).

Glad that the kiddos & puppy are on the mend & that the end is in sight for your reno. I know it's probably posted somewhere, might even be on this thread... but I'm in the midst of my own marble search ... what kind of marble did you get?

LOVE your kitchen!

Hi Brooke, sorry to hijack your post....

Katmandu,

Our slabs came from Meta in Seattle, they are Calacatta Classic 1-1/4". I did see some lovely slabs at Michaelangelo and some Statuary at OTM too, but the Meta lot was beyond the best IMO. Of course, it always depends on when your get there too. However, I will say that at Meta, they have you Sharpie your name on the ends of the actual slabs you are getting and then there's no question of if they are the right slabs when they arrive at the fabricators!

My fabricator/installer is KPM Consulting and the owner was there every step of the way and stayed through the entire install. I would highly recommend them for the quality the installer is an Old World artisan!

Let me know if you have any trouble locating phone numbers, I'll be happy to forward them, just link to my page and send me an e-mail!

Good luck!

Beautiful space. Like I said earlier, a classic in every sense of the word!!! Hope everyone gets to feeling better.

Shannon

Mindimoo, thanks! I have seen that statuary at OTM and some pretty calcutta at a few others, Don't think I went to Meta yet though so thanks! I love your kitchen!! Thanks for the info! Sorry again to all for the hijack (altho I am OP - ha).. : )