But here is the tile we picked. I was playing around with it today to see which direction looked best. The flash was on in the middle picture and it shows lighter and redder than it really is, but it also shows the color movement in the tile which I think will hide dirt.

It seems that so many people put wood floors in their kitchen and we considered that but were afraid of the wate issues, and we briefly considered a stained concrete floor but there is just too much damage from the previous tile. We didn't want a light tile and none of the medium colors looked good. We kept going back to wood or stained concrete and I think this look remarkably similar to stained concrete. It's a really good match with both the cabinets and adjacent wood floor.

boy, soon you'll be done with all of this - that should make you very, very happy! It'll be a wonderful kitchen and well worth all of the work, time, money and stress.

Steph, I'm still thinking a blue-gray color for the walls, probably something a little bolder than on that back wall. That was a hodge podge of color to hide the gouges in the sheetrock, left behind from stripping the wallpaper. I never intended to wait this long to do something about it.

I saw the demolition pictures, and you don't need a repeat of the moldy wood and cabinet destruction.

Those white fluffy molds, BTW, are not the "toxic mold" you have heard about. It was the common "dry rot" fungus.

lazygardens, we did get the door fixed, and got all that mold/fungus out. I found out the same thing you did, so thank heavens it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Still ruined all the wood so it had to be replaced though.

Here's our hood. Still waiting for the duct though. After getting pricing, dh decided to do that himself. Supposed to be cool this weekend but dh may have other plans. Bummer

Oh, and I love the way the knotty pine on the range hood ties in with the cabinets. ;)

Yes, he is happy to have it picked, but would be happier still if it were set and finished. I haven't found anyone to lay it to my satisfaction yet, and am contemplating doing it myself. Dh is NOT on board with that.