One more thing to be grateful for -- friends with good taste!

Greg's co-worker Colleen and her husband Thomas have quite refined taste. They read the design magazines, keep on top of trends, and have a good sense for details. They have no children and disposable income, so they have money and time to spend in designing their own home. In short, I trust their taste. Last night they came over and I sponged up their advice. Things like, where should we use knobs vs. handles? What flooring should we really use? What about lighting? What about tile backsplash? Their advice was thoughtful and we're running with it. So we now know:

• We will go ahead with the wood flooring we had originally decided on. We can deal with mats in areas where water might spill a bit. At first, they suggested tile (as Lisa did) but when we looked at the details of where the tile would tie in with the wood, and how it would look with other design elements, as well as thinking about things like where the barstools would be (and would they sit uneven in the grout lines) we decided to stick with the wood. As Tim Gunn (from a favorite design show "Project Runway") might say, "make it work."
• We picked out a whimsical white glass pendant lighting scheme that I think will soften things up, while giving a contemporary feel. The lights have an unusal shape, which give them personality but I don't think they'll be out of style in the next year.
• We decided where knobs and pulls will go, and which sizes where. We drew a schematic so we could order based on an actual design of where things will go (no trying to remember later on).
• We picked green colored glass tiles for the backsplash, which will bring in a lot of color and personality and match well with the cherry cabinets and the green drapes we're getting for the living room area.
• We picked out some black leather padded and backed bar stools with nice lines and a color that should nicely complement the countertops.

All these decisions I now feel great about -- both that the decision has been made, and trust that the decisions are based on good design sense. Hurray!