It's all Wood...

We are preparing for a meeting with a second cabinet vendor tomorrow — for cabinets to go in the kitchen, bar, and potentially bath vanities.

(Sidenote: I realize a bar could perhaps sound extravagant unless you drink as much wine as Mike and I do, in which case we put it in the "everyday needs" category :

Our first meeting was with a big in-stock cabinet company called Armstrong. They came recommended but the issue with stock cabinets is they are limited to working with pieces and parts of their existing stock. If you want something very common it works really well, if you don't, you come up short on options of pieces to work with to "build" what you want.

We are seeing a custom guy tomorrow, who also comes highly recommended as being a good bang for the custom buck...The commonly reported drawback to custom is sometimes their wood stains are not as smooth and even as a stock place, but we're keeping an open mind to both, and will know more tomorrow after weighing both options.

Here are some kitchens we are into, both for cabinets and in general:

We like the clean look of the cooktop with inset appliances

And baths...