Thanks for all the suggestions! Jane, I will go to that tile shop when the time comes; I had not heard of it.

I already bought my appliances--the cabinet maker needed me to do that before he started his cabinet-making. I went to the Sears Outlet and got all GE Profile at 30%-50% off. My dishwasher is a Bosch, and it was 30% off. They are ALL in my livingroom at the moment, which is getting a little old, frankly.

The on-demand hot water heater was $4k, so I went with a very efficient tank hw heater that was $800. If the difference had not been so huge, I would have gone tankless, but that was just too much! I figure that the tankless can only go down in price in the coming years.

The floor will be patched, but most of it on the left side will be covered by the counter peninsula. Work continues on Monday! Whoo-hoo!