@Mom22039 We have plumbing on an outside wall in our kitchen, and it it over the unheated garage. The only time we had a problem is once when someone left the garage door open on the coldest night of the winter.
Have the plumber pull the pipes as far forward in the cavity as he can, and put the insulation behind the pipes, leaving them with no insulation in front of them. Enough heat will get into the walls to prevent freezing.
@coralbrook I agree, paint the beam ceiling color and in a week you’ll just stop seeing it.
Just for kicks we stopped into a counter-top place. They had this quartzite called “Super White” in a leather finish. The name is dumb because it’s not even remotely white.
Wow is it gorgeous, though:
https://www.■■■■■■■■■■/photos/32532343@N00/28024448138/in/dateposted-public/
The leather finish was really cool, it has an interesting texture and takes some of the gloss off. Super trendy!
Now I just have to talk DW into it. 
@notrichenough - that stone is GORGEOUS!
@BunsenBurner thanks for the insights. The tiles won’t be small but 16x24 is too large for the space. It’s an L- with w long dimensions. The designer is working on the tile size and layout.
@coralbrook and @notrichenough we have lived in San Diego and upstate NY and can understand where you are coming from. The 3” wall will span 48” by the sink. It’s a fairly small space and it made everyone happy.
I’m glad you like the stencil. I love it for all of the same reasons. I’m really leaning toward the honeycomb/hex.
@notrichenough that’s a great piece of stone.
What is a leather finish on marble and how do they achieve it? Is it how they mine/cut the slab?
A pretty good explanation:
http://lgsgranite.com/design/what-is-leathered-stone/
Like skin - textures with bumps. 
Those stencils are really cool - I really wanted a stencil border design back in the 1990s that would run around the top of room, but they went out of fashion before I got around to it.
Quartzite is my favorite countertop material. Just be careful that they are not labeling it quartzite but it’s really a marble. Then you will have all the marble staining issues.
Quartzite with leather finish…even better! That’s two very expensive things rolled into one countertop:)
I went on a kitchen tour last weekend. 4 of the 6 kitchens had quartzite countertops with the leather finish. It looked beautiful. Obviously its quite trendy in my area.
Decisions, decisions. We made a lot of progress yesterday. Bathroom fixtures will be Kohler Purist. Vibrant Brushed Bronze at the sinks and brushed pewter in the tub and stall shower. Two sconces and 2 ceiling fixtures (small chandeliers) will be either Capitol Lighting Winter Gold or similar.
We are back to using the large 16x24 floor tiles as she was able to diagram them onto the floor. Most tile will be California Art Tile Suprema Gloss 3x10bricks. I haven’t found good pictures to share. We are doing areas of white and other areas of their sagey Gray. We are still considering a couple of options for the shower floor. Door styles were selected for the cabinets and shower door
We considered another blue tile for the kitchen backsplash, but ultimately decided to stay with Walker Zanger Cafe in Water Gloss. We plan to finalize most remaining kitchen selections this week so that we can get the cabinets ordered. We still need a sample of the white dry brushed glazed finish.
I hope we can make a lot of progress this week!
A good friend has a leathered finish granite in her kitchen. I really love it. It looks great, and it feels good to touch!
@Mom22039.
My bathroom fixtures are Kohler Purist line, also. I chose the brushed nickel finish.
@emilybee brushed nickel is beautiful!
We also did Kohler Purist, but polished chrome. 
We are doing Kohler Forte in the master bath, and Symmons Unity in the 2nd bath. Kohler toilets and a Kohler tub.
It was a push-pull-yank week. By Wednesday I was annoyed with both the contractor and designer for lack of communication and lack of being on the job. A colleague said, “call a meeting” so I left a strong message with the contractor with my “feelings” and need for a meeting. Then I called the designer to express the same. I wasn’t a minute into the call when the contractor was buzzing in. I told them to speak to each other to handle my concerns and get back to me. Within an hour they both got back to me and the contractor met with me both Thursday and Friday mornings to plan next week’s work.
I’m traveling in the week ahead and the timing was that we were supposed to be deep into the project and I was going to miss a week of the mess. Nope. Not that ready.
Finally, last night I had a meeting with the designer and took a photo copy of the working schedule with delivery dates for my files. I know another couple they did work for and said, I was going to “channel my inner Joey “ to get this done.
Current plans: Master Bath to be complete ~June 20 and kitchen ~ July 13. Who wants to keep score?
The new kitchen windows are in!
https://www.■■■■■■■■■■/photos/32532343@N00/40256645280/in/dateposted-public/
And they’ve decked over the crawlspace for the new foyer:
https://www.■■■■■■■■■■/photos/32532343@N00/28191195548/in/dateposted-public/
It’s tarped because it is raining here today. My builder says his goal this week is to get the wall and roof up for the foyer.
Today’s gripe: shouldn’t an architect be able to measure and draw stuff that is accurate to an inch or better?
The bathrooms came out 7" shorter than on the blueprints, which is not a huge deal except in one bathroom we have to shrink the vanity by 6".
And the kitchen is actually 5" shorter than on the blueprint. This messes up my cabinet layout and I am going to have to change a couple of cabinets. Should have measured myself I guess, instead of trusting the pro. Lesson learned. ~X(
@notrichenough great windows! Great view!
The windows are gorgeous!!! They highlight the water view perfectly and are going to make working in the kitchen pleasant. You must be so thrilled as everything opens up.
Architects and draftsmen do not promise perfect measurements. The drawings are for structural, contractor and City. You will find small fine print “measurements to be verified in the field” on the drawings somewhere. This is one of the issues that keeps me from being able to finalize kitchen and baths and get things ordered in a timely manner.