The next time I decorate by a colour of the year will be the first time. Don't hold your breath. I have nothing against this particular colour but it doesn't work with all the things I've collected over the years, and I am not about to discard carpets bought after hard bargaining with dubious merchants in Istanbul or Islamabad because they don't "go" with a paint colour that someone voted "colour of the year." In its place, I think the colour would be quite nice (better than this years choices, certainly). It's just that my place isn't the right place for it.

Can you take some pictures, both of the vanity top and the ensuite where they are going? As far as I know it is possible for stone to be cut on site (I've seen the service advertised), but make sure you can check the previous work of whoever you get to do it. As for the taps, you need to talk to your plumber - if there is no room at the back of the bowls, the two options you have are offset to the side, or set into the wall.

And in the storms last week, we had a 24 hour blackout!! I'm with wuff - just how simple is simple. I think there is quite a bit of difference between labour saving devices and technology now. Labour saving devices became more and more essential as our lives got busier, women were freed from the drudgery of housework and given encouragement and the freedom to grow, seek out careers and a life outside the home. In many ways, I feel technology is putting us back in our homes and not encouraging us to explore the outside world. We are letting too much technology take over our lives and we are not interacting with people like we did in the old days. The other disadvantage with technology is its continual need to be updated and upgraded which can not only be expensive but also requires constant learning. Take TVs for example - in the olden days you bought a set plugged it in and that was it, now they have to be specially installed and set up and for the average person to know how to do this and understand it is not easy. Older people are being disadvantaged by all this technology too, they were not raised with it like the young ones today so it is constant learning, even learning a whole new language, and quite frankly there comes a time in life when head space just reaches saturation point.

Hi Fiwi When we look at basins, regardless of the overall dimensions or type of mount we look at the depth of the bowl internally and its shape. For practicality we always choose a deep bowl with a curved bottom of some sort to allow proper drainage. Its a great look to have flat square bottoms with corners and shallow angles as you have now, but the reality is as you said that they need help to be washed out. The deep and wide bowl is better for shaving too as it keeps the rinsing within the bowl. There are plenty of great looking basins that have the above. We often use an undermount or inset basin such as these give practicality without bulk eg as below But there are also plenty of good surface mounted also. Cheers