We used an amazing private cabinetmaker. He is a serious craftsman. We are in Brisbane, Qld. I'm happy to share his details.

Yes schanop we have tiled the floor. 600x600 travertine tiles. We also tiled our family room as well. It was sage coloured carpet on the left of the picture and vinyl on the right side as seen in above picture. We are really happy with how it all turned out. One big open space. Now to furnish it :)

Making it longer and removing the overheads definitely opened it up (and I love the sleek look!) but I'm just wondering...where'd the microwave end up? Also, I know it's a crass question, but I want to do something very similar (veeeerry similar; I love your taste in cabinetry, and the light fixtures are awesome). Can you give a ballpark indicator of the ACTUAL project costs? I've done basic sums but I'm worried how things will blow out. Can you also mention if there's any parts of the renovation that you didn't think would work out expensive but which blew out to bigger problems?

Go to one of the kitchen stores or even the big box stores and pick up a bunch of samples. Try them out in your kitchen in real light, and if you have already painted, against the real paint colour. Also, try them against the cabinets. We found that, in a kitchen with not a lot of natural light, and with kind of greyish cabinets and off white walls, we wanted a much lighter benchtop than either cabinetry or walls. The very light white benchtops now stand out as a feature of an otherwise bland kitchen, but it was only trying a number of different samples "in situ" that told us that.