thanks everyone, i appreciate the nice comments
John,
I can't take credit for making the island a different color, although I did encourage it. Cypress has it's ups and downs like most wood. It is easy on the pocket book, easy on tools and cutters, machines nicely. it stains very well. it is very light, though this is one of it's down sides, because it is so soft it dings easily and most finishes can easily be ruined by scratches. However, it is still the hottest wood going right now down here in southern louisiana.
Tom,
The design was collaborative between myself, the client, and his contractor. they gave me a picture of what they wanted basically and let me run with it. it came out much better than i had imagined in my head. The corbels were purchased and were much larger than expected when they arrived, however, i could not imagine the island with anything different now.
To my knowledge they finished with a basic oil stain (minwax probably) and then followed with a Semi gloss poly. That is the accepted norm around here for site finished work. which is the way it is mostly done here. I am not a finisher yet!! hopefully one day i will be able to offer a better alternative to my customers.
one of the many things I learned on this job was when I have an island with a cooktop and the homeowner is using a downdraft blower....I do not have room for pot drawers below the cooktop. (cooktop was not installed in these pics) the customer ended up with one 8" deep drawer and one that was 14" deep(depth as in front to back of drawer). better than nothing i guess, and he was very happy. but now I know. Hopefully that will help someone else as well.
thanks again to everyone who stopped by.
chris