Gian,
Good to hear from you, I will be back learning Italian this fine settimana. Well, I'll try to answer, I can't always explain what we do, though...sometimes it passes understanding.
1) I mean I showed them a pic of a cooker that they would have had to order from Paris and they shook their heads in despair. Keep in mind, we were operating under a time and language barrier. When Doug (the cook) said it's OK, he really didn't need that fancy stove, they were very happy indeed. I'm sure if we were already living there, we could have found the time to get what we wanted, but our wants were not that strong.
2) Yes, the kickplate. I brought a piece of tile (sample) and put it up against the cabinets and they still didn't get it. We have done that sort of work here so we decided we could finish that up ourselves rather than hazard more blank looks.
3) Now this one is the hardest to explain. They had a box of marmo and granito samples. I picked verde guatemala--it could even be granite--geology is not a specialty of mine. And if it's fake, I guess it's the best fake I ever saw and thus don't care. My invoice went down 1,000.00 Euro when I made the change from piastrellato to the marble. Perhaps had picked an especially expensive tile....I dunno. I can't find the source, but i found a website on it:
indian green marble You can also call the kitchen company : Tel 0985/920845.