One slab is much lighter than the other as well as being different thicknesses. I'm sure you deserve better with what you must have paid for the slabs.

Beverly, thank you. I love gables so I am mostly to blame but I am now considering I went a tad bit overboard.

Thank you both so much!
Yes I am a little worried about it looking like flesh lol!
I happen to love the way the garage doors look… might try to remove the arches over the windows, but want to leave the cedar siding. It’s cleaned up more since that picture and I think it looks really pretty.
Yes the house was designed in 1982, contemporary, had clear cedar tongue and groove. The garage door too, in a V pattern which I always hated.
The Bungalow beige I painted right onto some of the house, looks great with the cedar, but maybe the Sculptor clay won’t? Away right now, itching to get home and try it… won’t be for 10 days. And only if it seems like they can match it in SW.
Trace, is that the Sculptor Clay? Would love to see the columns in it too… I had thought of making them a different color but decided against it.
The houses in my neighborhood are pretty varied. I just don’t want mine to stick out, being pink or flesh lol!!
I did talk to a SW color expert, but what she (and everyone else it seems) leans grayer than my taste. But not ruling that out, may be exactly what I need to do.
Thanks again!

Oh my goodness! What a surprise to see your house in its setting! Well, actually we can’t see it at all.

I agree with Mrs. S - there’s no way I would leave that tree there smack in front of the house. And now I see why you are interested in leaving the garage door in a rustic state. The house is in a VERY rustic setting; I’m surprised that you say it’s a beach house. I wouldn’t have guessed that at all.

.

While these homes are different styles than yours note how the white background of house makes columns much less visually distracting.

I like the fireplace. White brick is pretty darn classic, easy to decorate around, and I even like the hearth and the rounded shape. If I was looking to buy that house, I'd think of the fireplace as a big plus. I am a traditional person, too.

I would concentrate on removing the paneling and desk. You can work on the fireplace later down the road. Start collecting inspirational pictures.

I’d definitely consider keeping or painting the paneling! I’ve seen some really gorgeous updated looks on Houzz! We have tongue in groove paneling that is from the 40’s that we had painted. Really like it- low maintenance. I would’ve kept it natural but the rooms didn’t get enough light.

I'm not sure why people didn't chime in. Your door is LOVELY, and the the whole entrance looks wonderfully inviting. I think you made great choices. Spring is here! You have nice hardscape and I love the way it looks.

Love it!! I think the porch is a bit small for the urn, maybe find a better spot for it.

Door area looks great. That color is so nice with your stucco. I agree with ShadyWillow. Maybe fill the urn with something bright and tuck it into the corner front of the bed at the stair bottom.

"She claimed nobody uses balconies so it is a waste of money."

Ask her if she can recommend a local architect that can design a house the way you want to use it, and not the way others will not use it.

I would execute your plan in a heartbeat. While an extra bath might make a difference in a home when the baths increase from one to two, or possibly two to three, it sounds like you have wasted space. Personally, I always prefer larger laundry rooms and kitchens, as that's where you are really doing housework/cooking and having extra space for convenience and supplies is wonderful.

Also, who wants to clean the extra toilet? There can be too many bathrooms (ask me how I know).

Is there any room on the first floor that could ever be a bedroom? Would that bathroom with a shower ever be used by a family member with limited mobility who needs to sleep on the first floor and needs a full bathroom too? If you can't imagine any scenario in which that is possible, then I agree with your plan to remove the full first floor bath and keep a powder room.

To Kendrah's point ^^ -- think about future potential need/use. Could the door be moved for the full bath so it doesn't open into the Kitchen? Could you then convert the Half-Bath to the Laundry Room?

Just think about it b/f you decide.

(With no layout provided, it's difficult to tell what is/is not possible.)

IMO rhe railing should be heavier in scale to balance the brick.

People use the word "modern" in different ways. Do you really mean modern, or just up to date? I'm asking because I hear it all the time, but actually a true modern is not what those people are talking about...and early 2000 builder grade home might lean more traditional or tuscan than modern. Please post some inspo pictures and some other rooms. Yes, do something different...white shaker is way overused!

We're scrapping the waterfall. Agree that it doesn't fit.

If anything, the blue island is what’s trendiest here. Add some interest and personal touches and the trends diminish.

19 wide and 79 length glass in the patio door

I have seen this type of thing on a remodeled home, and it looked very nice in person:

Also, modern vertical blinds can look very nice as well:

OK, now I'm reading the door is only 19 inches wide? I'm a little confused.

He does not want to hide the equipment. if it gets covered, it needs to be with something made of glass he says. He calls the amplifiers beautiful… He is waiting for the 2% of visitors to his home that will recognize the beauty along with him.

The only difference about this situation from the numerous other posts about the same subject as that this wife walked herself right into it. True, he bait and switched her on the size, but nevertheless it looks like she may have to live with this until the equipment is made obsolete by AI in just a few years.

A professional would have it racked in a cabinet.

"The point is I know that many of you would consider that decor to be in bad taste. But my wife likes it and her decorator agrees."

Perhaps ask her decorator for suggestions about the sound system, since she knows a lot more about the house and about you and your wife.

Oly, I'm a Patron of Skydog Sanctuary! If anyone wants to see gorgeous horse videos, the ones their owner posts from their acres in Malibu and Oregon are incredible, as are the explanations/horse insights she posts in connection with them.

33 years ago, my 6 year old daughter asked for riding lessons. From that day forward, horses became my center. As I posted, I lost my 33 1/2 year old mare in November. She'd been in our lives, starting as our daughters English show horse (jumping and dressage) for 27 years. We lost our gelding (mid-20s we guess) shortly after. He had been with us since 2007. When I started, horses were living to late teens. Now it's late 20s, even early 30s due to better care, most likely.

If you follow a sanctuary, such as Skydog, where the horses are allowed choices, you will see they have friends they choose to stay with, within their larger herds. Skydog also has reunited families of wild horses rounded up and separated and, once reunited, they stay together as they roam the sanctuary. Horses in their natural state are herd animals and prefer to have other horses near them.

Domesticated horses (geldings and mares) have so many of their activities controlled by humans, including what other horses they are placed with, where they live and how they are treated, and whether their own human is attuned to them, or is even a good rider, all of which impacts the horse's behavior. They often bear the blame for behavior that I think is caused by the humans in their lives. They have incredible emotional intelligence and will reflect their handler's anxiety, confidence or other emotional state. (One day last fall, I was in our barn with Molly, who was in her stall, where I was treating an eye issue. Our gelding was standing in the large open area outside her stall which was their run-in area. I called DH and started crying because I knew Molly was fading. My gelding walked over to me and tucked his big head into my chest. ) Horses, unlike humans, cats and dogs, are prey animals, so their first instinct is flight. Once again, human reaction can amplify their instinct to flee, causing spooking or bolting, or can calm them.

Horses communicate with each other, often through the smallest body language, showing dislike or just a warning to move, through a pinned ear, a thrown head, a shoulder swerve which other horses react to quickly and all is forgotten seconds later. Their preferred emotional state is placid, for lack of a better word. They can sleep standing up, because their legs lock, but need REM sleep which they only get when they are lying flat out, which is a small portion of the 3 to 5 night sleep hours they get, often right before dawn. They will catch standing cat naps throughout the day. As mentioned, their weight causes damage to their internal organs if they are 'down' for a longer time.

I lost my first and heart horse in 2007, when he was euthanized at our University's vet center, where they had a composting alternative which I chose. (He could have been cremated there.) Both our mare and our gelding were euthanized peacefully in their pastures. One was removed the next day by a company our vet recommended that also took the body to a compost facility. One was buried in a corner of our pasture, by a neighbor with excavating equipment that allowed that.

My gelding accomodated to being alone, although our plan was to foster a horse companion for him. We lost him before that was put in place.

Again, I can't recommend Skydog Sanctuary's sites (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube) enough if you want to see or learn more about horses.

Thanks, Ally, how nice of you.

We often see eagles along our river drive, sometimes above the adjacent bluff, and rarely, rarely above our acreage. The afternoon Molly died, I was standing above her already tarped body, Cisco grazing nearby, absolutely bereft. (DH had a Court appearance in an adjacent state as bad luck would have it.) Then I looked up, and far above our pastures, I saw an eagle fly down the entire treeline.

By the way, should you doubt that animals experience emotions, you have not watched a horse grieving a lost pasturemate.

DH was with me, thank God, on Cisco's day. The two of us stood holding hands afterwards, absolutely wordless. Then, we both looked up as not one, but two, eagles, appeared and soared down the treeline, disappearing into the sky above the neighbor's cropland. "That's Molly", my husband said. "Come to bring Cisco home."

I rode horses from 5 to 59 when I had to give up riding due to medical issues. I rode English and Western, dressage, jumping, trail, cutting horses (cow work). I worked on a ranch as a trail guide, rode on an equestrian team, and was part of the local emergency animal rescue group where we helped get horses out of the path of the California wild fires.

I think back over my life and the impact that horses had on my life and can't imagine what my life would have been without that connection.

When life was hard, they were there to support me. When I was a kid I trusted them to take care of me. When I was a teen and young adult I gained confidence knowing I could control a 1000 lb animal. But when I was a fully formed adult human being (No more teenage brain), I learned what a great honor it was to gain a horses trust.

They are fear and flight animals, they will run if they are afraid, they are afraid of everything that is not part of their experience. It is what keeps them alive.

When you gain their trust they will do anything you ask, even those things that frighten them, because they trust that you will not let anything happen to them. But you have to be patient and consistent and confident in order to earn their trust. It doesn't happen over night, it can take months and continues to build over years. Horses read our emotions, they know if you are distracted or anxious or afraid or angry and they react to those ques, so to be their lead mare you have to let go of all the other things in the world except what is happening between you and your horse.

I have often thought that the people who worked for me needed to thank my horses. It was my horses who taught me to be calm and rational and keep my wits about me because that is what they needed from me. My horses taught me that when they didn't do what I asked it was my fault. They would do anything I asked, but they could only do what I asked if I clearly communicated what I wanted to them in a manner that they could understand. They taught me to be patient and give them time to get used to new experiences. Let them sniff and snort and chew on new ideas and wait until they were ready before I pushed them forward. I learned not to keep asking them to do something when they were already doing what I asked. (Don't keep digging in your heels after the have started running). I learned that bonding often means just hanging together, not doing anything and not saying a word.

I love my dogs and cats and family and friends, but they all let me get away with being a snot. My horses demanded that I be the person they needed me to be or be at risk of losing their trust.

The bond I had with my horses was magical.

I have become a huge fan of Maria Killam, especially for someone like me who will always have a small budget, and her sage advice (when in doubt) is always go for plain/boring on expensive, hard-to-change things like showers, floors, and cabinets.

What dates bathrooms/showers is often taste-specific "accent trim" or selections being busy, in some way.

Fashions are gonna change.

So my recommendation, unless you have a ton of money to cater to your own taste, is to put boring and more plain, wherever you have hard surfaces.

If you are doing the other two bathrooms first in a current style, you may find that the master bathroom looks less current in comparison. That may affect your shower remodelling decision.

With a room that is so style-specific, I would not keep any remnants of the existing bathroom. You're just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Gut it and create a refined timeless bathroom. Either contemporary or traditional, but classic.

with your floor, i woud do a plain granite or even corian. solid color, no pattern since your floors have the pattern. simple is best here.

i would not go dark, since u don't get a lot of natural light.

what is your backsplash?

"Remuddle". Cheapchinesecrapola." "lipstick on a pig." .........and so many more. She was a staunch defender of our trade, (gem below)

7 years ago

"The Pros are the ones with scars. GenPop are the ones that inflict them. "

Unafraid to call out bad taste? It drove Houzzers insane.

6 years ago.........

"Discernment. Some have it and some don’t. It would be better to have no discernment at all, because then you wouldn’t care that your giant blobby pink beige sofa clashes with your baby poo yellow tan walls. "

Whatever she said? I think it is totally great that we're still talking about her. Notoriety should never be underestimated : )

She just called 'em as she saw 'em!

One of my very favorite Sophie comments with particular love for "I drink, and know things."

Don't make a 75 year old curmudgeon shame you.

Repost from another thread, but pertinent here. Now go fix me a sandwich.

_____________

Not that I have to share, but at one time or another, I could do all of the below. I’m also smart enough to pay for better results than I could achieve when it was important. As you pointed out, when hundreds of thousands of dollars are on the line, it might be important. And at 75, I don’t do as much as I used to. I drink, and I know things.

I can:

Change a flat tire and put the new one on the rim and seat it properly. Balance it too.

Change my oil and filter.

Pull a transmission and rebuild it.

Pull a dent.

Mix and pour concrete.

Frame a wall. Own the framing nailer and commercial sized compressor to run it.

Swing up and seat a truss—with help.

Shingle a barn roof or a house with asphalt shingles. Own the roofing nailer too.

Run a Ditchwitch and Plumb all of the exterior faucets and a good deal of the interior. Soldering copper too. Not just glueing PVC.

Replace a light fixture or ceiling fan.

Run a new outlet from another outlet. That’s it on electrical. Too much risk to get wrong.

Can beans and taters, salsa, and whatever extra happened in the garden that year.

Make my own jelly and preserves.

Sun dry tomatoes.

Make my own jerky. Got the Excalibur.

Butcher a deer. Not prettily, but it can happen.

Grill a steak. Bic lighter and I’m done.

Graft a rose. Used to grow my own Fortuniana for it too until a bit too cold winter happened.

Give a halfass haircut in a pinch. Not on me though.

Design and sew my own clothes.

Piece and quilt a decent bedspread.

Crochet an Afghan.

Knit a sweater.

Embroider a pair of jeans or a jacket.

Bedazzle. Yes, I’m that old.

Hand draw a scale diagram.

Use various software to do the same.

Lay a brick wall with a string level, and know how to make and use the water level for the long runs.

Bale lespedeza and get it in the barn the smart way.

Run a bobcat without too much damage of person and property.

Make muscadine wine. Drink plenty of it too.

Solder silver jewelry. Can’t wear it though, so I quit that.

Refinish furniture. That’s why I hate the chalk paint crowd.

Faux finish a ceiling or wall. As in faux bois or malachite, or shagreen, or marble. Not popcorn. Although I can run a popcorn hopper too.

And run a cellulose hopper for the guy in the attic placing it.

Flash a window properly. No mean skill, because about half the contractors out there can’t seem to do it.

Sew up a gash in a cow or sheep.

Give shots and sew up a wound. On an animal only. People have too much drama.

Thers about a zillion other things that I can do less well too. But, things I can do well and get paid for is a smaller list. As it is with anyone. No one is ever gonna hire me to work in a tire shop. And these days, I don’t DIY that any more.

I know my limitations on what I can halfass if I have enough time, and don’t care so much about the end result. You don’t. Halfassing the design for a couple of hundred thousand dollar build is just not the way to go when you just don’t have a good sense of scale and spatial relations.

God bless you Sophie, know we are thinking of you.

Love Jan's comments but please, please shhhhh, don't say she's Sophie. We don't want her booted!

I never get notifications either, and if I did I wouldn't bother looking. By commenting, it shows up on my "Recent Activity".

She's doing a service of getting these spam posts deleted, which I believe discourages others from doing this. She's giving the person the benefit of the doubt by providing an alert, and if she's right, she flags it and someone else flags it (sometimes me) and it goes away.

Yes! Tozmo1, Colton was a volunteer fireman and worked as an Advanced EMT. At age 20, he was killed in a car wreck.

We łive in zone 7, East Tennessee .