Lucky postum to have such good friends! Looking forward to hearing the "postmortem" ;-) of the project. What would I do if I could make over my house? 1) rearrange the walls upstairs to get rid of the "bowling alley" bedroom - one bedroom has 2) remove the bay window from the living room and replace it with a pair of plain windows like on the other side of (yes, I know we are in dire need of landscaping, it's on the list, along with a new front door, lighting and tearing off that listing side deck), put board and batten shutters on both sets of windows 3) upstairs bath from to ; this would technically be the children's bath (if the house were used by a larger family) so a partial wet room concept makes a lot of sense. Linen closet in hallway. 4) kitchen goes from to . 5) complete rearrangement of utility/laundry/powder room off kitchen, from to . 6) Remove ALL interior trim and replace with oak like in MBR. 7) Pipe dream: reside house in gray shingles with charcoal and white trim and purple accents

Another place where it looks not only like a completely different kitchen, but so much bigger! You really planned your space well. Re: Your china hutch. I've been working with some specialty paints called CC Caldwell and Reclaim I found online sold by this lady, Patty Henning out of Detroit. I'm a former Michigander. :) Anyway, she specializes in finishing. Faux, refurnishings, techniques, stenciling, etc. I immediately thought of some of her colors over that pretty red. So before you touch up, check her out. I think it's fabfinishes.org, but usually I just search "Patty Henning". Back to you: Enjoy it. It's absolutely beautiful.

That's interesting. I'm very, lets put it bluntly, dumb in technical things. I'm bad with plans-I need to render for myself, 3 D and all. I don't have a great spatial thinking. When people on Kitchens forum or Building forum read complicated plans in a matter of minutes, and have suggestions in a matter of minutes-I look at them like they're Wizards of Oz or something. My husband is an engineer. He's amazing with maps and plans and his spatial thinking is great. He enjoys reading plans. It's like an art to him, gives him pleasure. (his degree is not in engineering though..PhD in Physics. Out of all sciences out there, physics is beyond my comprehension the most. My school B grade in physics doesn't even start to reflect the true level of my dumbness) Yet I-somehow-just know. Often better and sooner than him. I look at the family..I know everybody..I somehow translate needs and relationship between people into this spatial thing, a plan. Everybody should be considered. Needs (that change) should be anticipated, to the best of my ability, and considered. An example-that's my second marriage. Our first place in CA was bought to accommodate my kids into this new situation to make the transition as easy as possible. So I passed on a pretty magnificent foreclosure with the view and all (it was 2010..buyers' market lets put it this way) because it had this one big open space for a great room. And went for a more expensive house -less posh, in terms of finishes and all, no view except for the pool-that had this amazing layout..three rooms downstairs, some seen right away fully, some in the back, with the kitchen open to two of them but not seen..second floor had this bridge-hallway..enough distance between the master and kids' rooms and bath.. I had no idea how successful it will be..the relationship. Yet it was paramount to me to make it work ..and right layout would make it a tad easier..with a stepdad and everybody's figuring out themselves in this new family. Give togetherness but give separation. Would't add pressure would take some of it off. It was just a drop of water in the sea of course..my DH did a miracle, the relationship between the kids and him is much much more I ever hoped for. But it was a right drop of water in the right time. Similar with the new place-I already knew the semi open plan works the best..was less worried about relationships, being too close, too distant, since we were already a good family..but: we had to plan for MIL joining us. So. Adding bathrooms-paramount. figuring out where TV goes. figuring out who gets each bedroom. Swiping the doors in her room to a window-more space for furniture for her, more privacy for our master that also has doors outside. Etc, etc. I'm not sure whether it's helpful or not, me describing it. Just trying to analyze how I'm able to see it. I start with people.

My house is painted a really great color that I don’t see called Wheat Bread by Behr. It is a chameleon color that usually looks more grey but sometimes more tan. I looked at pics online but they are way more brown than my walls are. I do have it by other walls that are painted, River Rock by Behr, that I thought was grey but ended up being blue. So the cool blue must bring out the cooler grey of the Wheat Bread. I get lots of compliments on the colors. I’ve had it 9 1/2 years, before anyone started using “greige”. I just called it taupe ; ).