Congrats. Like those wood doors. Like the gray much better than the pale blue with black. Consider adding a pair of corner cabinets in the dining area to add extra storage space for your dishes without taking up space needed for your table and chairs. Solid doors on the bottom and glass doors over the top shelves is best. If you can match the wood finish of the wood doors, all the better. If not, white would do. http://foter.com/explore/small-corner-cabinets-dining-room If you rip off the country charm scalloped trim over the sink between the overhead cabinets, then the top of the blinds would show. If you don't like that style, it might be better to replace it with a straight edge board rather than leave it off. Blinds or shades of some kind are good for privacy and light control on any kitchen window -- in any dining room window, too. Would not remove them unless and until you find something for privacy and light control that you like better. Not a fan of fabric window treatments in or very near the kitchen ... absorbs cooking odors.

Mrs Pete..I agree..now OT, sorry, but I was reading your post all starry-eyed, and I have deep personal interest..)) do you bake gluten-free too? I can bake gluten-free. It is more difficult in that the finished product tends to "spread" and don't like to stand up straight, and they require more internal support ... which is something you want in a wedding cake. If you need to serve gluten-free people, these are my suggestions: - Go with a single layer of gluten-free cake ... most people don't care about gluten, so this allows your baker to do what's easiest for the majority of the cake. - Make that layer one of the small layers. - Consider carrot cake as your gluten-free layer. Most people like it, and it's an easy choice for gluten-free. - A whole different thought: Opt for cheesecake, which isn't always gluten-free, but absolutely can be made without that bitty-bit of cornstarch or flour. Yes, a cheesecake can be stacked. If I were doing this for a wedding, I'd offer a variety of self-serve toppings: Strawberry, cherry, blueberry, chocolate, nuts, maybe coconut. I did not even have cake at my wedding - no, not even Costco, so I am likely not your target person to talk cake with, but I am most definitely craving cake now (lemon please, with lemon filling...maybe alternated with raspberry....). And that's the point. A whole lot of people just want a house ... they'd see a difference in 3 bedrooms vs. 4, but their eyes might glaze over if you started talking about optimizing the kitchen or the merits of different types of windows. Aren't they just ... windows? As for lemon, I am making a small wedding cake tomorrow for the royal wedding. My daughter (but not her English husband) is absolutely insane over the royal wedding. Since it's just for us to play with, I am experimenting with a "naked cake" ... it will be lemon (my lemon cake is INCREDIBLE, if I do say so myself) with fruit (or maybe just blueberries? I haven't been shopping yet.) and lemon cream-cheese frosting between the layers. I am driving this cake over to the hospital where my daughter works because she and her fellow nurses are coming in to work early to watch the royal wedding, and I'm going to watch with them. How'd she convince them to come in before 6:00 am? She promised them my cake, and she reminded them of the cake I brought them recently ... it was two layers of carrot cake sandwiching a layer of cheesecake. It was better than what I made for my co-workers on St. Patrick's Day: I experimented with a Green Velvet cake (like red velvet, but containing an entire bottle of green food coloring) sandwiching a cheesecake ... the next day every one of us was confused: we felt fine, but we were all pooping green. When we all realized the source of our malady, we laughed 'til we cried. If you like lemon and raspberry, try Key Lime Cake with Raspberry Filling. I made a simple three-layer cake (with raspberries on top instead of flowers and whipped fluff icing) for a casual wedding that featured BBQ ... it complimented the food very nicely. I thought it was "you CAN'T have your cake, and eat it too." We always seem to have cake at my house. We eat it, and we still seem to have more. Current house is someone else's fully custom house. I've always wondered why realtors advertise that a house is "custom". That means it was built to someone else's taste. Doesn't seem to be a selling point to me.

Good God, you guys!! Wait until you see the rest of the house!! HA HA! Thought about answering you all one by one, but going to cherry pick before ending my lunch break! I'm 40. I owned a house before with my now ex-wife, moved into an apartment and now moving into a house. So, I've got all the control of what color to make things, how to set it up, etc. without really knowing how to do that. I can hold my own with repairs and my dad is a contractor who translates my "You know, we could..." to "This is how you do it," which ultimately turns into "Hold this light while I do it." I'd like something better than not, but, it seems a lot of you are saying that I should get used to the space first and then tackle it. With an entire house to do this to, this makes a lot of sense. I've picked out appliances that'll run about $1400 for a fridge (skinny enough to fit), a stove (gas) and a dishwasher (my first!!). I did think about used to just tide me over in the short term and still might. I've got 2 weeks to decide. Didn't think about the fire hazard thing and moving things over. A pair of 9's for an 18 makes sense and just slide things over. Not sure how the gas line would effect that, but, that's easy enough to fix. A lot of you said things about budget. I'd like to keep it low, only because I've got the whole house to think about and paint was the cheapest option to give it a different look because the cabinets do like jainky. But, they hold dishes and pots and pans, soo.... could be future Paul's problem! @P M That looks really cool! That's a good luck for the pantry! Also, I work in IT for a university, so the school provides the grant. I have to stay five years and that's it. After that, I can do with what I want. It's not that they approve the changes. They had an inspector come thru and he comes up with a to do list of things that have to get done in a year. My list is 23 things long, but, some of those are super easy (reseat the toilet) and others are more complicated (rewire the garage). They don't have a say in what I do day-to-day, but I have to fix what they want fixed before next September. Again, thanks everyone! Sorry i can't respond to you all one by one, but I've read everything you wrote and provide updates! :)

Thank you ! I appreciate all the comments amd I’m trying to endure the siding . We got quotes for painting it and it was $25,000 and $17,000 to replace it . Who knew paint would be more . So that’s not happening now. Well have to put money into the landscaping and accents and hope that helps . I’ve never felt so discouraged about a house as this one and I’m not sure why . It just feels all wrong from the moment we moved it and they had all the furniture out. Maybe it’s just not the right fit for us but we are grateful we have a home and the location and neighbors are wonderful . Thank you everyone . And there is a photo when the siding was put on in the 1990s and it was actually a taupe beige color. The siding man said it has changed in the elements to its current color .