Faron, Thank you so much for writing back right away. You are so knowledgeable and generous with your time. I just want my walls to look nice and I was afraid if I skipped the primer, the paint may not stick. These forums (especially Michael) has taught me how important it is to prep the walls before painting and I can see how nice my other walls look by following this advice and making sure my painter did what I told him to do. But my bathroom was just painted and I am not changing the color much at all. I guess it is my fault for taking a shower too soon in the room and not putting the fan on in the room after each shower since I have no windows and that is why the paint is now streaking. All the other rooms look great and the other bathrooms have no problems that are rarely used. I do have the guest bathroom that I can take showers in for one week. I rarely use it since I like taking showers in my master bathroom with the glass doors than in a tub with a shower curtain. I only use that bathroom for guests or to wash my little doggies. I guess for one week, I can use the guest bathroom to shower in despite a little smell from my doggie's puppy pads in there. I guess I should feel blessed that my townhouse has 2 1/2 baths and has a lot of room. I just keep the puppy pads in there since in the winter time my spoiled little 5.8 lb Maltese, Sassy does not like to go outside. My other little doggies will go outside in my fenced in backyard on the stones but not the little Miss Princess Sassy who has always been like this knowing her cuteness will win out. I am just changing the color slightly since the BM Navajo White is only slightly less yellow than the Deep Cream and the Navajo White which I feel will go better with the bone colored Jacuzzi and the two bone colored sinks and the bone colored toilet, as well as the taupe tiles up the sides of the Jacuzzi and shower stall. The extra gray in the Navajo White surprisingly does not look gray to me in that room but warms the walls up and takes away the lemon cast that to me just did not look right against the taupe tiles. They are so similar in color and the formulas show it (Navajo White has 4 Less Units of Oxide Yellow and 4 more units of Gray and 1/2 extra unit of Orange than the deep cream color but otherwise they are so much alike in formula) but the room will then appear less lemon but still happy and bright and be semi-gloss like I wanted since I have no windows in it and I want to be able to clean it easily when I brush my teeth and get my walls dirty. I love my new pictures and my new olive towels and new olive rug and I feel they will go better with walls that do not have that lemon cast to them. I guess I should ask the paint store for a "liquid deglosser" and they will know what I mean? I can degloss part of the bathroom except for the tallest walls I will not be able to reach even with a tall ladder since I am not quite 5 feet. Maybe I can do what I can before painter arrives and he can do the rest. I think he is not that tall either (but much taller than me) but has tall ladders and long poles for his rollers. I had the painter tint the primer deep cream last time for the deep cream room and bone white tinted for the bone white room. I guess that was not really necessary since the colors are so light. The painter used the Deep Cream tinted primer for the Philadelphia Painted room telling me it was not worth going out to buy new primer. I wonder if this is why that room turned out more yellow than I had thought it would be.

I always use an extender with Aura. It gives you more time before drying. If you're painting a bathroom, research "surfactant leaching." This happens when the paint in a bathroom isn't fully cured, and you use the shower. Google photos of surfactant leaching. Most paint stores will say latex cures in a few days, but I had this problem in two homes and did extensive research. You get ugly drips down the walls, and they are yellow or brown. You can wash it off, but it comes back. Now, when I paint a bathroom, I wait 30 days before using the shower. That may be overkill, and if you only have one shower, that would not be possible.

Caddeau: If, as seems to be the case, you are back to debating between maple cabinets and cabinets painted a light color, here are some factors you may wish to take into consideration. 1. Natural light: You have a lovely big kitchen window and you will also have light coming in laterally from the new french doors. 2. Reflective properties of surfaces: You are accustomed to light-colored cabinets and counters, with slightly darker floors and appliances. This lightness would be somewhat diminished by maple cabinets and honed grey countertops. 3. Factors that can affect how bright a kitchen with wood cabinets seems: Direct your attention to sayde's recently posted in-process kitchen, linked below. The second photo is the charming "before" and the first is the unfinished but luminous "after." Same window, same natural light, same gumwood cabinets. But just look at the difference achieved by using fewer cabinets, adding a lovely sculptural hood, and changing from dark counters to honed marble. The difference seems to me to be amazing. 4. Cabinet height and arrangement: It looks to me as though there is a soffit over your current cabinets. If it can be dispensed with, you might want to look into 36" or (if there is room) 42" uppers. The top shelf will be useful for things not used daily, and the higher cabinets will not clash with the style of the house. Gaining the extra vertical storage might also give you more options for opening up the ranks of your uppers horizontally. 5. Think about how the kitchen will look from the DR: I replaced the DR wall with a peninsula in small house. I did not have such a nice large window to be the focal point of the kitchen from the DR, so I used a pair of really tall old cabinets to flank the window I do have. (Also, like you, I have a truncated peninsula -- not due to a hall closet but because of beat up chimney that). How this happened, as well as the idiosyncratic outcome, can be seen at https://picasaweb.google.com/109620537835698726512/KearneyKitchen?authkey=Gv1sRgCNXMkYi-5aL3xgE#. (I am including this because modest-sized kitchens tend to be under-represented in this forum and among inspiration photos. Many kitchens depicted here have islands nearly the size of my kitchen and -- I suspect -- yours. The challenges posed are quite different.) 6. Finished kitchens blog: the kitchens at http://finishedkitchens.blogspot.com/2009/11/mrao77s-kitchen.html and http://finishedkitchens.blogspot.com/2007/01/outwests-kitchen.html illustrate not only the different effects of lightish vs brighter maple, but also how the massing of wood surfaces makes a difference in the apparent space of the kitchen. Whew, and cheers. Here is a link that might be useful: sayde's unfinished kitchen.

Just wanted to provide some first hand experience and input with regards to Fabuwood cabinets. We too had looked at alot of cabinetry lines when planning our kitchen remodel in our new house, as we had previously purchased a semi-custom line of Kraftmaid cabinets for a kitchen remodel in our previous home, which we loved, but were looking for something a bit more economical as we paid almost $12k for Kraftmaid back in 2004. We too had some reservations about Fabuwood, but after much research, online reviews, and seeing completed projects in person, we ultimately went with Fabuwood's Wellington Ivory. For the design, quality, style, construction, price, finish, etc. you really would be hard pressed to find another manufacturer that offers all that. They are also one of the few companies that offer a tall and wide pantry with pull outs, and this was a must for the design we wanted/needed. And yes, the hardware/hinges are Blum. My husband is a carpenter so we had planned to do all installation ourselves, and he is particular, and he was overall satisfied with quality and construction. We added quite a few "xtras" with decorative supports for island, fluted panels for pantry, trim for foot moldings, etc. but all totaled was less than $12k. We worked with a kitchen design center/dealer, and cabinets were ordered and received (well most of them anyway) within about 4 weeks. While there were a few issues with a couple of the items (scratched, dinged, or cracked), all we had to do was take a pic with our phone, send it to our dealer, and a replacement was sent within less than 2 weeks time door to door. I would say that if we had a young, growing family, I may have chose a natural wood, which may be a little more durable, but since our kids are grown and out of the house, we went with a painted/glazed finish, and we absolutely love it. I have read that others have not had good experiences, but If I had to rate ours...I would say an 8.5 out of 10. There are always issues that arise during a major reno project, and we expected and accepted that. While it caused some delay, it was not a huge deal, to us at least. We have a log home so we there were some limitations to style, i.e so we were going for a french country look. Here are a few pics of the before, during and after reno.