naadimre: "i'm between the Duravit Starck 3 with Sensowash C and the Toto Aquia with S350e Washlet. i love the clean appearance of the duravit line, especially but i've heard unfortunate things about the flushing mechanism so i'm a little gun-shy in making this purchase. i was wondering, since the Washlet can be fit onto many types of toilets can the same be done for the Sensowash? I think it's a lot nicer looking than the Washlet." There are two separate issues in your question. One is that "the Duravit Starck 3" is not a single model, but a family of models with different shaped bowls and (therefore) requiring different toilet seats. If you have a square-front Duravit, only a square front Duravit seat will fit. The other is that Starck is a designer: he styles products, but he does not engineer them. Toto Washlets fit Inax toilets, and Inax advanced toilet seats fit Toto toilets, because the Japanese giants sensibly have decided that it is in their mutual interest to have component interchangeability. The American and European makers are still locked into the King Gillette theory of marketing, and -- generally -- components are not interchangeable. Schick blades do not fit Gillette razors, and Gillette blades do not fit Schick razors. Inax invented the consumer advanced or "shower" toilet seat, and Toto has sold more of those overseas (though not necessarily in the home market of Japan) than anybody. Between them, Toto and Inax have a huge base of engineering knowledge and experience; they know how to make advanced toilet seats; Inax and Toto know what mistakes to avoid in the design of advanced toilet seats; they have the know-how and the know-how-not. Duravit? Probably not. They have an internationally renowned stylist to make a seat look snazzy, but in toilet seats, function trumps style. If the function of an advanced toilet seat is what you want, you are best off sticking with Inax or Toto; if you want styling more than you want function, go with the Duravit. (When we had the decision to make in our home, we chose a Toto toilet and an Inax seat, playing to the relative strengths of both brands.)

Hi Maggie 2000!! I too have a love of glass block and I am looking at retiring to MO from VA in a year or two. I will try to post pics of what I would like to do with a 1925 house I have found online that I love and has everything I am looking for. The glass block shower I have picked out for this house is available at home depot but so far I have not fully researched what all is available. If Johnfrwhipple was available I would have him do the build and remodel lol, since I really want one that has no door. I am going with a pedestal sink to stay with the age of the house and I do not need the storage space for just myself and 2 dogs. Well I cannot seem to post more than one pic so the link to my pinterest page for this house and what I would do with it. Here is a link that might be useful: 1925 MO house and what I would do

RM...whoa. First of all, thanks so much for the thumbs up on my hardware choices. Second, your kitchen looks great! I have admired it many times on GW. Third, kudos for being such an awesome mom. You have two kids at two extremes and I know that both can be equally challenging. I totally love Zoloft and Lindt Chili Chocolate. But like you said, that *is* a totally different story altogether ;) Let me be clear. I do love Christopher Peacock kitchens. If he wanted to gift me one, I would happily accept. I am just so bored with the expense of his kitchens and do find that they lack a certain personality. Or should I say, pretty much only contain *his* personality. Still, they're hot to look at! I am flattered that you are asking little old me for advice, but I am sure there are much much MUCH more experienced members who would actually know where to begin. For me, I read your post, looked at your kitchen, and couldn't figure out why you wanted to change your kitchen. It is very Peacock-esque. The furniture feet support that look. I can't tell from the pic what the space is between the fridges. Is that a desk/message center? I am intrigued by your love of pink and am wondering why the rug in front of the sink isn't pink! I honestly really like your kitchen and, to be truthful, do not want to offend you with any critiques that might be not up your ally. The main thing is, I am not sure what you want to achieve with reworking things. From the sound of your post, I take it that you want to warm it up a bit and lighten that wall of upper cabs. The main thing that came to mind when I looked at the kitchen was that it would look really nice with no upper cabs. But that probably would not be very practical. I know when designing my kitchen, I thought it would be lovely to have no uppers...but where would I put the food? OMG..I could have had a really big pantry next to the fridge. Oh crap, that would have been better! Man, see what you've done? Now I want to redo *my* kitchen and it hasn't even been installed yet!

I don't think there is anything wrong with fake dormers if it fits in a particular situation. To say that only attributes which are functional should be added to a house is absurd - and I doubt there is a single participant on these threads who doesn't have interior trim or other things which serve little to no functional purpose. Eh, thing is, the trend today seems to be, "A fancy house with lots of gee-gaws is a nicer, more impressive house -- no matter if they serve a purpose or not!" With that statement, I do not agree.