Um....well....wow. I did make it through the entire post...and quite a post it was! By the way....I'll take the pony. I already have a dirty kid. Lucky for me I have good paint on the walls...LOL! OK....let's get this out of the way... There's a good chance I may say something you don't agree with...and that's OK. I'm a 3rd generation painter and started learning the business when I was 12. Take that for what you will. Every painter...no matter how long they've been doing it...thinks they're the expert (just my opinion after knowing thousands). Now..your situation... This new concept of "full spectrum paints"....pure baloney. Absolutely nothing but marketing. Every paint is a full spectrum paint. Let's not forget that there are only 3 primary colors. Black is the presence of all color and white is the absence of all color. From this we derive all variations....and colorants (the term for what is added to paint) are manufactured to certain variations for simplicity. Without boring anyone to death about the progression...this page is a good start: http://www.artsparx.com/color_basicprinc.asp That said...what is most important is quality of the paint and the consistency of color. Quality of the paint is fairly simple. Every paint manufacturer has good paint and garbage paint. There is no such thing as 'which brand is better'. They all have top of the line...and they all have contractor (new construction) grades. What you want is 100% acrylic. Acrylic refers to the type of resin used to make the paint...and it's the best. Consistency of color is a tad more involved. Green (for example) can be made from blue and yellow...or it can be made from black and yellow...or from purple (blue and red) and yellow. All results are 'green' but they will have a different effect on the eye. You can take the same shade of green...made each way...and they will 'look' and 'feel' different. The best way to get an idea of this is to look at a paint 'fan deck' or color chip display. You see blues in one area...then blues in another different area. Most people look at this and wonder 'they're all blue...why aren't they just all together'? There's a reason...and you have to understand the reason. While they may look very similar...they are made from different color combinations. This is what gives color a 'feel'. An example is a home I recently painted. They do not like color. Huge fans of beige...in different forms. They chose shades from all over the sample choices. Beige is beige...right? Nope. I tried to explain...but they loved the little chips. Now that it's done...there's a different feel from one room with a beige based on black...to the adjoining room with a beige based on red. It's subconscious...but recognizable. Now I'm repainting 3 rooms. So here's the thing for you. Pick whatever color you like for each room. You can go for warmth, soft, vibrant, or any mood you wish the room to have. What creates flow is not color...but what the color is based on. Try to think of the basics of color and not get drawn into the hype. Now...this post of mine has gone on more than I planned....so if anyone makes it through...you can pass my pony on to them. I'll hang on to the dirty kid I have......for now. Best of luck to you.

Those are very nice chairs, ML. I agree that they could go in the living room as easily as the dining room. I like the wavy "x" legs, especially. It gives them a little something extra. I have studied your diagrams and read your descriptions, finally. Ran around all day yesterday - went and got a Holter Monitor at the cardiologist's and then hit Salvation Army, where I got a sweet little bakers rack - solid metal, welded seams - for $35! Just needs a little 3M Rust Reformer. I think you have shown us the kitchen design before. I remember the sink across from the Bertazzoni, the big garden window, the baking area. I am not sure if you had the nice indentation there for the cook to have a safe zone, though. I do remember the sitting area outside the bedroom, though. It is neat to see the diagram of your home after all these years of seeing photos of little parts of it and imagining how it all fits together. The nosy neighbor, is he on the side with the clawfoot tub and your clothes closet? Is the new vestibule in the front new this time? I don't think I remember seeing that. I am also a bit surprised that you gave up on the storage/pantry units on either side of the window seats. I like your idea of base and wall cabinets with your favorite solid surface counter there, though. Does the table that you use in that space have extensions that you can use to fill the dining room if you have a large group? I am now struggling with an idea I have for my family room. We now have a nice (but huge) 1990s TV unit with the doors that slide out to shut the TV behind. Which I never do. The thing is 5 ft high, which is too high to place my gnome garden upon. I have my air plant garden up there, but it can hardly be seen. I want to ditch the furniture, get a larger wall-hung TV (old eyes can't see small print) and have a furniture piece that I can set things on and under. Craigslist had an beautiful console table for $230 that was under 2' deep at its smallest configuration that looked like a sofa table. It could be pulled out to 8' long! Yet it was only about 8" deep! I could set things on the floor underneath it, as well as on top. It did need a little restoration (it was from the 1930s), and I would not feel really comfortable putting a garden on it, as drips could happen. But since I made the entire kitchen into an island, I have no place for a table-height table, and thought I might want that option if I could ever talk DH into getting rid of the hunk o'oak that I once thought that I just had to have! I'd love to give it to someone to make into a nice play kitchen set like MamaGoose made! We could bring up dining chairs from the basement and have a sit-down meal if we wanted to. Currently, we eat at the island or sitting on family room furniture. I have a tea cart DH and I have used as a dining table, though. So I am imagining that you have the extending table that I wish I had! I hope that you are well by now, and that Marti is over her cold, too. I hear that both flu and colds are going around in Michigan, with Norovirus and RSV also hitting hard. We have been lucky, so far.

Well...I tried to explain up-post that it's not a simple solution to convert an existing non-habitable attic space to a habitable attice space at some future time. Again, two of many examples: 1. There will need to be a set of stairs added. Where will they go? 2. If the initial roof is economically framed with roof trusses, rather than more expensive rafters designed for proper head-room in the future, then a habitable attic may be simply impossible...unless the roof is removed, the trusses removed, and rafters added for a need roof. Good luck on your project!

It's been awhile since I have updated. Life continues to be crazy. Novembers are not lucky. We all got Covid around Sept/Nov time and it messed with Mom's blood sugar. She didn't keep up with checking her sugar levels and was too sick to keep oral meds down for a bit. She has high insulin resistance and ended up mistaking high blood sugar for low blood sugar. Her bcg shot to 900 and she ended up in ICU for almost a week. It was compounded with kidney stones. Then she had some low sugar incidents that required hospitalization. Last one she was unconscious and I had to put glucose tabs in her mouth to get her sugar up to 47 before paramedics arrived. She spent a few days in hospital then. She finally got approved for a CGM and insulin pump and has been doing better. I have to keep on top of changing out the sensors, the canula, cartridges & tubing. My arm is probably 99% healed. I'ts never been as strong as the right arm but its still a little weaker. Mobility has been returned. It gets sore more easily and sometimes has muscle spasms out of nowhere. The other bathroom is now usable and has the only working shower in the house. I recently talked to Mom about the shower seat situation and want her to see if it is easy for her to stand up from the shower seat we already have. Legs are not adjustable and I think its too short. I also think it will tip over. She's lost some weight so she doesn't need one that is as large. We're also working on a laundry room/3rd bathroom reno. It's the original bathroom of the house. Just got the new door installed on Sunday. Even though we already have the Moen showerhead, I think I want to use a different one that my friend took out of his shower because it has a diverter lower down so Mom can reach it while sitting. Why they put a diverter up high out of reach on something that had a handheld is beyond me. I guess they didn't intend for it to be ADA friendly. Other one is a KES rainshower with handheld. I need to go pick it up from my friend's house after I get some of the lawn tools out of the truck. I found some rejected paint on clearance at one of the big box stores and Mom wants to use it on the cabinets.