Beth, I have been so delighted and educated with all these posts. I love the evolution of your wonderfully charming home! You are an amazing woman! I share several of the decorating dilemmas you've mentioned. My "living room" is about 2' more narrow and 2' shorter than your area. I'm learning a lot from your post. The repurposed gun cabinet idea is absolute genius. Please share a photo when you've installed the shelves and contents. Regarding the non-glare glass for your larger artwork. The price of non-glare glass has become simply ridiculous. I have an entire hallway lined with (Gasp!) a family gallery wall. It includes photos from more than 100 years ago to this year's school pics of the great-nephew. Color, colorized, sepia toned, black and white, all mixed together and mostly in their original mismatched frames. That just about breaks all the rules, but I love my wall. Several of the older photos - Mom's 1954 graduation photo; MIL's 1952 wedding photo, etc. - had plain glass. I can't tolerate the glare either. I made a note in my iPod of all the frame sizes that needed replacement non-glare glass. Every time I'm at a thrift shop or yard sale I check out the "frames" area. You can often find large pictures that may be in horrid frames, but they will have non-glare glass! I buy the frame, take out the glass, and toss the rest. I found one very large print of ballet slippers framed with non-glare that was big enough to cut down into several pieces. It made one 8x10 and three 5x7 pieces of non-glare glass for my wall, all for $1. With their permission, I took the glass out at the shop, tossed the faded print, and re-donated the empty frame back to them.

Thanks,Mtn. You are correct. Measurements in the living area are tight, but ok, according to guidelines, but dining area may be a bit too tight. Thanks for catching. Since the dining area won't be used often (it'll be more of a tv watching hang-out space), I need to look at different table arrangement options - maybe just a two top in the corner that can be expanded when needed. Below is a better picture of the tile. (Funny but the paint looks almost lavender in that light, but it really is the same as above), Glad you like the floor, especially because we are using the same flooring to replace our kitchen and foyer floors upstairs too. BTW, your new beach house is wonderful -- love it!

Cabinets are fine and I like the idea of black hardware. If you choose slate look tile, make sure it's a warmish shade rather that gray as you need to compliment the ceilings with warm tones, not cool. Would you put rugs down? Dying to hear your plans for resurfacing the fireplace, please choose medium to light tones as you don't want to darken that area. If it was my place I would use wood floors only because it speaks to the organic look of the room. Keep us posted.

Thanks for the helpful information, and the prices make sense for a special weekend with multiple big events going on. Unfortunately we can't switch dates, but this gives me some other options to look at. I've never tried Trivago only because the smarmy tv pitchman annoys me, guess I'll have to expand my online booking comfort zone LOL. Maybe we can find somewhere reasonable for Friday-Sunday nights, then get a place in Boston proper for our last night. If anyone else has any ideas or tips, much appreciated.