Worthy, thank you. No pictures yet as we just have a concrete block bunker at the moment and I doubt I could figure out how to post a picture even if I had one. We are in central coastal Florida and the exterior will indeed be what the builder is calling "old world" stucco painted white. The general idea is that the original owner was a merchant who rose is the world to afford a bigger house and added on rather than building new. Thus we have the "old old" wing of the house with the kitchen, great room and 2 upstairs bedrooms connected by the foyer to the "merchant's addition" that now has the master bedroom and office. This has not been researched for historical accuracy but is sort of a take off on the idea of how the Pennsylvania farmhouse grew with the income and family size of the farmer. Also, when we decided to build I was determined not to plunk another Italianate villa on the landscape. I hope I'm not committing an atrocity against an island style home but this is what the architect came up with.

Chinchette - Your flooring looks lovely. Thanks for the picture. Why am I getting cold feet someone asked? A couple of reasons. We do have pets (both cats and dogs). Dogs wouldn't typically be in the kitchen but the cats would. The wood I like is wide blank, medium to dark in color and distressed. I am concerned cat hair would really show up on it not to mention possibility of scratching. I know even with engineered wood we could always refinish but that will take away at least some of the distressed look. Then there are aesthetics. We plan to have cherry cabinets in a medium to dark finish. I find that when I look at pics of kitchens with darker cabinets and darker wood floors that I tend to not like it. We haven't picked a counter but probably a lighter granite. I've looked at a number of pics of kitchen with wood flooring and I like them when the cabs are painted or the cabinets have a light stain or when the wood floors have a light stain. But I don't want any of that. FWIW at our last house we had tile in the kitchen and slate tile in the family room/master bedroom/master bath and did not find it uncomfortable. We are probably going to have wood in our master bedroom in this house and perhaps in my study. The only eating areas we will have are the breakfast room (which is why we are making it 12 x 12) and the counter height bar seating. We rarely entertain so that is fine for us. Cangelmd - Good point that I've thought of. If we do decide to do something different in the kitchen than the family room I have to make sure that the designer designs it so that the transition works. I've just gone round and round on the flooring. I really want the open kitchen and like the idea of wood in the whole area a lot. On the other hand, I don't want the floor to look constantly dirty due to the cat hair. Year ago I had a very dark tile floor in my kitchen that always looked dirty. I did like the tile before (didn't find it too hard) but sort of wanted a warmer look for this house. So I could do tile in the whole area but then I give up wood (except perhaps in our bedroom). Just really uncertain what to do. I am almost paralyzed by this decision (one of many that I just can't seem to resolve).

I have BC in DR, tile in kitchen, and carpet (for now - eventually will do HW, prob. oak) in FR that is open to kitchen. DR has a 4ft wide doorway to kitchen. I just have a strip of BC that they ripped down and beveled the edge to meet the tile (lower) there right now since I am having tile issues. Where the DR floor meets the foyer tile near the stairs they put in a BC T-moulding. The carpet in the FR was installed after the kitchen tile and the edge is just tucked under. No transition strip. I guess if you stepped right on it, you'd have the edge (started with factory edge there - you don't want cut tile!) and would have the arch issue but we never noticed it. We have the same "tucked" transition b/t the bathroom tile and hallway carpet upstairs. The area would look larger if you did all the same flooring though, if you can afford it. I really want oak in my FR, but have oak cabinets in kitchen so would not continue them there, stick with tile, even if I have to replace the current tile b/c of installation problems.

If you can paint the kitchen walls and trim the same color, then the trim will look like an extension of the walls. If that is the case, I don't think you need to worry about the stained trim elsewhere.