I'm not sure why you aren't considering the Toto Aquia II dual flush toilet. It's under $300 on-line and is TERRIFIC, plus it has the skirted bottom which is totally the way to go - all toilets should be like this! (And if women were the designers, they would be LOL) We put in an Ultramax in 2003 and loved it, but the Aquia literally (pun intended) blows it out of the water. The seat's another $60, though! Pay attention to the install instructions with the clearances and line requirements; they're different than the standard install. Don't skimp on the toilet or the tub. Like your kitchen sink, they take a lot of abuse, and penny-pinching on them usually ends up biting you in the a$$. You can save lots of money on sinks, cabinets, lights, accessories (towel racks, TP holders, etc.) and flooring if you shop carefully and rigorously. Always remember that hired labor is your biggest component: my sheet vinyl flooring was less than $200 for the highest quality level, but the labor to install it was $500. Check granite stores for remnants if you want a touch of stone bling for your countertop. Use Moen or Delta or American Standard in the mid-price lines and you'll hit the 'sweet spot' for reliability, cost and performance. I have a $30 Waterpik showerhead in our main-floor bathroom that is superior to the $300 Hansgrohe showerspray in our master suite in every way. The Hansgrohe is a huge disappointment; it is simply not worth the extra money for the name. The Hansgrohe is connected to a Delta showerfaucet, the latter of which works very well and saved us another $300 for a Hansgrohe faucet. I mean really, can anybody look at a showerfaucet handle and tell who made it? Of course not. So skip the very cheap and the very expensive, and stay in the middle for your plumbing fixtures. Don't forget stores like Target or even dollar stores for accessory stuff. And hardware stores like Ace and OSH often have great sales on homeware in January and February. If you use acrylic or fiberglass for a showerpan, MAKE SURE the bottom is properly supported. A lot of people skimp on this and it's the worst thing you can do. These two materials can't take any flexing so it has to be solidly set. Make sure you pay attention to mfg's instructions for approved cleaning products. Using the wrong cleaner can strip the top gloss layer off and you'll never get the material to look clean again for long. Easy to replace: - bath cabinets - sinks - faucets (like to like only) - countertops - lights - showerheads - exhaust fans More costly/time-consuming to replace: - anything that needs a plumbing or electrical change - Tubs - Shower stalls and pans, depending on material - flooring

Thanks Kellie. Yes, it did change the exterior, but we tried to do it sympathetically. I don't have any current exterior photos, but here is the front of the house and the side before. The new bathroom is on the back of the house, an almost mirror image of the front gable. Here are a few photos from earlier this summer when we got the house listed on the Alabama Registry. I have since refinished the dining and living room floors so they flow nicely with the kitchen we did last year. Cyn427, here is the view from the bathroom window. It's a beautiful view, but the horse boarders do come and go from the barn at random times, so I can't count on privacy. I give my DH a hard time about the curtains, but they are probably a necessity! The upstairs is kind of hard to explain, but it originally had two large rooms on each side of the central hall and the little front gable. One of the large rooms was never finished, but the rest had all wood walls and a level seven foot ceiling. The new bath is a gabled dormer off the back, but the unfinished room will be our future master bedroom. We loved the higher ceilings, so we kept the vault in there. It lead to spray foam insulation everywhere, as it was the best choice for sealing an old house and let us keep the vaulted ceiling. Here is a photo of that room in progress where you can see the sloped ceiling. Marti, the bath is technically just the upstairs hall bath, but it's right outside the door to our future MBR. We thought about trying to put a connecting door through, but it didn't work out because of the low sloping roof line beside the gable. Since we can't have kids, it'll just be us up there, unless we really have a houseful of guests. The downstairs bath is more like you were thinking; it has a door to the bedroom (the purple one I posted above) and another to the mudroom. So it could serve as a true master bed/bath combo if someone needed first floor living. Here's a view of the upstairs floor plan with the new bath (although it was before the gable dimensions changed and the door swing had to be switched). Lake_Girl, that's funny you had the same idea with the sconces. I'm sad Lowes discontinued them, but it allowed me to buy them on clearance (although I had to go to two different stores to find enough). I'm not from Alabama (ninth state I've lived in in just over three decades), but we've adjusted over the past few years and found many things to like about it. Are you near Lake Guntersville, by any chance?

I've been going back and forth on your post for awhile now just looking and thinking. I have oak cabinets too and we changed out the hardware to ORB. I love it. I hear your pain on painting the cabinets! DH is the same way but has always been fine w/ me painting our cabinets. We've just never gotten around to it though. Leaving the cabinets as is until you cajole your DH into painting I think that white is a good decision for table and chairs. But Let me toss this idea out to you: Should you eventually paint your cabinets would you consider painting your table base in a pale shade of grey/ blue? I suggest this just because I think that those curtains need something a little 'weighty' in the kitchen w/ the addition of the brown sectional being in the other room. Or maybe not. I forgot that you were painting the wals green and I don't feel like erasing everything that I just typed!

pps - I've seen pics of your beautiful house and would trade in a heartbeat. Too many unfinished projects in mine anyway :-D shay - I painfully scrubbed this hutch with a toothbrush and wax remover (and even acetone) several times to get rid of the wax finish. That toned it down a bit but I then bleached the wood because I initially wanted the grain to show through the glazing. If I had known I'd end up using a solid paint then I would have still needed to go through the wax removing process but wouldn't have bleached the wood. I've used a commercial wood bleach (a powder you mix with water) on a pine piece before and that worked well but the hardware store was out of stock. I ended up using a homemade liquid drain cleaner solution found here: Homemade bleaching/aging solution Be sure to test a small area before you do this and wear a protective mask, gloves, etc. Also, allow plenty of drying time between removing wax/bleaching and applying a new finish.