Builder came up with the idea of opening the gable over the back porch allowing for a modified cathedral ceiling vs. having a flat ceiling. This also allowed us to make the most of the view of the mountain in the backyard from inside the family room. Designer came up with great master bath layout that gave us everything we wanted in a very efficient footprint. We had the idea of making as much use of the space under our U-shaped stairs for a large walk-in pantry that forms a J-shape. The builder was able to modify the original plans slightly to allow minimum 6' ceiling clearance throughout the entire finished pantry space. When you're looking at the pic below, the pantry extends the full width of the stairs to the left and then goes up under the stairs that are descending to the first floor another step or two to form a backwards 'J' shape. We had the idea of incorporating full height double trash pullouts in the laundry room to serve as hampers. We have 3 sets of them for a total of 6 hampers. Each bin = 1 full load of laundry. They make sorting and gauging a full load size so easy & when you're in between loads, the dirty laundry just disappears! Our builder had the idea of using the accent tile for the shower as the transition strip between the carpet in the bedroom and the bathroom tile floor. The only thing I wish we had done different was to use 2 strips of the accent tile vs. the 1. We had a media/print center added to our cubbies--the printer is housed on a rolling shelf in the middle of the unit, printer/school supplies are stored in the cabinet above, and various electronics components are in the bottom cabinet. We wanted as much storage space as possible in the kitchen island, so we made it double sided--standard 24" deep cabinets on the work side & 12" deep cabinets on the seating side. We designed the kitchen to have 2 dishwashers, a concealed microwave & concealed outlets. I was so tired of filling the dishwasher to capacity and still having leftover dishes to wash. 2 dishwashers solved the problem. I hated having the microwave on display, so we had the builder add an outlet in the cabinet above the double ovens. The microwave resides there and is completely concealed when not in use. Our kitchen outlets are actually mounted to the bottom of the upper cabinets so they're completely out of sight and won't interfere when we put in our backsplash. Last but not least are the flush glazed doors we used for the back of the house and the door into the garage from outside. We wanted a 1/2 lite door for the garage and full lite doors for the back doors. We really liked the look of the patio doors from the window companies, but they were VERY pricey. The standard steel/fiberglass models most supply houses and the big box stores carry have a chunky raised plastic frame that screws onto the door unit to hold the glass in place with screw hole fillers that are never lined up right--next to the patio doors the window companies make, these were a poor imitation. Looking at another supply house, I found Plast-Pro flush glazed fiberglass doors. When they came in, the builder and his supply house (who had never seen these) were impressed with the look and the price was reasonable--just a little more than the imitators they usually order. No cheap looking plastic raised frames with screw hole fillers that never line up right that yellow & crack over time! They make me very happy every time I walk or look through them. Hope this helps!

Is your original color espresso? It is hard to get the espresso shade with using a wood other than cherry or a few others. With maple and like woods they do not always take a dark stain well. I think it likely someone tried to fix a blotchy stain with a dark glaze except they used too much. Doing a glaze over a dark stain on maple and like woods is fairly common in order to get the dark stain to look uniform. The cabinets you put in look like espresso with a heavy handed sable glaze. If it were me and really wanted the original I would try to make a deal for cherry in the color of stain you want. Cherry does darken over time though.

cindy_7 ,thank you for sharing that - who'd have thunk it? I've got a big one that could use cleaning. Thank you, Annie : ) I know you've surely made more bread than me, but I'm gonna catch up! LOL! Oh, Linda, I'm sorry, but I've a feeling it was good, right?! My bread above had rice flour on top, and I just mushed it all together, ha! Jasdip, as Linda said, egg wash. I use a whole egg for breads where I want a really browned crust. But mostly I'll whip 1 egg white with a Tablespoon of water, until thoroughly combined, and brush it on (with one of those bristle pastry brushes, though I've been known to use my fingers!), then sprinkle on sesame or poppy seeds, or both - then into the oven. The egg white acts like a kind of glue. Not a good glue, like epoxy, which would hold all the seeds when you store and cut the bread, but more like Elmer's glue, which would hold the seeds fairly well, but you'll still loose some. The water is to make it light enough to brush on. Also, the egg white will give you a shine on your crust. Mixed with water, not as much though. Want more shine, don't add the Tbs of water. Wait, did I just use epoxy and Elmer's glue when talking about bread? Oh my. I'm so ready to stop remodeling.

Eggshell takes more care to get a perfect finish. Flat paint hides a multitude of mistakes, but the more sheen you have, the harder it is because the smoother (even if slightly) finish reflects light and highlights any flaws in prep, wallboard joints, paint load on the roller, etc. I have friends who paint all walls in semigloss, tend to use strong colors, and paint the ceilings the same color as the walls. Plus, they suck at prep, so you can see every patch, every bad wallboard joint, etc. Ugh. I much prefer flat (and not because of any of the above issues).