There is definitely some calculus involved when determining what scale a renovation is, that involves both price and taste/finish. I think a middle-of-the-road renovation generally is around 10-15% of home value. But this frequently is retail cost, factoring in contracting labor, etc. Had I paid retail all along, my renovation would not be taking so long (coming on 2 years, thanks to interruptions for school), but would also be completely unobtainable for me on a students budget. Retail price for what I've done so far would be well over $60k. I've spent about $8k, through careful combing of craiglist and auctions, and free labor (dad). What I've gotten for my $5k* is amazing, however: SubZero 611 (craigslist, owner was upgrading to a Liebherr) SubZero 700BR (craigslist, never used) Gaggenau EB270 (craigslist, barely used) 30" Black Kohler Gilford sink (craigslist, display sale) 40sf of countertop slabs (bankruptcy auction) cork floating floor (craigslist, GC overage from a large job) 18 solid wood kitchen cabinets (friend upgraded her kitchen to Poggenpohl) steel spiral staircase (craigslist), going to the work/sleep loft we built over to the kitchen. *What about that remaining 3k, you ask? That went to a retail-priced 30" Bertazzoni Pro all-gas stove. Craigslist failed to deliver on a stove. There are some consolations- I absolutely love the range, and Bertazzoni had/has a free range hood promotion going on. So while I was never going to buy a $1200 range hood, I'm happy to get one for free. I did cry a little before spending full price on that stove, and a lot of it has to do with the calculus of middle-of-the-road and high-end. I'd talked myself into being reasonable, and just buying a perfectly fine mid-range GE. (Which was still going to be over $1k.) But the fact remained that the GE would stick out like a sore thumb in the kitchen I was constructing. And since craigslist was not coughing up a $500 Viking or Wolf, I finally accepted that I needed to pony up for a good-looking stove, and the Berta hit the sweet spot of no electronics, pretty, and reasonable (for a designer stove) cost. Being your own contractor is not easy, and craigslist is a minefield-- but even in it's half-assembled state, I'm completely in love with my kitchen now. (Possibly tinged with lingering gratefulness over the little things, like having a working sink to wash dishes in, or a stove that doesn't leak gas.)

We did something similar, knocked down two walls in a house that was previously little boxes. We only needed beams, and they actually help define the spaces, I think. I'm glad we have them. We have 48" between island and cabinets, and it is nice. I could probably have done with about 42", but no less. That is the wall with the refrigerator and range on it, and the island holds the sink, so there is a lot of cooking traffic there. If you don't want white appliances, you can always panel the dishwasher and refrigerator, and the range doesn't really matter. You can still get stainless (there probably will not be that many fingerprints on the range, will there?) or get one that comes in a color (Viking, Bluestar, Bertazzoni, Kenmore, uh, who else?). THey have white ranges, too, of course. This all depends on budget, of course. I love white-painted paneling, so I say go for it if you want. I can't say about the island level, but I know I love having ours one level. It hasn't gotten too messy yet, but it's not in view of the front hall, either. Good luck

Still searching for something to fall in love with to put over my living room sofa. Some ideas but nothing I'm ecstatic about. Dining room still needs wall art too. I decided against the PB mirror. Searching, searching. Please post ideas if you have them. Thank you!

Well, it might be the BEGINNING of the end, but it's not really the END of the end for me yet here in Thornton! I spent most of the day on Sunday building a "room" for my tomatoes to keep their toes warm in! Constructed it with a roof of steel "cross-beams" which are the "sides" of a bunch of commercial grade steel shelving units (disassembled) that I have--laid them from the top of two step ladders over to the privacy fence and then put more the "other direction!" Then I laid all my cuke trellises across those--covered almost the whole thing. Then I put a layer of wool packing blankets over the whole top, put a plastic drop cloth over those, and put a layer of sheets on top of the plastic--to help keep it from blowing away! THEN I laid some 6' stakes across the top and weighted them down with bricks--again, to keep "anything" from blowing away! It was pretty windy for the next 24 hours! Then I "attached" blankets to the "roof" all the way around the sides to form the "walls!" Built a "shorter extension" on the front of the building with two little 3-step ladders to protect the eggplants that are right next to the tomatoes! All the walls are weighted down on the bottom with bricks and a few rocks! When all the walls were assembled I climbed inside--thru one of the step ladders!--and put three sockets with 200 watt bulbs in them in there--since my tomatoes are all mulched with dry leaves I put them in double tin foil pie tins to be sure the whole thing wouldn't go up in FLAMES in the middle of the nite! By then it was 7:00 and getting dark out fast! After pinning my "door" shut I came in and "plugged the thing in!" I could see there was lite in it, so I assumed all was working as planned! It didn't get that cold Sunday nite--I think only down to about freezing, but I did get, I estimate, 3-4" of snow over nite! Monday I HAD to know what was going on out there, so after the snow pretty much stopped I unpinned my Door and climbed in again! Only one of the bulbs was lit! One of them happened to be in a place where it was possible for water to drip, and apparently cold water had dripped on the hot bulb and it had burst! One bulb was just not on, and I eventually figured out that the cord that one was on wasn't plugged in all the way! The tomatoes were FINE! I replaced the one bulb, plugged the one all the way in and verified that it was working, and ADDED a fourth bulb, just to be sure--Monday nite, at one point, "they" were saying was gonna get down to 22º here, but by late Monday they had upped that to 26º, but, you never know! With four bulbs working I pinned the door back shut and kept my fingers crossed! Tuesday I looked inside again, and the tomatoes and eggplants are all cozy and warm! One of the four bulbs had apparently burned out at some point so there were only three on. I only got down to 28º on Monday nite! On Monday nite, AFTER I had it all "put back together again" I was wishing I had thought to put one of my remote thermometers in The Tomato House, but by the time I thought of it it was dark again and I wasn't about to be out there in the dark trying to visit my tomatoes. But yesterday, Tuesday, I did climb under the ladder to go inside again and I took the thermometer with me! Last nite I got down to 32º! INSIDE my Tomato House, with three of the 200 watt bulbs working, it only got down to 43º! I decided to leave the walls up yet today, and haven't been inside again--it really is quite an "ordeal" to climb under The Ladder, thru all the WET wool blankets! Today it got up to 67º inside and is 59º in there right now! (I turned the bulbs off this morning!) Tomorrow I'll probably "unbrick" the bottoms of the walls and flip them up on top of the roof so I can get some air circulation back in there! What do I expect to accomplish with all this work??? Ok, first of all, I'm Olde and Retired, and have plenty of time to do it--AND need the exercise anyway, especially with Long Dark Un-Gardening WINTER coming up! By now the sun is far enough down on the horizon that the tomatoes don't get a lot of sun anymore! With my Spring Trip I once again didn't get my tomatoes put in until the beginning of July! For me I had a very successful Tomato Year (especially compared to last year when apparently my tomatoes weren't watered at all the whole three weeks I was gone on my FALL trip--when all I managed to grow was the most humongous batch of white flies I've ever seen!), but almost all of them are still all the way green! They just need more time! How much, if any, they'll still grow, is VERY questionable! But by leaving them in the ground for as long as I can some of them should start ripening on the vines--before I need to finally cut them and hang them in the garage to ripen the rest of the way! By leaving them in the ground they're still getting water thru the vines--once they're cut off that stops, and, while they will ripen very slowly when hung, eventually the vines don't have enough moisture left and they gradually start to dehydrate! I'd like to think it helped to cover the eggplants, but I really don't think it did! The were put in "late" too, and they have a LOT of flowers and some "too small to eat" fruit, but with the lack of sun and the, now, cold nite temps, I think it's a pipe dream to hope I'll get more off of the plants this year! Before I started my Construction Project I cut down two tomatoes that had been "extra" that I had planted further down the side of my house, away from the main tomato bed. They're both cherries and I cut off all the leaves, tied them together on the bottom--one is red and one is yellow--and hung them in the garage. There's a lot of fruit on those two vines, so they can now start their slow "upside down" ripening in there! Cherry tomatoes I can just pick and use whenever they happen to be ready! Or, can pick them and eat them as I'm going by to get in my car!!! I also cut all the (few) ripe/starting to ripen ones and brought them in, and also picked all the eggplants that were big enough to eat now--just in case my Tomato Room didn't actually work! When I started the Project I didn't have a CLUE what I was gonna use to build it with! Since there's so little sun now I'll probably just leave the "roof" on my Tomato Room for the rest of this season. That way I can flip the sides/walls up or down as necessary, depending on what the night temps are gonna be! I still have my fingers crossed that it'll warm up for a couple more weeks before we get really "ongoing" cold! But even if the nites keep getting "too cold," now that I have the "structure" up and the bulbs in there I can leave them in the ground for at least another 2 or 3 weeks before I have to bring them all in! And now we all enter the Dark Drear of Winter! December 21 can't be TOO far away, can it????? Skybird