To do the sun/shade studies I propose here two things need to happen. The site plan needs to be rotated to true north and a set of shade templates must be constructed. The site plan rotation makes it possible to use the same templates for all projects in the same general area. The templates work well over about a 30 mile radius, which can probablly cover the work area of most designers. To do sun calcs one needs the Lat/Long location of the area. This can be found at ... www.topozone.com Below is a screenshot of me looking for Shawn's project at Campbell, CA. Note on the left I have set the "Corrdinate Format" to "D/M/S". Then at the top of the map the Lat/Long will be shown as degrees, minutes, seconds. At the lower right True north is shown with the difference for magnetic north and grid north. A lot of mapping will use a grid north and I suspect Google maps may well be shown to the UTM grid which is a 0.636 error from true north at Canpbell, not something to worry about for sun studies. We don't have the sun observation described above to pin down the rotation needed, but looking at Google Maps of his house I was able to determine that the roof edge is near azmuth 215 degrees. Azmuth is direction of a line in degrees or rotation from North. Think of it as the hand on a clock where 0 is at the 12 position of the clock and as the hand swings clockwise, 360 degrees is the full circle. 90 degrees is East, 180 is South, 270 is West. Sun calcs are easily done at the following web site ... http://www.srrb.noaa.gov/highlights/sunrise/azel.html Below is a screen shot of a sun calc for Shawn's project. Above I have set the "City" box to "Enter Lat Long", and the values I got from topozone are entered. The time offset box is set to 8 (7 for Mountain, 6 for Central, 5 for Eastern time) and set Daylight Savings Time to "yes". A date and time was entered, and then the calc button is clicked to get the results. By changing the time by trial and error I look for an azmuth of 215 degrees, the roof edge direction I got from google maps. The time comes out to be 1.49PM. Though Shawn missed the sun observation last Saturday, he guessed it was near 2PM. It looks like rotating his plan so that the roof is at az 215 is what we need. Next I need to complete the templates for this area.

French polishing: 1) fill pores of wood with a mixture of oil and ground pumice stone. 2) Apply 2 or 3 ground coats of shellac with a fine brush, evenly. 3) When the shellac is just dry enough, begin the polishing by making circular or figure-eight motions of a carefully prepared rubbing pad. The pad must have a cotton wad core suffused with alcohol, and one uses an oil as a lubricant. Careful!, you can easily mar the finish during this process, or make it rippled and lumpy. 4) spirit off, with another pad with alcohol only. Careful! you can easily ruin the job at this point. Casey

Hi Tara -- lots of great advice upthread about how to transform the feel of the rooms while doing very little to change the architecture (also on team remove shutters here...and preferably put nothing up...I've only ever seen accent windows like that left bare but...). April's nailed it re the before/after shots (perhaps a wide-angle lens, too?). You aren't that far away from your own after in that space, though it may not feel that way. Whether you end up with paler or deeper wall shades the key is complementing the wood, so Google This Old House tips for cleaning it so you're working from the best starting point. As someone who's lived in vintage fixers and been involved with fixers I also just wanted to offer encouragement. There's a real mental health toll to living in disarray with no end date, spending spare time fixing, not having enough budget to fix or decorate immediately, perhaps navigating different priorities for what gets fixed when, etc. If any of those apply it's draining...not sure of your story, but if they all apply it can cause even more issues. If you have space to call one room or closet or whatever the crap room, do it and clear as much as possible out of these rooms. If you can DIY the scrubbing and painting do that asap...i think you'll feel a real lift when you walk through the door. If you need to furnish on a tight budget, post separately for ideas you may not have thought of. While I love love love older homes they can carry so many styles of design -- see examples others' posted plus homes of Europeans, who laugh at our idea of "old." I Rx zero heavier dark wood pieces since you're already struggling...hopefully your husband will be on board!

Well, this is Kim--not a pro, but I get the do it on a budget thing. I think it's imperative that you get a good contractor. I also think that you need to do your research. We did our kitchen for less than 20K. everything new but the flooring, fridge, and oven. We did plan and research for about a year. Find your contractor now--if you get a good one, it'll take 9 months to a year before he/she is available to do the work. If the contractor is available any day now--beware. If you are new to your area, this first step may be a tough one. Ask people you know. You may even be able to get some references from this site, or Angies list, or Home Depot/Lowes. You may even be able to do the remodel in steps, so that you can save up and get higher quality products down the line. It sounds like your cabinets are the main driver. Interview your contractors. Get more than one quote. We have an excellent, well trusted contractor, whom we have worked with on many projects. We like this contractor, because he is a good communicator. He will talk budget with us, and he spells out cost for products and labor in his quotes. There are cabinet lines that are lower end. Sophie doesn't use those lines, because she has a wealthier clientele, and has excellent experience and taste. She also probably makes bank on those better lines, so who can blame her for the position she takes on this subject? It makes sense that she put her opinions out there, and she is right about the quality to a certain degree. Perhaps the lower quality cabinets you purchase won't last quite as long, or get your home onto the most saved photo list on this site. However, if your cabinets are falling apart, have an unpleasant odor, are rotting out, and your budget is 20 K, then you have to get creative and savvy. New cabinets that function and aren't rotting are a priority. Sometimes the driver isn't house beautiful--it's function over form because of the budget! (But don't throw form out entirely--that is still important too! That's where creative and savvy come in!) You can go to Ikea, or to Craigs list for gently used cabinets, or RTA, or a big box store...or any number of other places--but you have to do your homework! Learn about the products, measure your layout--realize you may need someone- contractor and/or KD who can tell you that you need a spacer here or there. You don't HAVE to set your refrigerator back to be in line with your cabinets--it looks nice, flows better, but may be cost prohibitive. I think that $3000 on a 20K budget seems quite high, but $1500 if you know that you don't have a very good handle on how this all works may save you a lot of dough down the line. You know your ability to do this better than I do. We went with Wolf cabinets, which have several lines--less expensive to more expensive. There are fewer choices/finishes in the lower cost lines. The lower end line cost was comparable to the RTA in cost, except these come assembled. Also these are made in America--check out their site. The lower end cabinet boxes are well made, and these have all the high quality, soft close features ( and use the same hardware used in the more expensive lines and custom cabinets). You can get 42 inch high wall units, Lazy Susans, drawer units. You CAN get full overlay in the lower end. You don't need crown molding right now--but you can plan to add it in the future if you want to do so. You can Rev a Shelf for your trash unit-Amazon/Build/all the box stores have Storage solutions that can save you money too. Measure your space--standard depths are less expensive--24 inch depth for lowers 12 inch for uppers. Think about how/when you/your spouse cook/use the kitchen. We kept the footprint of ours essentially the same, but made small changes that had a BIG impact in how smoothly things run in the mornings with 2 cooks in a very small kitchen. Hopefully this will help you. It can be fun, creative, and nerve wracking at the same time. Good luck. There are all sorts of good advice already given on here. You're going to have to tease out what will work for you.