Kathec, I feel your pain on the builder's oak kitchen. (I'm on the verge of finally tearing mine out, since the builder had obviously never washed a dish or cooked a meal in his life. Such a waste.) *Loved* the video and sent it on to numerous friends and we all agree that we've gone backwards in kitchen design. It's ridiculous that "all drawers" is still considered revolutionary ;-) (I also look at my friend's vintage Frigidaire Flair and realize that not only does it cook the pants off my 80s cooktop, but it's also better laid out with a wide burner spread and double overhead ovens.) I live in hope that since home cooking is on the rise, good kitchen design might be making a come back ;-)

@iroll: Your floor is great! Yeah, I can see that there are a lot of different colours in the tile. It seems to give it some depth. I really love the uniform look. Do you notice seams at all? So i *think* I've decided on thick stripes running across the width of the galley. I got a quote for the yellow and off white marmoleum ("natural corn" and "barbados"). @deedles: maybe the butter colour you mention is the "natural corn"? The yellow is a perfect yellow. Yes, expensive, but really lovely and more vibrant that the vinyl. My thought process around the use of stripes is that I can use the 3X1-foot pieces, which are less expensive than the 1X1s. @a2gemini: the marmoleum is cork-backed, I believe, but don't quote me on that. The dealer I talked to also recommended a cushy underpad for it, so it seems like it would be pretty easy on the back. My mother is telling me to get cork ;-)

Oh ! MY then you would love to have my kitchen , I started retroing it the minute the landlord told me to go for it ,and then when she told me the age of the house , I loved it even more , it's a 1920's Sears Craftsman home ,I love the the huge cabnets not, alot of space but I like it , it's still has the sink comeing out of the wall and of course the same windows with the weight in side, so far I stubled on a 1945 Gafflers and Staller stove , pressure wash it and got all the grills and stuff cleaned and the only thing I haven't gotten to yet is finding a clock for it , i've been all over the antique store's lucky me I live in Orange County and the orange circle is just brimming with retro items, on the mirowave I simply bought a red one from Target like 60 bucks and a red coffee pot, if you have any good wills in your area hit them up , cause alot of estate things go there , I've painted my kitchen red and yellow , took the rather large drawers and took some paint remover , and some elbow grease and a paint gun which just melts the paint off , painted them red and found some little rooster decals that I put on , went to the 99 store and food some checkered red and white contact paper and put them in the drawer some plactic deviders to . Because I'm into both the retro, feista and the older pyrex , you know the different colored one with the little lids, i found scores of them in the goodwill nd also the different color pyrex bowl set , for a grand total of five bucks ,it's got a door to that leads to the laundry room , so i took out the old glass and put some screen wear the glass was and painted the door red and then found some red and white checked curtains and it looks super , even still has those old looks with the knob to open the door , I'm still trying to find the perfect frigerator , I saw one on one ad and fell in love it's a kelvanator foodarama (SP). Know i have the Idea to pull up the linolim (SP) and see what he wood looks like, maybe sand it and do the red and white checker board my self or be lazy and find the red and white checker board myself , as for the kitchen counters I hate them the tile , but i want to go for the old soda pop look , red linolem , so far. as for the arctiure of the the house it's soild and and i love the wood detailing so i'm just going to get out my magic eraser and clean , the walls do need paint has a few cracks bit i figure to paint the walls a camel color so the cracks will give off a shadow , if you go to the 99 cent store you with find alot of red if that's your color and the good will you would be amazed , I found and old ceder wood cabnits that hold plates and glasses and I store my pyrex and feista wear in there , also at the good will I found not one but 9 chrome toaster with the cloth cord for 99 cents apiece still in the box to took them home shined up a little ,put them up on ebay for 50;00 a piece and all sold except the one I kept and still use , I don't know if alot of folks go to the good will but you can find lots of stuff , I'm fixin to paint my 1945 stove red , like i said i live in what i call antique town , I just got the universal knobs to the stove , because it has the stove on one side and the broiler on the other and has the griddle in the middle , I guess the floors are pretty stonge cause that thing took 4 good sized men to get in my kitchen oh and of course , i found some old cambells soup and vegatable ad that came out of the time life magazines painted some black frames and put them on the wall above the stove , I will have to take a picture although not all toghether yet I still love my kithen even if it is in the works. Take care

We used B&W tile! I think they are called American Tile now- these are the 27S Aqua Satin. The website has their catalog of sizes- they carry a lot of sizes and shapes! We used them them for our green bathroom and we are doing a pink and aqua bathroom this summer- they have just the right shades of pastel!