*Sweeby, yes your bath is just about like what my layout would look like. Your bath is very pretty and soothing, a goal of mine. Your base tiles and cigar rail is way more elaborate than my pencil & base. I like the idea of painting the ceiling same as walls. Another question, do you think since the 4.25 sq tiles will never line up with the 8" trim that it wont look good? If so what if I did a running bond? I wanted to use the stacked because of the historic context of my existing walls. I just assumed that since it was a field tile that it would read as a large surface. How was it done back in the day? I think today I will take my camera to work. I work in a hospital with some old tile work. I will take pictures to help me with my interpretation. Of note, one room I work in used to be one of the old original surgical suites. It was built in 1918 I believe (it might go with the Steampunk theme on the kitchen forum:) It is now a group therapy room. Until recently even an old light switch was still in place that surely had to be original. The ceilings are probably 12 feet. All the walls are faced in marble and they are matched. It is quite impressive. Thank you so much for checking this post out and helping me. You too *Kichenkrazed! I like your thought about lowering the wainscot to accommodate the lower ceiling. I haven't measured too much yet. My original thought was to go with the height of what is there now, which is 4 feet. But the wainscot is a very understated, all painted one color (walls and ceiling), embossed into plaster, 4x4 stacked tile pattern, that was put in when the shed roofed addition was built in the 30's? The walls are needing replaced around the tub and all the fixtures are very worn. This bath gets used hard. It is time to redo and update materials. I want to make it lovely and durable. It is next to my newly outfitted kitchen. The BR accommodates everyone on this working farm. It sees the occasional vet supplies, steel buckets - even some emergency livestock care has taken place in this bath. The BR will continue to service in this capacity on the rare occasion. Again thanks to the both of you for your thoughts that have been so helpful.

I was glad to see this question. I am getting ready to move into a 1890 cross gable Folk Victorian (and I would consider it a farmhouse.) I live in a city in the very southwest of Calif. (almost to the border) In the late 1800s,, early 1900s, ten acre lots were sold to gentlemen farmers from the east and midwest to plant lemon groves. The agreement included that they had to live there and build a house that was worth at least $2,000, which was a lot in those days. Some have been destroyed, but the city is sprinkled with quite a few large, fancy, Queen Anne Victorians, many that are restored perfectly. They are called Orchard Houses, of course because they were built by the owners of the orchards . This house is an Orchard house, but not as big and fancy as others. I can get more info about it at our Historical Society Museum, but I have not gotten over there yet. Maybe they skimped on the $2,000 or maybe there was more to it before. Maybe it had a guest house, or horse stables. I know nothing about old houses but my family is all in Minnesota and this looks somewhat like the farmhouses and rural, in town houses that my aunts and uncles lived in. I had to search pictures and articles to determine that it is probably a Folk Victorian, but I think I am pretty close. I say "move in" because I will be renting it from my brother in law who has had it for 37 years, but it is a rental and he built 2 apartments behind it. He doesn't know much about it and hasn't had a lot of interest it it, other than to keep it rented, even though the Heritage Society has been out to see him a number of times. My brother in law spent his youth in rural Minnesota, so this is just a house to him. I have always liked the house. It is definitely "folk" and doesn't have any fancy Queen Anne style trim etc... It fact I thought it was a craftsman, until I found out when it was built. It is structurally very sound, but is sort of unkempt looking. I am a retired teacher, single and don't have experience in this, but he is happy that I want to make it look as close to how it was originally (but not for much money LOL!!) Just to have it clean and really well kept up will make him happy. The block has a couple more old houses, one Queen Anne Victorian that is not kept up at all. Otherwise it is a hodgepodge of 50s and 60s. This is the one very visible old home, so the neighbors are sort of hinting that they don't like it being such a mess. I especially want to get the bushes cut down in front of the enclosed porch so I can open the windows and use it for that. I saw the house 35 years ago, and now have only been able to do a quick walkthrough. The Craftsman question interested me because I have quite a bit of Craftsman style furniture that I already own, and I felt that it would match the farmhouse feel that this house has. Of course I am just talking about furniture, interior decorations, etc..., no permanent changes. Overall though, I don't think my brother haschanged much (except in the kitchen.) I believe he has maintained original moldings, possibly even lights and he hasn't done any dumb stuff like take out the built ins or put big modern closets. The bedrooms still have the tiny little closets (with the original doors) where you can hang a few things and I think tenants have made closet type spaces by putting rods and curtains at the corners of the gables, so that did not change anything structurally and can look cool with the right kind of material. He is a contractor and does most work himself, and if something can be fixed or maintained as is, that means he doesn't have to spend money, so the house is lucky in that respect. It has a basement with an inside door and an outside cellar door (so I will be prepared for tornadoes), and it has a mudroom, because in Southern California I need a place to put my parka and snow boots (we don't even have rain LOL) and those steep gables will keep the snow from collecting so my roof won't collapse. They built what they knew when they got here!! I think the combination Victorian Farmhouse/Craftsman will work because it has a farmhouse feel and we are only talking about furnishings, I do have one final question though, and I hope this picture comes through. It is odd looking because this house is flat in the front. It has an enclosed porch that is flush with the outside wall, a very small porch for the front door, otherwise, there is no other porch with posts and a covering like Victorian's (and usually farmhouses) seem to have. It looks like something is missing. Maybe something was removed over the years. Or is there a way that a larger porch could be added to make the front look more interesting, and to have a place to sit outside, but still in character with the style of the house? I might be able to talk my brother into it because he could build it himself. I am excited about the enclosed porch because those windows have hinges and open completely out but have not been opened in years. I suggested that it would be really nice if he could take down those dumb apartments, but he wouldn't go for that!! Lol!!

We're doing a total rehab of a 1970's ranch on a farm. We were super fortunate to find one a well known luxury builder had built, then decided to live in it himself for 10 years. Problem was it was built in 1970s and not updated. The bedrooms are huge and each has its own large bathroom. The things we changed that made a huge difference: we removed some pointless closets in a hallway to add space to the Master bathroom and closet, this in turn gave us room to use the husband's small master closet for a desperately needed powder room (there was none and people had to use a bedroom bath). It had a 3 season porch between the kitchen and garage and behind the Master bedroom. In St. Louis three season porches are pointless because it's always too hot or too cold to use them. We changed the one behind the Master to be part of the Master which gave us room for a large sitting area and windows all the way around it. the Master had ONE small window before and was VERY dark and depressing. We raised the living room roof above the windows another half story to add more windows and light. We removed the walls between the kitchen, eating area, and into the 3 season porch to make a large open kitchen, eating area, and family room. and added a fireplace. We took half the existing garage and made a mudroom that goes from the front to the back of the home, with laundry room, powder, and desperately needed walk in closet. That gave us space to use the previous pantry (they had to put the only freezer in, because it wouldn't fit in the kitchen, and they had the washer/dryer in there). Now it's a wonderful huge pantry. We added a very deep 3.5 car garage with a storage/work room above it. That was the only space we actually added on, in an attempt to not get slammed with taxes (except they'll hit us for the 2 half bath. We offset it by walling over 2 closets in the library and turning them around into the front hall and bathroom, to decrease the house by a bedroom, since we didn't need it. It can always be changed back if needed LOL) Since the house is 1970's it was woefully depressing with windows. All are too small. Since we were replacing all, and roof was stick built, it was easy to raise the roof in the kitchen to add a row of windows up high for more light, then add dormers in bedrooms to let more light into rooms. All the windows were increased in size. The outside brick got painted a much lighter color and porch got new half stone columns. After having a completely custom home built and re-designing this one, I can say a really good architect and an interior designer are not negotiable. My tip with designers is to find one that works straight by the hour ONLY. Mine charges a set hourly fee and gives me wholesale (actually gives me the invoices sent to her) for everything (plumbing fixtures, electrical, furniture, and windows) She will go anywhere to help with furniture and is much better than the first one I used that wanted to sell me a 30K oriental rug for under my kitchen table, for a family with 8 children LMBO She is the most organized person I've ever met and keeps everything for our two homes in boxes. The construction people call her for the tile layout, samples etc. It's worth every penny! In the kitchen, I HIGHLY suggest a real kitchen designer, not letting the architect do it. In our first custom home, all the neighbors let the architect do it. We got a kitchen designer. they have 10 FEET between the counters and island! It should be 4 ft ish. At first it seemed odd that the freezer and fridge were on opposite sides in our kitchen, till you cook with it. I've had women's groups with 24 people cooking in this kitchen and we are not tripping on each other. Worth every penny. Did the same thing in design of new home. The kitchen designers know what really works when cooking, except I nixed the microwave drawer in the island. My kids would have it broken in a month and it was at least a $1,000. Hope you get your dream home!

Ok so we hope the house will be finished in May. We are pretty much ditching the eclectic modern look, and the mix of styles, so the Chippendale stuff is being given away to relatives, and the art that doesn't work is going as well. The piano room is open to the foyer and to three windows. Here is a picture of it. The three in the middle of the porch are where the piano will be. So you walk in and it's a mid-century modern sputnik chandelier then you look ahead and there is a great room with five windows facing the woods. There is a large stone fire place directly ahead of the door in the back of the great room. It is all very Craftsman with a Craftsman style custom mantel shelf. The mantel I just picked up yesterday so I would have it when they install the stone on the fireplace next week. I cannot get in to take a picture now because they are painting. So the house is blue and tan on the outside and green and cream on the interior. I thought I would put nice cushioned benches in the music room for folks to sit and listen to the piano. The bird tile on the mantel is removable to change it out if I want from Motawi tile in Michigan.