Marti8a, >Wow, beautiful view! Thanks! That's what sold me on the house. the house was originally a small two room fishing shack that got added on to... it's not layed out well inside but I'll put up with it for the view. >>Is the house on a pier & beam foundation? If so, how high is the crawl space under it? It doesn't look like much, but if the subfloor is plywood, you can do all your >>plumbing from inside the house anyway. The back of the house is on cement (so, kitchen and bathroom) and no crawl and the front of the house has a very small crawl space. Any one going in there would have to be very very slender! And not claustrophobic! >>I hate to say this without knowing more, but it really, really sounds like that bathroom needs to be gutted. Ceramic tile doesn't fall off the wall without a reason, usually moisture behind it, or if the house has shifted >>and the walls moved a bit. What I should have mentioned is those delightful pink tiles are plastic not ceramic. I just think they have fallen off due to age and neglect. >>If you took out the tub and put in a shower, you could have a decent sized closet at the end. But if you really like having a bathtub, I'd just move the tub down to the end of the wall. The drain probably goes right over to >>that toilet drain, somewhat like this. I did give the idea of taking the tub out and just having a nice shower but right now am leaning away from that. But a larger closet is certainly tempting. There is very little closet /storage space in this house. >Is that just debris under the sink or is there any rot under there? > it's what's left of the old insulation. I just had to have a bunch of the pipes going to the well pump replaced... I still have to get rid of the rest of the insulation and clean the area up. Thank goodness for a nice neighbor who came over and did the majority of that work. He was a blessing! It's so nice to have running water again! >>I bet the sink used to be in the place where the two pipes are coming out of the floor, and someone decided to move it over to the counter. It looks like a wall sink >>that doesn't really fit on the counter. I bet you're right. I don't have my measurements with me right now but that is a very narrow counter. >Is your well pump in the cabinet behind the tub? Yes. I wish there was a better place to put it. >Are you going to be doing this work all by yourself or >will you have any help? I'll be having to hire help. I'm not knowledgeable about most of this work so it'll be much better if I hire a lot of it to be done. Thanks for your help. Susan

If that's old vinyl or linoleum (I can't tell), you could install peel/stick tiles. There are ones out there that look pretty good. If it's tile - then you are stuck with it unless you demo it out so the painting the floor idea someone else suggested is really a good idea. If you really can't deal with painting the floor, then two large outdoor sisal-look rugs will lighten the room up, cover the floor in large areas - and be kitchen-use friendly. Your wall color and countertops seem really neutral - that's a great thing! Paint the cabinets a cheery warm white or bright white, whatever floats your boat. Change out the hardware - but I think that iron hardware is really cute, actually! If you can afford to and you're allowed to - maybe change the faucet. Replace that yellow light fixture over the sink with a really inexpensive one - even an inexpensive outdoor iron fixture (flush mount) would look good if you keep the iron pulls on the cabinets. Cottagey!! Also, I'd take down that curtain and get a nice looking bamboo or natural shade from Target or Walmart - one that you can raise and not block that nice foresty view you have. :) Lastly - if the table and chairs are yours, I might spray paint them black and then rub them with sandpaper to antique them. My friend did this with different chairs she found at Goodwill and put them in her $50,000 kitchen around a farm table and it looks like a magazine, seriously. She didn't even sand the chairs before spray painting.... Your kitchen really does have possibilities.

Keep the brick. Change the mantle.

What is the style of your furniture and surrounding decor? with low ceilings I would make Entire fireplace Wall up to ceiling very simple smooth large Neutral or white marble tiles.... no stone.....hang a gorgeous mirror over it to reflect light into the room...No mantle you will have area in the bookcase to place some pretty Acessories ..remove some shelves before painting so you can patch what is needed. I would only have 2 shelves...paint it all a neutral Or white to match fireplace tiles...