Wow, more feedback than I hoped for! Thank you all. Mongo, I'm really glad I asked BEFORE I bought a saw. $500--gasp, but I like your resale idea. Bill, thanks for putting me on to Colleen's work--if somebody is doing it commercially, that tells me that there's a *chance* my results will look good (as opposed to some things, which no matter how well implemented, look hokey). Flyleft, good point. I swear some heavy gardening I did a couple of years ago initiated my first (and hopefully last) case of plantar fascitis (sp?), which oddly enough dissappeared for good the night I stayed up all night, on my feet on a concrete floor, packing up our basement. Miracle cure? I don't recommend it. But I digress...In any case, I think if I can make a quilt, which I have, I can find the time for this project. Thank you, thank you for the input! Now I gotta go find out where Colleen gets her tile...it looked really good. Here is a link to a floor she did. Love it love it love it! Here is a link that might be useful: Scroll down to see Colleen's work

Autumngal, I love your windowsill, apron, moldings and baseboards! I hope you choose to keep them. The tile walls are more recent (I dunno, guessing 40-50 years old), so from a preservation standpoint you don't have to keep them, but from an I've-got-kids-and-other-things-to-do standpoint, what if you keep the tiled walls, and get white and blue hex tiles that coordinate with them? That would be both period appropriate and work with the walls, making less work for you. White with blue daisies might be lovely. Actually, with those black edge trim tiles, you could do white hex with black daisies. To add to the general discussion of victorian bathroom floors, I plan to do encaustic tile similar to that in fern4's link in 2 of my bathrooms, 1" white hex with an intricate mosaic in black hex, kind of like a medallion in the center, with a border and some field stuff going on, in another bath, and finally another cool mosaic of mostly 1" white hex with some 1" carrara marble hex hand inserted in another bathroom. I'm also a big fan of Daltile's octagon and dot, especially the cobalt. Wish I had more bathrooms so I could use it too. Incidentally my neighbor has an 1895 victorian with more recent spattered tiles in their bathroom like yours. They carefully chose a paint color that matched the spatters, and their bathroom looks great. In general, when you have something distinctive like that, it's best to either embrace it or get rid of it. I think your bathroom already looks cool and it will only get better!

Ya'll are so helpful :) Thank you! Gad the radiators LOL I had NO IDEA how much work that would be, but it will be a pretty high priority to us (DH hates the baseboards in a victorian) so I will see if I can find out what we have to work with. Slate that radiator is amazing! I love the bronze. The room with the water damage is the dining room and that floor is exposed wood. I can see it's fine when looking under the buffet (we did this on our 1st visit). I may make them move the buffet on this next visit. If not this visit, definately the inspection visit. I'd like to know what they've done with the firebox back there, hopefully just left it alone. We don't want efficiency out of the fireplaces (aside from the one we'd like to put in the kitchen and the exsiting stove in the basement). There are 2 existing fireplaces on the first floor now, one in the foyer and the other in the parlor. I'm sure the fireplace in the dinning room was as gorgeous...I mean why wouldn't it be? So we'd like to have that back :) Both in terms of the fire places and the radiators, we're willing to put some money into the house to restore it to it's former glory. But we obviously want to get an idea of what that entails if it should be factored into an offer! I'l call the historican society now and ask if they have an inspector they recommend. And a fireplace/chimney specialist for that issue. We'll be sure to write that into the offer as a requirement. I'm not a huge wallpaper freak...but those could easily be worked into my decor. They're so much better than the 80's flower "Victorian" decor LOL Honestly, they're a great option..thanks! I may well work some of that into some of the rooms (to save on the removal work) and to add to the distinction of each space. Autumn I'll link the house below. As I mentioned it's a B&B so you can see pictures of the house on their website. I'll be taking a lot more when I visit :) We'll get rid of any "fake" victorian furniture (it comes furnished) and eventually the whole house will be decorated much more appropriately to it's style, but still be a comfortable family home. The kitchen is probably one of our big money items, which will come down the road. It's pretty much tricked out as a commercial kitchen due to the B&B. I'd like to move a few things and then do a more unfitted kitchen appropriate to the house. We'll still have some professional appliances (if you've seen my kitchen you know I like them LOL) but they'll be better suited to the house, like a molteni range or lacanche and the subzero will be hiddenin a custom amoire. I can't wait to get onto that project :) I get so jealous when I see these white cabinet kitchens LOL I'm sorry I hurt your brain with the closet idea LOL But I made someone else smile so perhaps thats the future for me..some people groan when they see it and some people smile LOL We will be VERY sensative to the room that is converted. We don't want to devalue the property and want to make a conversion back to a B&B possible if we ever sell (so we can market as both a B&B and a home). The room that we'd convert will have free standing pieces that are just pushed against the wall, all to look as if they're built in, but all easily removed to go back to a bedroom. There is a bathroom inbetween these two rooms (it's horrificly 80's) which we'll use as the path between them. This means we'll have to add a door to the master that isn't there, but we'll be nice when we do it, and make it removable if someone would wish that. NONE of the trim or windows in that room will be altered, removed etc. Including the door to the main hall. We'll work around and with those features instead of covering them up and/or getting rid of them. I'm going to gut all the bathrooms and do tile (appropriate to the house) or beadboard paneling. I'm thinking the smallest will be turned into wet rooms using the existing drains, pedastol sinks and vintage inspired shower fittings. We'll work a ribcage shower in...most likely in the master, and a free standing marble shower (built out of a few slabs...we used one in Duluth and fell in love) in one of the bigger baths. But the tubs and sinks in the rooms...those will get capped off (plumbing) and the fixtures removed. OK I'm off to call the historical society :) Thanks and if you think of anything else, please let me know! Here is a link that might be useful: Hastings House

thanks for your comments. the tile we looked at for the backsplash is called cararra, and i always thought that type of marble was mostly white with gray/black veining, but this one had a surprising amount of tan/gold veining to it. maybe it's not cararra, but cascata gold? re; the soapstone and slate. i'm trying to come up with ways to warm up the space, as we currently have a lot of silvers (stainless appliances, tin ceiling) and cool colors (green on cabinets, marble backsplash). i don't want the room to come off as totally cold. that's why i'm thinking of doing the red/brown on the floor. i think it'll make a great contrast to the cabinets/appliances, but i don't want it on the backsplash because i think that will look too contemporary. the tiles we're close to selecting for the floor are american olean san martino collection in rosso and giallo colors. (i'm thinking of mixing two colors and three shapes in the 'random' block pattern). that line does have a mosaic 2x2 that they offer for backsplash and accents, and at first we thought it was perfect for the backsplash, but the more we looked at it, the more it just seemed too "of the moment". we worried that in 10 years, we might think "that's so 2007". i wanted to do a stamped tin backsplash in the same pattern as the ceiling, but my wife nixed that idea. she's anti-tin ceiling already, so i had to give up on the backsplash as a compromise. i really like the look of the marble subways that we found (plus they're only $7.50/sq ft) and i think the gold/tan veining will help to tie together the warm/cool elements of the room. the trick, i think, is going to be finding a countertop that will bring these elements together. wood is a thought, and brings an old look, but we want something that's going to be maintenance free, especially around the sink. we'll probably also use wood on the island.