Gwendolynne, I LOVE your choice of colours. I wish my furniture and decorating could mathc your colours. They are soo soo nice! I am completely colour challenged, and I have seen all of these wonderful rooms posted with fabulous colours, so I need your help with choosing colours for my rec room, bathroom, and kitchen. 1. REC ROOM/LIVING ROOM: We live in a side split house and are wanting to redecorate our rec room area, which is half in the basement but with full windows and still with lots of natural light. The bottom half is with cedar / oak wainscotting and the carpet is a blue colour. I have no idea what colour to paint the top half. Our furniture conssits of beige couches, wood coffee table and end tables. Our theme is going to have bar and sports paraphernalia (and we have a foosball table). I dont want to go with a blue paint because two of our bedrooms are painted blue and I would like some different colours in the house. I love colours but have trouble picking out colours on my own. Since this is the main room where we watch tv and hang out while the kids play, I would like a warm colour that makes the room cozy but fresh and new/classy. Someone suggested yellow or beige to me, but I am thinking I want more colour. What about red (Benjamin Moore Northern Fire) or would that be too dark? 2. BATHROOM: For our bathroom, it has a "teal-like" colour for the countertop and gray-blue cushion flooring. I have no idea what colour to put on these walls. I know green is not good to put in the bathroom. Someone suggested white, but I want colour! However, I know that the green counter top probably limits my wall colours. Am I stuck with white walls? 3. KITCHEN: Our kitchen has wall paper on the bottom half and a beige on the top half. Our counter is a pink (UGH!) and our back splash has pink, browns. Our theme is a country kitchen. I would like a dark warm brown for the bottom and a lighter colour for the top, but I dont know if this would work or not with the pink countertop. Any suggestions are very much appreciated. I have pictures of all three rooms, but I dont know how to post them. (Can someone tell me how?) THANK YOU SO MUCH!

I always use bright white for ceilings due to this color helping to add light into a room. I then opt to get my ceiling "color" from the light fixture, which gives me what I believe is more freedom to choose what I like, rather than what's "recommended."

Bless your heart @M Miller. I did actually add to the discussion. I read what the OP wrote about not wanting to change the wall color, I liked the options Celerie provided and I rolled my eyes at the comment from some one that said unless they changed the color of the walls that room would forever be miserable, like some Grimm Brothers old crow casting a curse on the homeowner. But I’m one of the lucky ones that believes the age of a house has nothing to do with what colors you can or can’t use (unless the OP mentioned this was a period appropriate B&B? An historic house museum?), everyone sees color differently meaning not everyone thinks dark gray is cold or that a cold gray room isn’t desirable, or that a color found in nature like a storm cloud or angry sea is somehow dated or overused or that it limits how you should use it or where or if you’re even allowed to like it.

So I also am a "lay person" and the minute I saw your window, I knew it wasn't a standard window well. I would be very nervous having this contractor and his company work on my house; his lack of attention to detail and what, to me, would be basic construction knowledge/observation, is very concerning. Most of us who have been working in a field for many years can tell something basic at a glance (I work in healthcare and do this unconsciously every minute of every day whether I'm at work or not). I would expect the same from him. Agree with some of the comments that indicate this: "What do you want to happen? At the very least you should determine whether $7600 is a reasonable cost for the increased difficulty." Also, I hate to tell you this, but you WILL need to become educated in construction/remodeling methods. UNLESS you have a truly honorable, detail-orientated contractor, you WILL need to learn when something does NOT LOOK RIGHT. Yes, yes you hired a professional assuming they will do what is supposed to be done. Never assume, trust me. These forums are filled with people who have assumed and now are desperate to find a solution that doesn't involve breaking the bank or redoing a project. If they are working on any wet rooms, I'd be sure to pour over the waterproofing plan they have and READ UP ON THE SYSTEM THEY PLAN TO USE. Take PICTURES along the way--every day that they work on a bathroom (no matter who does the work) take pictures.