Thanks BMU, I will take your advice on much of this. Yep, I am going to back up and stain the legs with some sort of Espresso like the chairs. I am a bit disheartened right now trying desperately to get the old finish(s) off of the legs that are turned. I now realize that this table was touched up after the original and not a very good job at that. Some places are hugely built up gook and the underside is raw in the table top center but the drop leaves are literally full of drips and runny old dried stain. I am stripping the bottom of the leaves and will do them better than the runny mess they are. I will use the center of the table for trial stain Although the underside center of the table is nearly 'white' whereas what I am stripping clean has a reddish tint to the wood. I am not sure if sanding will remove the redish hue or not. I am going to go and get a brush and see if it works better for the turned legs ??? I am also using two coats of stripper. The first one just takes globs of sludge and dries very fast. I am using an MC stripper. The table top is actually two pieces of wood that were apparently glued in the dead center at one time and I see that on one end the glue was gone and the boards do not sit flush. I have no clue how to try to stick them back together but I have my thinking cap on. I am afraid to try to stick glue in there for fear of getting it on the table top and it would stain differently ?? What do you think of a small piece of wood on the underside glued board to board and clamped while drying? I have used Poly wipe on my tables and will take that advice at the end. It is a pretty table and I'm sure at one time it was a treasure but it certainly has seen its years of service and there are dents and there is three very bad liquid marks that I doubt if I can get to stain evenly. I sure appreciate your time. I want this to look pretty for her. It is an elderly couple and they have a tiny kitchen and this table is perfect for the space. I am thinking that I have to stop trying to make it look as smooth as the chair which is brand new. Donna

Hi Nick, Congratulations on your new home first of all. My advice is to get really good mats, and have them at every entrance. This helps to trap dirt on the mat rather than trailing it in. And depending on the mat and how heavy it is, you could vacuum it or shake it off outside. On the cement floors in my last home, I eventually bought a floormate. You add a cleaning solution to the water compartment, and it sprays it on the floor, scrubs with the spining bristles, and sucks ALL the water back up. Now, the haze that is left on some floors is residue. From what? Could be the minerals in the water from hard water, dirt left over, or surfacants from a detergent based cleaning solution ( but you said you are using vinegar). So getting all the water up has a good advantage. In my floormate I used the most natural cleaning agents I could. So I would try vinegar in the floormate, and if that doesn't cut it, move up to a more serious cleaner from there. I have used a product from home depot called krud kutter, for cleaning certain areas with a lot of build up, and I have heard good things about people using it on their floors for build up. As far as a steam mop, you could try it, since the floor is waxed, but it needs a good buffing. But the heat could ruin the buffed out shine after you buff it out. I don't know if I would chance it. I think almost no method is as good as an honest to goodness on your hands and knees scrubbing. But this came pretty close for me. The floormate isn't too spendy. I hope others will chime in with ideas, and hopefully this helps. Let us know how the continuing struggle to keep clean goes. Harlow

Personally I'd make the following changes. I showed you in gray how you have almost no actual great room space. You need to account for walkways, etc. The grey indicates the actual usable space on your plan for the great room. Note how it's a tiny space in such a large houseI agree with Stan that you don't need the powder room. I would remove the powder room. Then I'd move the door into the front bedroom to next to the bathroom. This would give you a longer wall for furniture or a tv or a bookcase or... The other advantage is now the door to the bedroom isn't in the great room so there's more privacy. I made the closet more of a small walk in closet in the front bedroom and added a "window" seat and a window between the closet and the front of the house. If not a window seat, it could house a desk, or a chair or a??? In the second bedroom, I moved the entry too so now you don't have an awkward wall you walk towards when you go into the hallway. I wouldn't be so concerned with exterior symmetry as you need to concern yourself with interior space. I would move the doors to the side closest to the office. I personally would make it a single 36" wide door, but left the double doors. Then I'd shift the windows over so you have 4 windows in the great room. Now notice how you have a narrower hallway space but a much larger great room? I shortened your left perimeter counter in your kitchen and moved your cooktop closer up a bit. You still have plenty of prep space and this now gives you some room in a dining room area to put a buffet or some nice furniture. I increased your island size and I flipped the dishwasher to the side between the fridge and sink. This now creates good flow from fridge to sink to prep to cooking.

What are the measurements of the Anthropolgy mirror you are returning? I think it was a good size and would be inclined to get either the first or second choice RH mirror depending on your preference. They will both look great with your chandelier. The third is not worth whatever the additional expense and I don’t think the lines of the fourth mirror are hefty enough. When you refer to the green room pic, do you want to look for a paint color that shade or are you just referring to the pic in general? Also, do you love the fabric on your chairs or are you just going with what is there? I had the seats in my dining room chairs reupholstered a few years back and it was not expensive. I bought the fabric myself and gave it to my upholsterer, which also saved. He came to my house, unscrewed the seats and took them with him so he didn’t have to load up the chairs. I think your fabric is absolutely fine, nothing wrong at all. It just seems like you are looking for a bit of bold in the space and that could be any easy place to get it. Remember if you are placing chairs on either side of the buffet, they are very visible and the seats can add a lot of look, or not to the room. No right or wrong.