Carol, that flooring does show every speck of dirt and believe me, it is about to get axed! We have hardwood underneath a few layers of old flooring and we'll be pulling it all up soon before we start the remodel. My husband will probably throw a party, as he is usually the one to sweep the kitchen. Mary Lu, I'll definitely be on the lookout for the possum belly cabinets now, they have a very distinct look. My mother loves crocks as well, so she has gotten all that belonged to my greatgrandparents and grandparents. I'm not sure how I could convince her to give some up. I guess they are popular to collect now because they usually cost a pretty penny when I spot them. I have to brag on Ebay again. After I had gotten pretty frustrated with the condition of most vintage sinks, like Mary Lu's and Carol's, I kind of decided to buy a new apron sink. Then on Ebay today, lo and behold, a great double bowl, double drainboard antique for a reasonable price. I am really excited. Here is a link that might be useful:

Bump!!!!!!! I was beginning my remodel at this time last year and i must have missed this.......it's so beautiful it deserves a second go round at the top of the forum for all the people who missed it. There aren't NEARLY enough comments on this kitchen. people must'vebeen outside enjoying the summer and not in the kitchen forums. Total eye candy.

Because you requested ghost stories: The house that had the body in the basement had a ghost, too. The previous owner had died in the backyard while putting chains on his tires on a snowy morning. His wife was an invalid and was unable to get outside to him. For years we would stand at the stove and look sideways down the kitchen to the kitchen door window. You would see a shadowy presence in the doorway. We always called him Mr. Livesy. Our family always treated him with the utmost respect. The house that I renovated had a ghost, too. The house was built in 1854 by slave labor. It was on a very prominent hill in a small town in Northern Virginia. The town switched sides over 50 times during the War Between the States. On a clear day you could see all the way to the Fairfax County Courthouse and you could have observed troop movement down the dirt roads. The views from the top of the roof were fabulous. It was a center hall floor plan. One day our GC was working in a room at the top of the staircase at the end of the upstairs center hall. He had some lumber stacked in the hallway. The room had windows at both ends of the room. Both windows were open. He thought he heard me come into the house. He went into the hallway to greet me. Suddenly, the lumber tumbled to the floor, each window spontaneously closed. It scared this guy to death. He was a biker in a former life and steady as a rock. I came home to find him sitting there white as a ghost. We had two large dogs at the time. They would stand at the bottom of the stairs and bark at the top of the stairs where the lumber had been stacked. Because of my experience growing up with the ghost of Mr. Livesy, I decided to make friends with our Virginia ghost. Whenever the dogs started to bark at the ghost I would go into the hallway and speak to the ghost gently. I thanked it for it's presence, assured it that it was welcome and suggested that it move away from the dogs. We got along just fine. The dogs stopped barking and all was well. It was a beautiful house with a historic history. I miss the house, but don't miss the heating bill. I wonder if the ghost misses us.

Hi Guys, Long time no post. :) We've been quite busy! We replaced the boiler (a rather harrowing experience), talked to a well known MCM architect here in Minnesota, visited various cabinet construction facilities (got a tour of the shop!), visited Ikea to see the new sektion line, visited flooring stores, etc. In the mean time I've been thinking about some of the advise I've gotten here and from the architect we talked to and tried to make some modifications to the original design. I sort of like it, but it didn't pass the wife test. She likes the stacked stone look, and in some ways likes that the upstairs is more closed off, but doesn't like how it segments the living room away and is afraid it might make it too dark (I think that might actually be nice for viewing the TV, but oh well). She liked the original design better in that regard, so it's probably back to the drawing board. Figured I'd post it here though in case anyone had any thoughts. Other things we are kind of generally gravitating toward after visiting cabinet/flooring shops: - Rift sawn white oak or quarter-sawn maple slab cabinets. Probably horizontal grain. (yes, the picture shows shaker, that's just what the program has available) - strand woven eucalyptus flooring. Worried about cupping with humidity, need to find out how stable it really is. Also concerned about ability to refinish in 5-10 years. Not particularly green if you have to replace it all! Alternatives might be doing quarter/rift sawn oak or maple (should be very stable) like the cabinets. Costs a lot more though. - Want to integrate some stacked stone or long tile. There's a MCM house we almost bought (so close!) that had an entryway we loved with long pieces of mixed height ledgstone or stacked stone. Trying to see if we can integrate something like that into the design.