My SIL painted her family room floor at one point, because she could do it herself--the budget wasn't there for refinishing at the time. It was painted for about 4 years and then they had it refinished. It looks fine. I think the paint was just sanded off by the people who were hired to refinish the floors. Do you know what type of finish you have on the existing floor? That may be the big problem--getting the right paint so that it will adhere to the existing finish. Or you might need to remove the finish before painting. I have no clue about that.

If you are raising all the base cabinets to a new height and not adding any new cabinets, I suppose it could be done either way, but I think the thicker countertop is a good solution. If you are adding new cabinets that are Made two inches taller...the toe kicks would be out of alignment between the old an new unless you also specified a non standard toe kick to match new to old. The stove does not necessarily need to be raised unless it is a slide in which overlaps the counter. If it is a freestanding, the counter will be slightly higher than the edge of the stovetop and will have to be treated accordingly. HOWEVER...stove tops actually used to be recessed slightly within the body of the stove so they sat at slightly lower than counter height, because you dont work right at the burner level, you work at the top of cookware level which adds several inches.

Please forgive the hijack but Homechef59 - what a stunning space. The contrast is immensely satisfying between the floor and the cabinetry - yields a feeling of serenity. Dream - I admire your attention to detail. I've never paid attention to gray floors before, appreciate the insight (and the beautiful inspiration pictures). I am terrible at picturing how an element will look so typically photoshop things in place. Do you have any pictures of the space? Surely tile/floor can be laid after cabinets are in place. I'd be glad to help with photoshopping at a later stage. smm5525 - LOVE the floor tiles you show:) Note to self - when re-do kids' bathroom, start with floor tile.

I guess I'm glad I don't live where you guys do. I just finished a total gut of a house with 2/3rds the square footage for $200k Cdn. I see a couple of you have assumed I would not engage an architect or designer. You also assume I am solely relying on opinions found here. I appreciate everyone's thoughts. The purpose of my post was for additional ideas to give myself a headstart on eliminating ideas that won't work before engaging n expert. Going to an architect without eliminating the thoughts in my head that won't make sense is just wasting their time and mine. It doesn't prohibit them from telling me what should be done, but it does save me the expense of them telling me something I could have already heard won't make sense from a design perspective. Floating stairs was just one thought on how to add site lines across the house. Another way is to cut back the walls. I made floating stairs in my last house by eliminating the risers, and custom welding a railing. 100 in steel, $35/hr labor and new maple stairs cost me maybe $2k all in. My apologies if that's not the purpose of the design dilemma section of the site.