You guys have been busy, overnight! Thank you for continuing to help me think this through. GauchoGordo - I am not into a full open concept for this house. At night, when you look in from the outside, passersby can see straight into the LR/DR (one reason I would rather move the LR space to the back -- I can move around in my PJ's) To answer your question about keeping a LR, I would like room for a few comfy chairs/love seat + chair and a coffee table -- sort of a "landing" area for when guests first arrive. Laughable -- I like your 2nd plan. And removing or adding windows is acceptable to me. Something I feel I will have to do, anyway. Williamsem and Junco -- this reminds me of Breezy's plan (which I love). No room for an island in the K, right? Bpathome -- Those windows are pretty awesome -- because they are in the LR, and I don't spend much time there, I don't get to enjoy them or the wonderful light that comes from them. The front left corner of the center wall is supporting the roof on that side of the house, but I wouldn't mind burying it in the ceiling.... Sena01 -- I've never thought of adding a wall there! Interesting idea that I need to spend some time digesting. You all are goooood! I'm loving your creativity. Thanks (and I'd love to see more!)

I think you could do personal pictures there if you want. I don't have any suggestions as to what photo. Just make sure really love them! Since they're expensive and I would have a hard time committing to a large canvas photo for an extended period of time, here's an idea (see link). I think three of these would be too small for the space and it would look better as a grouping. If nothing else you could tape up the form core (poster board would work better) just to get an idea of size and what you think of something up there. There are a lot of photo layout ideas online. If you do use photos, I would go with all black and white or maybe sepia tone. (Quick fyi - After reading the tutorial again, down in the comment, these are engineering prints and can only be printed in b&w.) Here is a link that might be useful: Dear Lillie-oversized poster tutorial This post was edited by sheesharee on Tue, Apr 22, 14 at 13:05

A runner is the fastest, easiest, cheapest option. Sadly you have 4 different finishes inside of one stairway. You have dark stained hardwood at the top. You have natural oak for the stairs, you have outdated tile on the landing and then more oak going down and then you have brown laminate at the bottom. Without changing ALL the surfaces in the stair well (and don't forget banister and trim...and all the horrible fiddly stuff surrounding this area) you will still have +++ mismatch no matter what you do. If refinishing the treads are out of your budget, then pretty much every other option is out as well. A colour matched runner (either a nice brown that matches the two "wood" surfaces or something like sisal with a brown binding on the edges) on both sets of stairs AND a MATCHING AREA RUG on the LANDING (the carpet company can custom cut and bind the same carpet used on the stairs to create a custom area rug). Done and done. In essence you will be camouflaging the "mismatch" as much as possible. The actual surfaces won't change, you will just cover them up as much as possible. Personally I would work with a natural sisal runner with brown trim. This will tie in the gold tones of the wood work (banister, stringers, etc) with brown stain of the hardwood/laminate. Or you change out EVERYTHING to get a match to the hardwood upstairs (you won't find a match to the laminate unless you have 15 boxes left over). And that is already out of your budget.

I would change the siding to a darker gray board and batten. Remove the shutters and paint the window trim, including the bow window, black. Change the front door to a stained wood, along with the garage door and porch railing. Add a modern black light fixture and 4" modern black house numbers stacked vertically to the left of the door. Paint the downspout to match the brick.