Hi Maggie 2000!! I too have a love of glass block and I am looking at retiring to MO from VA in a year or two. I will try to post pics of what I would like to do with a 1925 house I have found online that I love and has everything I am looking for. The glass block shower I have picked out for this house is available at home depot but so far I have not fully researched what all is available. If Johnfrwhipple was available I would have him do the build and remodel lol, since I really want one that has no door. I am going with a pedestal sink to stay with the age of the house and I do not need the storage space for just myself and 2 dogs. Well I cannot seem to post more than one pic so the link to my pinterest page for this house and what I would do with it. Here is a link that might be useful: 1925 MO house and what I would do

Thanks for all of the responses. Before I address them, I think I'd like to give some background on why this kitchen means so much to me. I love to cook, so the primary purpose of my kitchen is to be functional. Honestly, the most functional kitchen I've ever had was my small galley kitchen in an apartment in Hoboken, NJ. The secondary purpose is to be beautiful, in my eyes. I have never had anything that approaches a beautiful kitchen. The kitchen I have now was an '80's kitchen in a house built in the '90's so was outdated when I bought it when it was 4 years old. The cabinets are golden oak with arched rasied panels. The wallpaper looked like it belonged in a bathroom, the backsplash was pinkish, glossy tile and the laminate countertop was that fakey "marble" which also verged on pink. See below: I did change out the wallpaper to something bright and cheerful that I hated to take down for the "refresh" we did for eventual sale of the house. But, I did know that it had to go. For the refresh we also installed Giallo Napoleon counters, a lovely stainless finish pullout faucet, a new Ticor sink and DH ripped out the tile and redid the backsplash in tumbled marble with onyx accents. The cabinets are staying unless a real estate agent says otherwise because there are houses selling in our area that still have those cabinets and everything else that was original. So, really, not a bad kitchen, but nothing to make your heart go pitty-pat. What y'all need to know about is "The Kitchen from the Ninth Circle of Hell" hereinafter referred to as the NCH kitchen. This was the kitchen in the my first house which I bought with my EX in NJ. Take the absolute worst kitchen you have ever seen in "before" pictures on GardenWeb and raise that to the Nth power and you might approach the NCH kitchen. Let me 'splain. The house was a Dutch Colonial Revival built in the 1920's and owned by an artist. It had good bones and the original chestnut floors and trim restored, but everything else was bizarre. The foyer and the bathroom had kitchen foil crumbled, smoothed out and then applied to the walls with Elmer's glue. The light fixture in the parlor was an inverted barstool and in the dining room it was an old wooden table with lights laid on top. The EX did replace the latter because you could smell smoldering wood when the lights were on high and he thought it _might_ be a fire hazard. There's more. But, the NCH kitchen - OMG! The floor was a vinyl made to look like red brick with grime so ground into it that I could never get it clean. The countertops were fire engine red laminate. The trim was painted another bright red. The wallpaper was a white background with huge red and black poppies. But, the thing that totally broke my spirit was that the wallpaper was applied to all the cabinets, as well. I don't think NCH kitchen is even adequate. Was there a tenth circle of hell? Now, of course, after clearing safety hazards like wooden tables used as light fixtures, one would think that the next upgrade would be the kitchen, right? No, not with my EX. The plans were drawn, the money was sitting in the bank from a refi for the reno and he never would agree to go ahead with it. Years later, we relocated to TX and once we moved out of the house, he had the kitchen reno along with a bath reno, painting, etc. done so that we could lease out the house. So, I had a beautiful kitchen in NJ which I never even got to see, much less enjoy. Fast forward to 2010 and dearest DH & I (notice the EX is an EX - wonder why?) are planning to build our forever home. I want it to be classic; I want it to be perfect; I want it to be everything that I never had. And ... DH just doesn't like dark countertops like soapstone so a truly CWK is not in the cards. Does it sound like I am repeating a pattern of subjugating my wants and needs to that of a man? Not, really & here's why: Just after Christmas, we put DD on a plane to begin 6 months of missionary work halfway around the world. On the way home, we stopped at a slabyard along the freeway just to distract ourselves. As we walked from slab to slab, DH kept falling in love with each choice wilder than the last. When we got home, I stewed a bit (never a good thing), and burst out with "You're not going to let me have the beautiful kitchen that I want!" and began to boohoo. In the midst of the sobs, I told him about the NCH kitchen. At the end he had tears in his eyes & said, "If I could have fixed it for you then, I would have. And, if I had ever known, I would have redone this kitchen right after we got married so you could have had what you wanted for all these years." That's all I needed; he understood. We're a team and teammates make compromises for each other. Large amounts of black/gray bother him, so no soapstone. The ideal of the CWK isn't worth having him uncomfortable all the time. We both adore granite, so granite it is and we'll have our own version of a "Not So Classic White Kitchen", but it will be ours and not someone's ideal that would never quite fit. Thanks for all of the understanding & support - Jo Ann P.S. I showed DH the pictures of of dotcomgone's wonderful white kitchen & he said, "Wow! I really like that marble." Luckily, I have a lot of hair, because otherwise it might all be gone by the end of this build from constantly pulling it out. LOL!!!!

Interesting thread. How often do I take a hard look at my home? Frequently, however that doesn't mean I do much, or anything, about it. I can relate to what stephf said and often play the game of "what would I change if I lived here" in other people's houses but also play âÂÂwhat could I change to improve my worldâ in my own. Most of the time I only change out accessories without buying anything new as have enough to rotate items. I satisfy my need for change by decorating seasonally. I'm not using as many accessories as I used to and my seasonal decor is much more subtle but there are changes to more seasonal colors. Now that it's fall I'm using accessories with fall colors, more natural and wooden items, and a few faux pumpkins/Jack-O-Lanterns. A few years ago we repainted and bought new upholstery with neutral colors so this works well. After many years of trial and error and sometimes not liking my house much I am finally happy with most of my choices and there's not much I want to change right now. When I move (likely in the next couple of years) I will be ready to buy all new upholstered items and will then change my color scheme and perhaps style. I'm a senior but will likely never stop changing things around in my house. I have never changed out everything all at once in 47 years. Have added and eliminated but never decorated from a clean slate. The only time I decorated 'from scratch' was when we moved to Europe for 3 years and bought almost everything new and a few things 2nd hand. Sold everything before we returned home as I had no attachment to any of it. I much prefer to collect over time and let my decor evolve as it will. Some of my old pieces have good memories such as pieces that belonged to DH's and my Grandmothers. I buy several new accessories every year, mostly handmade art pieces now. I have downsized and re-homed many items in recent years and continue to do this. I sell the better things thru a consignment shop and donate the rest to thrift stores. We had this house built 17 years ago and it now looks completely different from the way it did when we moved in. Different color walls, different flooring, different furniture. While I like to think I don't change things often my decor has definitely evolved over time. It has happened so gradually I have never realized until now how different it looks. I still have the same DR furniture, a chair that was DH's Grandmother's, and a small antique sideboard but everything else in the public areas has been acquired since we built. Only the upholstered furniture was purchased new, everything else is antique, vintage, or repurposed. I still have many of the same accessories but also many different ones, purchased new as well as from 2nd hand venues. Realistically I expect my house will continue to evolve subtly and will look quite different 10 years from now.

Dining Room It's too small. To seat 8 people, you need a table approximately 7 feet long at a minimum, (8 feet is even better) you would have 3 diners on each side and one on each end. The average (non-skimpy) table is 40” wide (and up to 45”.) You need to add 3 feet beyond the edge of the table size on each side and end for enough space for the chair, the diner and moving the chair back. You need to have between 28-30 " seating space per diner. So for eight diners, you need a room size that is a minimum of 13’ x 9.5’ (14’ x 9.5’ is better) that doesn’t have a single other stick of furniture in it besides the table and chairs. If you want a buffet or hutch, add another 20” to 24” to either dimension depending upon where you put the piece. Eight diners will get you your family and both sets of grandparents. That’s it. No aunts or uncle or cousins or friends. If you want 10 diners you need a table that is 9.3’ - 10 feet long (that can be including the leaves). If you want 10 diners your room needs to be a minimum of 16 feet long, or longer if you want your buffet or hutch to be at the long end of the room. 10 guests will get you your immediate family, another family of four people, and one set of grandparents. And so on. In your plan, the dining room is way too small if you plan to entertain any more than 8 people at a time. I suggest that you forget about seating at the kitchen counter. Move the dining room closer to your kitchen, put it where the front bedroom is and expand it considerably into where the current dining room is so that it can accommodate the number of guests you will be entertaining when you entertain. If you live out in the country it is a good idea to get to know your neighbors and your children’s classmate’s parents, and entertain back and forth, you do need each other. Use up the entire front bedroom and half the current allotted dining room, and that should give you a good amount of space. I happen to hate totally dining rooms totally open to the kitchen. When you eat a nice meal, no one needs to see all the mess of the meal prep, but that is up to you how you want to configure it- totally open, partially open, whatever. You can get a dining table with many leaves and keep it smaller, or you can keep it open and your boys can do their homework their under your watchful eye, and you will be near to help and later to supervise their work on their laptops as they get older. Make sure the dining room and great room have lots of outlets and your home has good wifi connectivity in all rooms. Laundry and Mudrooms Someone commented early that the laundry room is too big. I disagree. You need room to open the ironing board. You need the counter to fold clothes, or to spread out sweaters to dry, or to lay out sewing patterns without worry that your children will set snacks on them. Maybe you put your sewing machine on the counter to sew. I do have an issue with the mudroom. I would not have the closet cut into the laundry room that way. I would figure out exactly what you use the laundry room for, is it also a craft room, do you need more counters, etc. Then actually think carefully about what kind of storage you need in the mudroom in terms of cubbies. i.e., do you need 4 cubbies? Five including one for dog leashes and other dog things? Plan that space out exactly to the inch. Use the ones shown in catalogs like pottery barn or crate and barrel as exemplars. Then I would think about pushing that closet forward so it doesn’t encroach on the laundry room, and find a more creative door solution so it doesn’t take up corridor space in the mudroom hallway. A desk in the mudroom? Can you please explain that? And speaking of closets- Foyer Am I reading that plan correctly, you don’t have any closets at the front door? Oh goodness! Well, you now have a much larger foyer because you have gotten rid of the front bedroom and the too small dining room. Make a large closet. Large. Larger. Your guest wear coats and boots and hats. If you can, have two closets, one on each side of the door. If you have six guests in the winter or rainy season, they will have six coats and six hats and six umbrellas. You know you don’t want those coats on your bed or hanging off your shower and dripping in your bathroom. With the larger foyer, you have the chance to make it gracious. Get a lovely table and a nice chair next to it so when someone comes and is waiting, they can sit. Indoors. There are marvelous ways to decorate a foyer. But first things first. Kitchen Your kitchen design isn’t logical and was designed by someone who doesn’t cook much. Great that you have two sinks, but both sinks need to be l-a-r-g-e. ‘Cause I know you know how long celery, green onions and corn and rhubarb are, right? And maybe there is a glimmer of hope that occasionally someone occasionally helps you out in the kitchen so do you really need to be bumping behinds when one of you is at the island sink and the other is at the range top? Please move that island sink. And as mentioned earlier, get rid of the counter seating, and with the dining room now right next door, eat at the dining room table like civilized people facing each other and have conversation. It’s worth it for everyone to walk three steps and let the kids set the table and carry things and you two for you to not let yourself be treated like a short order cook and have the children develop table manners and conversational skills and give their thumbs a rest from those e-devices. Without the counter seating you have tons more storage space in the island, and who doesn’t need that? And you saved all that money on counter stools, and you don’t need such a big slab for the counter either. Maybe you can put that saved money into better storage, like drawers instead of shelves for the lowers in the kitchen. About the kitchen sink- have you thought about using a single large sink instead of a divided bowl? With the dishwasher right there, how much do you wash by hand and when you do, do you really wash, soak, rinse, do a whole two separate bowl procedure? Wouldn’t you rather have one big bowl for the really big things that won’t fit in the dishwasher? Do you really want to carry a dirty-with-food and gravy huge platter through your house to the mudroom? Outside to the garage in the pouring rain? Does your kitchen need two entrance from the laundry room mudroom side? I don’t think so. Just have one, that will give you that extra space for more counter and more upper and lower storage. Keep the upper entryway into the kitchen because that is closest to the garage path, and close off the lower one. That will give you that wall and the one perpendicular to it, the one on the other side of the new dining room for a refrigerator, maybe even two refrigerators, a big sink, maybe two sinks, and a dishwasher. (And then put a full freezer in the garage.) Have the range on a wall where you can install a large hood that can vent to the outside, maybe the wall abutting the shed roof and put the microwave there on that side too. If you really want the second sink in the island, put a second sink in the island but not directly opposite another appliance and not smack dab in the middle of one of the long sides. Do you really drink enough wine to warrant a wine refrigerator? If you have meetings in your home for organizations, groups, parties, for your family and kids and groups you belong to, maybe a better (more versatile) choice is a beverage refrigerator that can be used for multiple things including things for your children, and get a lock on it anyway in case you do decide to store alcohol in it. Garage Your garage- is it really large enough? You live out in a countrified area. Maybe you have a van or a truck. I bet by high school your son will be driving and will need his own car. Mauybe both will have their own cars and part time jobs too. Don’t you think you should have at least a three and a half car garage? Or a two car garage plus a large electrified shed/workshop? I wonder if your two car garage is even large enough for your vehicles , let alone your bicycles, lawn mower and other implements of destruction. Look at all those things cutting into the garage space- a door, two sets of stairs. You need to be able to open the doors of your both cars on both sides, no matter what size car or truck you have. I don’t think you can do this. Think about this and do your own measurements, not what the builder tells you based on their own minimum requirements. And frankly, this is not a forever home for you if you have to walk up two flights of stairs from the garage with bags of groceries, either. Great Room Do you plan on having a TV in the great room, because I don’t see any place to put one. If you are having a regular fireplace with a regular height mantel, putting the TV over that is just too high. There are no other walls wide enough I that room for a TV. Is that a wall on the back of the foyer? If so , there shouldn’t be one, because your guests would be led into the great room. If you didn’t want someone at the front door to see into your great room you could have a wall there with a doorway into the great room off to the far right and you could choose to shut the door when the doorbell rings or when and if you keep the front door open with just the screen door on. The room is H-U-G-E. Have you planned out your furniture placement? Does it make sense? Who sits together on benches squished against a wall on the side of a fireplace except teenagers you don’t want in that proximity? Is that a wood burning fireplace? Maybe instead of those benches, build in a place to store cut logs ready to use in the fireplace, you can use both sides, and sort by size. On the other sides of the log storage, think about other built in storage such as closed storage on the bottom with open shelving on the top. You can put board games in there, and things like coasters and a basket or two to corral toys, and some nice decorative items, too. Just clean the logs before you bring them in or you'll have all manner of bug and rodents. And maybe think about putting in something that can make the fireplace easily convertible to a non-wood burning one because many areas are dis-allowing wbf's or so severely restricting their use because of either fire concerns or pollution concerns or deforestation concerns that you might want to switch over some day, or when you sell the house down the road the convertibility of the fireplace may make it more sellable. The last reason is the least compelling but if it doesn't cost a fortune it is should be considered even for that last reason, too. Master Bedroom Is there any particular reason you have the walk-in-closet on the far side of the master bath from the master bedroom? That’s a bit of a hike and doesn’t make sense unless one spouse has a very different schedule and doesn’t want to awaken the other. Is that the case? Is that a linen closet in the hallway outside the master bedroom? Get totally different doors. Get a series of cupboard doors, upper and lowers so all parts of the closet can be easily accessed, or else you’ll end up with corners of that closet you can’t get into. Having a door to the master toilet is disgusting. Yes it is, and I am going to spell it out because you haven’t figured it out. You have just used the toilet and your hands are literally full of the most disgusting disease-causing coliform bacteria and you have not washed them, and now you are touching the door knob and the door and the molding and who knows what else on the way to the sink. Just get a partial wall or something to disguise most of the view. But nothing you have to touch on the way to the sink! With all the doorways into the room and the windows, have you made a to scale drawing of that room with your furniture in it? Besides your bed you have have two dressers and a media stand. Hallways Where are they? It seems the house needs to be made 8 feet wider at least so you can have hallways on so rooms can be accessed via hallways without going through other rooms.