Hi, I'm back again. I'm sorry I have been away from my computer for awhile and did not realize there was still some interest in this post. My 4 year old had surgery to remove a benign brain tumour on the 13th (she is doing awesome!), so I have been occupied with other things. I am also getting our current house ready to sell, so I have been a cleaning, trim-painting, de-cluttering machine. They had a meeting about my kitchen and the builder agreed with me that too many things had been changed. The kitchen company is going to fix things at their cost. We went through each thing and I had to say which I would compromise on, and which HAD to be changed and what I should be compensated for financially. Basically, they will be removing the upper cabinets and installing 36" uppers and the remaining 6" to the soffit will have moulding and trim work - similar in look to kitchenkelly's. (This forum has been so valuable for pictures and ideas. Even though I mostly lurk I find so many helpful things). They are also fixing the microwave shelf, the baseboards on the island and installing some beadboard trim on the island that was left off. They refunded money for granite, the custom wood hood and the 42" uppers. Anyways, the kitchen won't look EXACTLY as I had wanted, and a big part of the problem is that soffit. However, it will be very close and I think it will still look very nice. As my husband pointed out, I am the only one who knows exactly what it was supposed to look like! We are disappointed with how inflexible the kitchen copmany is in regards to doing NOTHING custom (the original company was more custom) and we would probably have not signed on with this builder had we known. However, the rest of the house is WONDERFUL and I think in the end the kitchen will be great too. It's just not what we would have expected. I will post pictures when it is finished. They will be installing the new cabinets in about 2 weeks - and I will definately be keeping an eye on it to make sure it is done right :)

"Dilly, that's a gorgeous door and trim. I wonder, though, if the protruding brick trim around kismet's door would prevent using pretty trim like in your picture? " I don't think the brick protrudes very far out. The door and sidelights seem almost flush with the brick as it appears now. I was just thinking of a little overhang and pillars that could be built out from the side of the house that are attached flush. The photo I showed as an example also shows the fix to another problem with the set-up the entrance has now, and that is that the door seems a tad too high. The bricks below it are stacked the long way making the door seem like it is "floating". Adding a stoop that the pillars would sit on would solve this. I wasn't suggesting a whole portico. It's an idea to play around with. I'm probably not describing what I am thinking of and I can't do photoshop. There are other photos of overhangs with flush pillars and narrow stoop that meets the threshold.

The problem is probably that you have no adequate overhang protecting the front door area. You need to get this fixed as the damage will just get greater and greater. I know you are on a tight budget, but you are going to end up with some very expensive costs to fix cosmetic and structural damage the longer this goes on. Bandaid fixes like painting the door and caulking are not going to resolve the fundamental problem you have of water infiltration. However, before giving you suggestions, more pictures are needed of the front door area so that we can see what the house looks like above the door and the condition of the gutters (if there are any).

Don't move the credenza then. Get an area rug, center one group of seating around fireplace and conversation and then maybe get a tea cart or something and put a small chair or two around that near the doors/windows to the outside. You can sit and sip your tea and watch the birdies outside there in the winter! When the weather gets nice you can carry the chairs out to the deck to sit in the sun! Then roll the cart out there with some cocktails later in the day!