Hi Miss Jay! I did check out your blog. You have a nice chatty style that is easy to read. I, too, prefer to do my shopping online. I like how your kitchen turned out, with all the cubby holes and little shelves for oils and spices and such. It is homey and comfortable. One question, do you have ventilation with the side windows in the garden window? It looks like you might. With the range hood fan on and those windows open, It could get a bit of a breezy flow going during cooler times. Otherwise, I would worry that your little kitchen would get stuffy. I have admired your screen door plate rack since the first time I saw it. It is so pretty, so practical, and such an unexpected surprise when you see it there at the end of the hall. Your painting skills are to be admired, as well, shown by your three little monkeys on the table top and the Hamsa. Your home is alive with the warmth of your personality and your skills. Congratulations!

Wow, great updates! The bathroom looks so much nicer, I love the mirror tile and curtain. Thanks so much for sharing about the vinyl granite - we have old, marked up, yellow-y "cultured marble" in our bathrooms and I hate it. But the upstairs bathrooms have8-10' long countertops so replacing them would be very expensive. I think you just gave me the perfect solution, although I am not sure how it will work with undermount sinks. Perhaps I will have to replace the sinks (which have also seen better days). Too bad it won't be an option for our kitchen, which has tile. I think we'll end up going with laminate there.

Continued thanks for the ideas! We usually put our boots on at the table and walk out the door. Sometimes make a trip back to the bedroom to grab something. When we come home we often take them off outside the front door to avoid bringing in more snow. That being said, the floor always gets wet with boots, dogs, etc. There's not a great area near the door. But we usually have shoes off within 10 feet of the door. I'm wondering if high-end vinyl might be a good way to go. My friend has it in her basement because she couldn't have real wood and it looks nice. Water isn't an issue with it. We have real hardwood at home and it just wouldn't be practical for this condo. Wood-look tile would be an option. I love Jillius' ideas. I want to just start buying rugs and lamps and art . . . The good news is I have a lot of stuff from home that I can bring here - red and cream pillows for example. I love red. I think the dark furniture we bought for the condo was probably a reaction to the blond oak furniture that was here originally. Unfortunately criagslist and Ikea can be a little difficult when you're rural. The nearest Ikea is 6 hours away. I can't just pop into Homegoods or such. But I'm going to look more at Overstock.com.

I think the cabinets look great. I would go with a solid quartz counter. A lot of the Scandinavian style inspo pictures I have seen are going back to white walls. this photo is a little more contemporary, but shows the white quartz and walls with a similar cabinet color.