Lyban, I'm sorry!! I absolutely love the floors, though I'm already wishing we'd sealed them (I think this will pass as I add furniture, rugs, etc). Unfortunately none of the pictures are very good so far, but here are some anyway. So, approaching hte basement, before you'd have seen really nasty old linoleum with dirt ground in and shiny dirty-looking paint Now you see fresh flat white paint and new charcoal carpet. The new basement floor is visible, but pretend you don't see that yet! Walking into the basement, before there were dirty dark shiny paneled walls (I don't even have any pictures of those), a moldy old dropped ceiling, flourescent lights above gross old panels, and dark brown vinyl tiles that were releasing from years of neglect. This represents a halfway picture, with older paint, the dropped ceiling removed, and new lighting. Then we painted the ceiling flat black (the subject of this thread, of course!), painted the walls bright flat white, and replaced the flooring with diamond-set white and grey vinyl tiles (the commercial stuff by Armstrong). The pictures of the new floor aren't very good...we don't have any of the new furniture we're planning to get and frankly I'm not even sure what I want. So I am definitely open to decorating ideas...I'm thinking charcoal couch, huge area rug (perhaps an accent color?), and a loveseat or additional chairs. Even now, as I sit here, we've placed some of the furniture--TV, our one chair, and the exercise stuff, but I dare not take pictures because DH finally has his TV back after almost 1.5 months! Laundry room main living area, with furniture all pushed to the middle (this was right after installation) To sum up, this is what's happened over the last 6-7 weeks: 1. ripped out old/moldy/disintegrating/incompletely installed dropped ceiling 2. installed can lights (removed old, in some cases nonfunctional, flourescent tubes) 3. painted the unfinished ceiling black (huge ordeal, involved moving almost everything upstairs and then taping off all walls and remaining items with thick plastic sheeting before renting a gigantic power paint sprayer...) 4. demolished huge, old, smelly, dusty-----but surprisingly (and unfortunately for me, the demolisher) well-built!----plywood/particleboard/pegboard/wood closets 5. ripped up nasty old floor tiles that were coming up and breaking into small pieces all over the place (thank you victoria---horrible job); we then lived with nasty black mastic for almost two weeks, until #8 happened this week. 6. Had an asbestos-wrapped copper water pipe professionally removed 7. painted old dark shiny paneled walls flat white, including the stairwell walls and ceiling. 8. installed new VCT tile and base molding, and carpeted the stairs with charcoal-colored carpet

While there are water based products that can be thinned with water, I've always preferred oil based paint/primer for whitewashing/pickling, thinned with turpentine or mineral spirits. The ratio really depends on the look you want, and especially the hardness/porosity of the wood. Typically, I brush or wipe on with a rag, and then wipe back off with a rag to the desired amount of pigment left on the wood and in crevices and details. With wood as hard and dense as Maple, you'll need to experiment how long to leave it on for the results you want. You can always go back and add more over it until you're pleased. Personally, I would choose a wood other than Maple with a more open grain, and or softer if specifically wanting to whitewash, but that does not mean it can't be done! White Oak is beautiful whitewashed/pickled, Red oak is nice too, but has a tendency to go pink, so adding some blue or gray in the thinned mix can help mitigate the effect. Laquer is typically sprayed on, as it dries in minutes, and can be re-coated several times in one process. There are also brushing laquers that have a slower dry time, I've used Deft brand and it works well. Most top coats are available in a matte finish, satin is just a notch above matte on the gloss scale, and is a bit more wipeable for a kitchen. Pine in the kitchen... (also on the T&G sloped ceiling that you can't see) Pine paneling in the family room... Pine wall unit and ceiling in my home office. I wanted the ceiling to contrast the cabinet and crown a bit, so used very little pigment, and wiped off quickly...

One of my cats went thru something similar. She had become a picky eater, licking just the juice from the wet food, acting like she was hungry and would just sit and look at the food. All tests came back normal but the vet noticed she had some gingivitis going on, so I decided to get her teeth cleaned and see if her eating would improve. Once the dental vet examined my cat (under anesthesia) she found there were only 7 teeth in her mouth, where there should have been around 30. After a full set of mouth X-rays they diagnosed her with Tooth Resorption. The X-rays showed all but 2 of her teeth needed to be removed, along with 3 remaining roots that were infected and draining. After 3+ weeks of recovery, she is back to her normal self, eating well and gaining weight. Before spending more money on more tests I'd probably have the vet X-ray Rocket's mouth. A visual inspection won't show more than what looks like gingivitis so if your vet doesn't have the x-ray equipment for dental work, I'd find one that does. Here's a site about tooth resorption.

It looks like you have nice wood treads so don't paint them white. The risers can be white, but I can't see what they are now - again, if they're nice wood (not plywood), no need to paint them. Whether you do a runner or edge to edge is up to you. I prefer not to carpet stairs at all because they see so much wear, but if you have children or older folks in your household carpet might be a good idea. It's more forgiving if someone falls. I don't think a runner is necessary in your house based on the style visible in the picture which looks like modern/rustic.