Lindy--can you hear my sighs and oohs and ahhs? Gorgeous--everything! What a great job you have done. Be proud! Love it, love it! Don't change stain at all! This is off the thread, but I noticed on another thread your progress pics and that you used board and batten. (Gorgeous everything again--love your style!) If you don't mind me asking, did you use, (for a lack of technical terms), real wood or manufactured siding type? What type of maintenance will you have with your choice? And, did you carry it all around the sides and back? DH not too handy :(, so I'm worried about a lot of maintenance. If we have to start cutting things on our plan due to budget issues, I don't want to lose my stone on the front, (call it my!), but I would rather lose the brick. We were thinking cedar shakes and/or board & batten. Just was hoping to "pick your brain" and see what helped you make your decision. Thanks in advance. If you want, you can email me. Thanks too for sharing your photos and experiences.

You've got such a tough decision here. While light doors and trim brightens up everything, it does show stains and scuff marks. I think it depends on how neat and clean you are and how much things like scuff marks and handprints bother you. I think it also depends on your inspiration pictures for your home. What do you get really excited about when you see pictures of other homes? How are you inspired? We lived in a 70's home with painted trim and hated it. We lived in a 90's home with stained trim and doors and loved it. I'm sure the dirt was there, but you couldn't see it. The scratches and knicks just seemed to add character to me. We now live in an 8 year old home with white doors, trim and cabinets. It always looks dirty to me. I am constantly cleaning and never done. We have three kids. As I get older, I just kind of give up. I just get to what bothers me the most in the public rooms. However, it is the brightest home we have lived in. Just remember, if you're worried about it being too dark, your fabrics, wall colors, drapes, ect. can all be light in color. We will down size in about 10 years (hope to), and it will be to a one level house with stained woodwork and a beautiful fireplace, something I don't have now. (aahh, now I'm off to daydream!) Good luck. Whatever you decide it will be beautiful I'm sure. Floors, cabinets and open floor plan sound wonderful.

Your most "bang for the buck" solution would be paint. Take a door to a good paint store, not a big box with a paint department. They will be able to advise you about pretreating, primers and finish paint that will give you a good job on your particular cupboards. Polyshades will not lighten the cabinets, but it could be used to darken them. Strip and refinish may be possible, but it is a huge amount of work. If the cupboards are veneer, it will be almost impossible to strip them carefully enough to not damage the finish and still get a good result.

My alarm bells are ringing. My concern is water damage, both old and ongoing. Any house should be gone over by a home inspector before buying and I suggest you hire one. Check the lawn's slope to see if rain floods the crawl space. Check the stone for cracks that let rain soak the framing. Check for leaks where the siding meets the concrete porch. Check the eaves, rafters and roof decking.