I'm open to streamlining some of my dishes, mugs, etc. However, my immediate concern is about the fridge, and how goofy it might look sticking out on the new wall. My current fridge is 32" deep. I paid $800 in 2006. I really want to get a much bigger one with the freezer on the bottom and the french doors on the top. I feel like I got my money's worth out of it, and will find a good home for it. I will have to masking-tape out the counter & fridge. I really want more freezer space (that's why I'm open to getting a new fridge). I even considered a small separate freezer but the smaller ones are not automatic-defrost, and I don't want to empty it twice a year, and deal with the water (not having a drain). As mentioned above, maybe a fridge that doesn't extend too much beyond the counter might be better, but I'm not sure how much more freezer space that will give me. I need to research how much capacity my current one is for reference. I looked through it's manual but don't see it referenced. I also need to use the ikea configurator and fully populate the space, and see how much room I want to allocate to trash in the corner. Thanks again for everyone's interest and great ideas! This forum has really been invaluable ! Mike

Cindy, I forgot to tell you how pretty your house is:) I have seen vines being trained on a string....you just attach it to the house where you want it to go. I saw the most beautiful pic somewhere of ivy being trained on a big brick wall in a harlequin pattern. Another thought I had....you window above the door - could you paint the trim around the window the same color as your door? All of your other windows have stone trim(darker). You could also maybe paint the arch trim around the door. I am thinking this would give it a more cohesive look to your house - 2 big urns with plants & your done. I also really like that plum color that Lindy last posted, too. Smiles:)

It is by the front door. I don’t know what my taste would be called. I like a mixture of modern, unusual pieces, distressed look but I have been updating for our house to be updated to sell at a later date. We live in a “cookie cutter”neighborhood and our kitchen is already way high end for our neighborhood. I included pictures of it. I know the wood look is out but our kitchen was just done before we bought it and other than the walls I am not changing anything else.

How much of a flooring budget do you have? You could do planks on the diagonal, or in a herringbone or parquet pattern, and avoid all orientation issues altogether, lol. Or, if you'd rather add windows, there are several rooms with exterior walls that could have windows in them, where running the boards parallel to the stairs would then follow Miss Beverly's rule of running the planks perpendicular to windows. Of course, that means that you'd *also* have planks running parallel to the original windows, and if the generally-accepted architectural ideal is to have rooms with windows on at least 2 sides, I don't see how this rule is followed on a regular basis in well designed homes. :-D