A couple of questions: Is this a house you actually own already, or is this a hypothetical? Leading to: Is there a kitchen there already? What is there? There's no point in worrying about finding cabinets if you have a kitchen full. Don't trouble trouble until trouble troubles you, as they say ... In your area, who is the most likely person to rent to? Students? Low income people? Health care workers near a hospital? Is it a resort area? A retirement community? These things may influence your decisions. "What people want" in incredibly subjective. Each of those groups named -- and there are so many not named -- would want different things, and individuals would want different things. Basically, though, in a rental, do as little renovation as possible without serious thought, and learn all your legal rights and responsibilities. Maintain scrupulously though. (I know I have rejected many apartments just by smell alone. Sometimes just by the smell in the hallways.) As for "vintage" hardware -- try salvage houses. People sell it by the baggiefull. I have rented several apartments and houses with simple, modest kitchens and strict, honest landlords. Personally, I prefer this style to the owners who watch too much HGTV, get dollar signs in their eyes, have their brother in law slap in bargain granite, triple the rent, and throw a badly-spelled, hyperbole and exclamation-point laden ad on craigslist. Bottom line: I would make the best choice based on the house for the area and the market, maybe access to public transportation and the things the renters would be interested in: schools if that's part of the target, the local business park if that's the target, the beach, shops, medical facilities, pool etc. THEN I'd look at the kitchen, and me? I'd look to making what you have the best it can be. At least while you get the hang of being a landlord.

It's been a long time since I was posting here, but my heart belongs to Smaller Homes. I'm a cottage living fan from the git-go. We now live entirely in Mobile Alabama, which is at the top of Mobile Bay and about 30 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. The home we bought in May of 2005, and then remodeled and furnished, was destroyed in August by Hurricane Katrina. So here we are now in a small stucco cottage just south of I-10 where I-65 terminates. And, we sold HIS house in Massachusetts last March 2013, so I no longer have to split my efforts between two houses and two totally different gardens. But, I learned to love HOSTA up there, and now have almost 500 different varieties here in zone 9a. Interestingly enough, they are thriving. Meanwhile, I've been saving like a pack rat in order to remodel the cottage which I've named White Dove. I have a dove with wings spread, made by Little and Lewis, as my name emblem. (I believe in naming things I love).The changes were so complex that I felt it best to hire an architect to include all the new specs required to meet hurricane country building code, including windows and roofs and general construction. Next week I meet with the builder and the architect so the permits and the cost estimate can proceed. I will wind up this post and make a new thread about White Dove cottage remodel. What started ostensibly as a kitchen remodel, wound up including much more. New roof, new hardwood floors, new entryway with relocation of the front door, tear off the old back porch and the deck, add some space for a sitting area to our master bedroom so I may view my back garden and have LIGHT. So while it may not be the smallest kitchen on the block, it is a very personal space incorporating the things I love, and a cross between modern and cottage. Hopefully before the summer is over, I'll be using my new 24"" Bertazzoni gas range, my enchanting Italian jewel, (which for the last 18-24 months sat crated up in my Teahouse), along with an under counter GE fridge (also in the Teahouse for a year),beside my baking/prep area. The old GE frenchdoor fridge gave out, so now there is a big Whirlpool side-by-side fridge replacing it. But don't get me started here....see you on the other thread. See all you folks around the forum this summer.

That sounds good. I was thinking that the next post should star off with a call out to the lurkers, maybe with some of the quotes from this thread of folks who had never done this before we took it on in one of these threads. I think the lurkers have this wacky idea that everybody who posts on this thread is some uber-creative design professional, which isn't true at all (although we have some of those). Quotes: LWO: I only wish that more of the people who need design help were trying to participate. It IS a learning exercise. Or, it was conceived of that way. It's great that so many talented amateurs and pros are giving examples of "how to", but there's nothing like getting your feet wet to go swimming. Testimonials: Sochi:I had never done a mood board before the 3rd thread (1920s kitchen). I've learned quite a bit about Olioboard and Flickr since the first kitchen I posted. That alone makes these exercises worthwhile. Not only am I learning a little about design (mostly from others) but I'm also learning how to more efficiently create moodboards, navigate the web, identify where to find what I'm looking for relatively quickly, use Flickr, etc. Plus it's fun and quite addictive. I encourage everyone to try it out. cawaps:I had never put together a mood board before the Colonial Revived thread (Design Around This #2). It takes a bit of time, but if you can do a Google image search and can master the basic tips on posting photos, you can do this...I find that I am more likely to respond to other threads with pictures, since it doesn't seem like such a chore anymore, now that I have lots of practice. I've also learned not to overinvest in a particular choice. At the idea stage you can easily adopt, evaluate, replace, look for something else.

Totally hijacking here I have a 40" 8 shaft Toika Eeva countermarche floor loom from Finland. A 27" Louet, Jane, 8 shaft table loom on a stand, from Holland. I just resently brought home 60" counter balance LeClerc, Canadian, floor loom, Mira, with 4 shafts. I have woven lots of family gifts. I wove a wool and mohair blanket double width weaving for my DS2 and DIL2. It came out 100"x70" and fits on a queen bed. I also wove a smaller wool blanket that DD1 uses as work to keep warm in her cold office. I don't have a picture of my DD1 blanket, but i submitted it to the Iowa State Fair and got 2nd place in the blanket division. The blanket below wasn't done in time to submit. But it was done for the wedding. Wedding Blanket, fuzzy mohair: ETA this closeup of the tassels: Wedding Shawl out of silk and merino wool: Closeup of the random tassles in silk and wool. In this pic the tassles still need trimming at the ends. This picture makes me want to just scrunch it up to my face, lol