Wow! Thanks for all the beautiful pictures! CheriPatrice- You have some wonderful inspiration photos! Laughable- That's a nice kitchen, but those windows are lovely :) As for the wood/white cabinetry, I so appreciate all your input. I have not made a decision, but I am trying to find different examples, to make comparisons. I'm pretty set on white appliances and I like the idea of white backsplash tile, with some leaves or vines...and if I have wood cabinets, I would want white countertops. White cabinets, probably wood countertops. I know I want to use some blue and green accents with the yellow walls. I'd also like to include some reference to the brick, without being too heavy. As you might imagine, not a lot of pictures available, but I'm still looking. The only thing I don't like is wood floor with wood tone cabinets. It all seems to blend together, so either wood floor with painted cabinets or wood tone cabinets with a different floor. The lightness factor...that's big! I do want a kitchen that will bounce some light around, but not too white. Sometimes white can actually look gray, if there's not a lot of natural light. That's one of my concerns, too. My mom had white walls in her new kitchen, but they looked gray on cloudy days. She painted the walls a soft leaf green and it's beautiful. What light we do have in the kitchen is not really bright. We have the window over the sink (4' but could be a little wider) and the french doors to the sunroom...indirect light at best. The kitchen window faces southeast, so good morning light, but not much in the afternoon. One idea is to use the wood lower cabinets, with few uppers (mostly plate racks, open storage and a few glass doors or fabric...with only frames of the wood showing. This would lighten up the heaviness, associated with wood uppers and maybe paint the island green. The hutch would be lovely in blue...maybe tie in a few accent pieces too...a plate rack or the niche by the fridge. The table and chairs are also wood, but the chairs could be painted...and I'd like to have metal/wrought iron stools, at the island. Maybe tie it in with some wrought iron on some of the pendants or accessories. For hardware, antique brass and probably the same finish on the chandelier, over the table. I want it to feel like a country kitchen with a french spin, but as Beekeeperswife says, not too theme-y! LOL Now for the floor, I know it's totally 70s, but what about a vinyl floor that looks like brick? I love brick patios and I have some antique brick out in the garden...so I'd like to find something a little more rustic (less red) if possible. Still just an idea...but I'm kind of liking it! Sunroom...I'd like to paint it a soft aqua/blue, very light, to look good behind the plants and look like a warm, sky blue. We have that soft color, in the summer, on really warm days...and it's beautiful. I'd like to find a small settee and some comfy smaller chairs, for this space. Either wicker or small upholstered pieces. The little table and chairs would be more bistro style, maybe with some wrought iron for the base, wood top, iron chairs. Maybe back to vinyl 'wood' floors in this room...softer with the blue. Now, I'm totally digressing, but it's a slow day at work :) Any pictures, input, ideas? Don't be afraid to tell me what you really think...I may or may not agree with you, but it's good to get feedback. And L...the placement of the woodstove will partially be determined by whether we extend the upstairs part way over the sunroom. If we do, the pipe would still have to be tall, since I do know about the 10' rule. I have been talking to installers, but whether the stove is in the middle of the wall or the corner, will be decided by what we do upstairs. There are advantages to the corner placement, but I lose a few windows...but that's the northwest side...so maybe not a big deal :)

Well outside bids are coming in and wow,what a wake up call! The ceramic we had picked out compared to the glass we picked and wanted to go with price difference was so great we are going to stick to ceramic with glass as an accent. Our shower is 4x5.. 2 walls are 4x8,one is a 4x4 half wall and the back wall is 5x8. Bids on glass with schluter rails were coming in at about the same from 2 different contractors at $8K,compared to ceramic,we had 3 estimates,2 were right at $4K and one from Sears was $8K.No idea what was up with the Sears bid on ceramic! lol These prices are for complete shower,pouring a preslope,Denshield and tiling,prices do not include a glass door,we want to wait til later to see if we will actually need a door.It's a fairly large shower. I started reading differences in tiles and started thinking i would need porcelain but after reading about the differences in ceramic and porcelain,i realized ceramic was fine so long as i read the ratings and understood what they meant.So i got a little knowledge,which is mostly a good thing! So thank you everyone for the input!

Flo, thanks so much. I just got home from the tile shop. I like the basket weave with the black dot (not the dark grey I was considering) and the guy I’ve been working with at the shop suggested just buying field tile that matches the dot and use that as the liner on the rug (cut into 1/2” strips). His thought on the wall is to either use that same liner, to match the dot, or skip it. I’m leaning towards skipping it and letting the floor be the focal point. Do you still think this a tough tiling job? Is it the basket weave or herringbone subway or ...all of it together?. I imagined that the wainscoting would be easy. To answer your question, no I don’t dye my hair at home, but thanks for the heads up.

why not just do the bullnose? And perhaps go w/a 4x12 instead of a 3x6. here's my shower. I used a 4x12 with bullnose on both the vertical, for outside edges, and horizontal, for the top row the bullnose option is one of the cleanest looks you'll get the schluter I did for the accent and the niche (I chose black) close up of that same 4x12 tile but in a diff layout. (this is my neighbors shower) we opted for a stacked pattern layout. slightly more modern looking this one got the Schluter edging on the outside In this one, the tile didn't come w/a bullnose edge. we went w/the pencil liner. again, a larger tile (either a 3x12 or 4x12) and a stacked layout does this give you a better of idea of what look you like?