we spent our budget but really want to do a quick fix for our entryroom. Its fake wood panelling and darkish trim. There is nothing under the paneling either, no drywall etc. But totally removing paneling and putting up drywall would be too expensive this season (unless we removed paneling and out up new paneling like headboard and painted it). Everyone always says paint is cheap, but if you've just spent a bunch on your first house, "cheap" is a relative term. I'll be the odd person out here and suggest that you live with the entry room as is for a while, and save up your money so that you can fix it up properly -- drwyall etc. -- when you have the money in your budget. That way you can work on it once and have it done. It actually looks quite nice and Ralph Lauren-y to boot, and much nicer than most befores and even a number of afters in this forum : ) . Waiting also gives you the benefit of learning how you want to want to use the space, and time to gather some more ideas for what you want to do when you have the budget. Do/will you have kids? Do you have pets? Will you want this to be an area where you and/or the whole family can keep all your stuff -- jackets, coats, bags, shoes, boots? Associated pet stuff? Or is this an area where company enters and you want it to be more of a sitting room? Or a hybrid? Do you want/need it to be a laundry room or a pantry for the nearby kitchen? This would probably also be a good time to think about the kitchen -- are you keeping the red floor and ice blue backsplash? The answers to that will also affect what you do in the entry room, in the short term and long term. I'd suggest thinking about the house as a whole in terms of what you want to do, and then once you have the $$$ saved, break the projects down into manageable chunks.

I absolutely do not like the mudroom and the laundry room in the same room. Seems like completely different functions: a mudroom - a place to enter from the outdoors when completely and thoroughly dirty, wet, and/or muddy while bundled in boots/coats/hats/gloves (all of which need to be shed and hung up) while also carrying backpacks, the mail, a purse, groceries, etc; and a laundry room - a place in which to wash/sort/hang up/fold/iron clean clothes. I understand why these two rooms might be CLOSE to each other, but not TOGETHER in the same room.

I like the ideas. If you want stone, you have to have the correct joist spacing and size for that. On the John Bridge forum there is a calculator to determine the deflection of the floor system. Too much movement will crack stone yet will not be a problem for porcelain, up to a point. I have the exact set up you are talking about. I have yet to decide. I have floor thickness to consider as well as a stairway to the basement. Good luck, I will be following for ideas :)

@deegw I am in love with my little farmhouse. It is currently not much to look at but I have attached some pictures. I have essentially deconstructed the interior in order to regain access to the best parts which were covered up years ago. We took it down to the studs and pulled out ancient insulation which had been blown into the walls around 1960 - there were mouse nests in there! We have tried to "mouse-proof" the walls and had to do some repairs to the structure here and there. I added some headroom to the stairs so people over 5'6" don't have to duck to go up the stairs...things like that. I am going to put the original wood plank walls back up in select areas. One wall, which is interior and still intact, has been wallpapered with wood grain wallpaper. Who wallpapers a wooden wall with wood grain wallpaper?? That wall is along the stairs and is essentially 2 stories high, so getting that wallpaper off will be a project. I'm also renovating the bathrooms. They were redone by someone recently, so there is nothing quaint worth saving there. It has been interesting getting rid of the layers - When we pulled up the carpet and subfloor in one bedroom, we found wide mismatched planks of wood for flooring - not your typical wood flooring like in the rest of the house. When we pulled them up (because we needed to reinforce the floor without disturbing the original ceiling below), we found old newspaper glued to the underside. It was hard to read, but I could make out "God speed" "run its war" and "be for allied" which was neat. Wish I knew the story on this was under the floor. I think a uniform slate for the mudroom is a great idea. Plus, I already have slate pavers on a pathway outside, so that will tie in! They are the uniform dark type, not multi-colored. I've attached some "work in progress" pics. With the mudroom decided, any opinion on the tile for the laundry room? I picked something I liked but would love any other opinions on that...also would like opinions on ideas for the bathrooms. Here is the exposed chimney and some original walls and ceiling (covered in soot, I think?) The tiny door (removed for now) goes under the stairs. I put in new white oak floors over the original. The original floor was really in bad shape and there was no subfloor. I would love to have been able to refinish the original floor but it was all wonky and cut up from when radiators were installed. One cut was 3'x4' -- huge! (no radiators were left when I bought the house, but all the boiler equipment was still in the basement.) Removing carpet from a bedroom. Mouse tunnels! We got rid of that grossness and put in new insulation. Also sistered some beams to improve floor stiffness above. Work in progress - peeling back layers. This landing was covered in carpet. The wall to the left was covered in the 1970s paneling you see straight ahead and then that was covered in drywall, so the trim around doors was basically flush with the wall from all the layers. Here is what we found under the stairs when we removed the 1970s paneling that made a little closet. Who closes in a closet and leaves trash? That's all it was - trash. I was hoping for a cool time capsule. Or treasure. :-) Oh well... Here is the possible tile option for the laundry - next to a kitchen cabinet that will be the same color as the laundry cabinets. Here is the same tile actually in the laundry room - next to a salvaged door that will go in this pocket. Tile is in a different layout. I'm not sure which is better or if there is a better option....thoughts? PS - just for fun - here are some pics of what I found in the barn. There is also an old wall mount kitchen sink and a wood stove in the barn, which I assume came out of the house at some point.