I've been there too - in fact I'm still there LOL!! Our worst was when we got to the 2 story section of the house. We had some structural issues so the only way to deal with it was to cut the entire 22*16 foot two level structure at one time. We had our bed set up in the dining room that was open to the kitchen for the winter. The only good part is the bed was about 10' from the wood stove so it made it real easy to get up in the night to keep the fire going. We are finally to finishing the kitchen and like you, decided to run the kitchen floor into the dining area. Our kitchen was set up temporary all along (we moved the rooms) so it was real easy to move cabinets around. At one point I had two base cabinets in the entry way. One upper out on the deck, the small cabinet island in the hallway. The phone center cabinet was also in the hallway, the tall hutch is apart and in the library crammed next to the dining room table along with my tredel sewing machine. The chairs for the dinign room are upstairs in the family room - they have to be shifted around if we want to watch TV, but we rarely do that. The big hutch is in between the two desks in the den. The two tall pantry cabinets ended up in the other hallway to the dressing room. We have a small folding table and two chairs - that has worked out great to have some place to sit other than eating at our computer desks. I'm seriously wondering how it will be like to have regular rooms again. Cathy

I have been following Susanka's work for more than a decade. She uses very light wood in her house because she practices out of Minnesota, which is far north lattitude. I live in Seattle, WA and we are at 48th parallel. We have about 5 to 6 hours of grey daylight during Dec and Jan. It is terrible. We have to really pay attention to how we use natural light and materials around us, and houses with lighter wood feel better in this climate and location. Think Scandinavian furniture and colors and why they work in that environment. Having said that, Scandinavian sentiment of everything painted white/grey/light brey blue will work really well in that house. I would make sure that the cabinet style and trim style you pick is not too traditional with too many rounded or fluted ornamentation. The house really calls for crisp corners on all the wood work. You really need to pick finishing materials with modern esthetic in this house. If you end up picking white modern feeling kitchen, it will not work with black painted wood work. It will look too much like yo-yo, where you could not make up your mind. If you use light blue greys, then they will not work too well with orange/red/green colors as you already know. However, if you paint the woodwork in creamy yellowish/tan/brownish color, then you can keep the orange, red colors for accent. Black kitchen without too much uppers and light counter top would work quite well with your black woodwork. If you eliminate much of upper cabinets, then it will not feel too dark even with larger over hangs. I would paint the walls very light/bright. One of my architect friend designed her house that has that similar sentiment with Susanka's house with peaked high pitched roof. She used black slab doors and marble counter top with minimal uppers. it does not feel dark at all. Do you like painted white kitchens that have modern esthetic? You need to ask yourself if you are attracted to more traditional feel of white kitchens or if is the color of white in the kitchens you see. If you prefer the traditional look of white kitchens, you will not be very happy in this modern feeling "house". You need to accept that you want more traditional type of finished in your house. This will be difficult to pull off in this house because the rooflines are so non-traditional. You don't want that feeling that the kitchen looks out of place in the house.... Modern houses have a very different feel to the entire house. I live in a home with three walls are mostly windows and with no walls between LR/DR/kitchen. The wood cabinets do not feel "cheap" in these homes if you make sure the cabinets go with the house. If you put in the wrong type of cabinets, then they feel like builder grade cheap wood cabinets that do not belong in the house. Some of the ways to get less cheap looking wood cabinets it to look at custom made veneer cabinets. I would explore (look at lots of images) more modern looking kitchens using either dark or light wood and see how you like them. Even if you paint the kitchen a light color, the kitchen has to feel modern in that house. Are you okay with that? If you still are attracted to more traditional feel of "white" kitchens, then I think you need to really ask yourself if you want this house. Go look at some books that publish Susanka's work. They all have very similar vernacular in what she uses; maple or other light wood (beech is very commonly used Scandinavian wood) cabinets with shaker style or slab doors and simple mouldings/trim. I am asking a very obvious question but you have to really accept the architectural scheme and the decorating scheme of the house that you are committing to. Not everyone wants a modern house. You may be much happier in a traditional type of home. This is not too late to get what you really want! Often, people here see kitchens as a stand alone from the house. Your house is not like that. The entire house is viewed from one perspective as most modern houses are since there are no walls separating the rooms. The entire decorating scheme has to fit together in one quick "look". The more you steer away from that one quick look fitting in, the less pulled together your house will feel. Even if you don't love the light wood kitchen, if it works in the house and you LOVE the house, I would bite the bullet and go with it. I disagree with the comment that the painted walls last less than the kitchens. You will spend easily $5000 to $10,000 to have the living area repainted, if it is as big as you say it is. My living area costs about $3000 to $5000 to have it painted everytime. I don't change colors on a whim. I also pick paint color based on what is already there. Often, there are not many possible choices because I am limited by the wood tone, colors of furniture, flooring etc. Painting is NOT a cheap investment, unless you do it yourself. Even then, you are committing many many weekends to doing nothing but painting. Look at how many walls you have to paint. Each wall takes primer plus two coats of paint, minimum. I doubt that you will paint walls yourself since you have 5 kids.... When you put the entire house together, you will end up loving the entire house or not. If you love the house, even if there are elements that were not your first pick, you end up appreciating why you have to make those choices and accept them and will learn to love how the entire house pulled together. Good luck.

Nursetammi, instead of messing with the trim--because you're not really ready for that, why not paint the walls a similarly medium-dark-to-dark color that looks wonderful in lamplight, makes the trim a quiet detail, the whole coordinating with the kitchen wall at the other end? Very significantly, erasing most of the contrast provided by trim and possessions against light walls, so that your decor blended harmoniously, would keep the richness they bring but lose any feeling of clutter. This is why so many of the rich old layered rooms were in dark values. To me, going this direction would only build on the inviting coziness you've already created in that area and make it a very appealing alternative to the brightness of the seating area by the kitchen. Most of my house is white with whites because it's not that large and I like that, but I think the trend for almost exclusively light walls in this era is regrettable, causing people to miss out on some very special options. http://gossiplankasinhala.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Dark-Green-Living-Room.jpg

I absolutely adore that blue hutch in your kitchen and the sunroom ceiling color. Amazing! Seeing the tones in those and the floor/cabinets/counters, I would chose a fairly neutral tone trim color like BM Simply White. If the tone has any warm reds it could read pink (our engineered cherry floors did this to us) or yellows it will emphasize the counters. Since your floors have an orange tone (at least on my monitor) and that's opposite on the color wheel from the blue hutch and accents throughout your home, I recommend not encouraging or contrasting that color. Essentially, adding more warm color tones like Cotton Balls would make the warm tones even more dominant and adding cool would provide contrast, potentially making the warm pop more. A neutral tone will let the two coexist without dominance. Threers is right about lighting too. My husband rebelled at daylight lights in most rooms, but our kitchen was the one room that really needed it. Higher kelvins can wash out some of the warm tones, which can make the colors better go with the rest of your home.