Kismet, I love this kitchen too and it is my inspiration kitchen. I would love the aqua blue if I could keep the Roesmary Sprig. I am really emotionally invested in this color. Do you think I could get away with that? Lyfia, your approach is what seems easiest to me too, white on uppers and lowers with white on panleing and Rosemary sprig on walls. But ... Falling waters, do you think that even if I had a darker floor you'd want the Rosemary Sprig on the bottom? Maybe white on paneling and trim and Rosemary Sprig on top part of walls and on lower cabinets???? BTW, what color is the yellow cream you have in your bedroom?

OMG, I am SO glad I stumbled on this site..the idea of the contrasting cove in that half bath is PERFECT ! (Guess I'm braindead, I should have thought of that!)now I feel less guilty about changing that mugly floor.. and I am so grateful to have found likeminded crackpots like myself. This house has some sort of a spell over us, and the 'average' person looks askance at us..We are seriously thinking of just selling our big 'new' house and small farm and just moving to town. Most of our friends are horrified..imagine, leaving our lovely new home recently completed to move to that sadly in need of 'updating' ranch in the 'old neighborhood'... This little home is just that..a home..all the years of love and care create an 'aura' and soul that no new house can ever give, at least for decades to come. I am a house addict anyway, so 'feel' is paramount to me. I AM excited. and really just want to wait on most everything to let IT tell me what needs done. other than that kitchen floor that is!..I actually like the countertops (can't believe I'm saying that after all the granites, natural stones, etc etc everyone craves!)..they are S O L I D...and feel it. ditto on the cabs..real heartpine knotty and put together like a cabinet maker should. I found a few really nice trivets in the cabs so it's obvious how they survived so well all these years. I am so anxious to set it all up, and grateful there is little to do.. Can't wait to see the new floor installed (hopefully by end of next week) will post oodles of pics! I do agree that appliances, houses, cars, and the like are nothing today like they were 50 years ago. We were just saying that very same thing as my fancy dancy 2 year old front load energy efficient, 'green' operating dryer conks out. that's AFTER the 18 mo Samsung hoopdy doopdy French door fridge got hauled off, and the discovery that my dual fuel range top does NOT raise up for cleaning....and all the problems with our beautiful 'new house' from framing to electrical..I know 'every' generation gripes about the quality of the new, but I truly feel this time it's different...since abut 1970 when plastic tubs took over..... hurry and up and finish, regardless of quality... no wonder we kooks love the old stuff...it just FEELS right. am pretty decided on a VCT in kitchen/laundry/half bath, creamy white ground with brick checkerboard, fading to mostly creamy into the adjoining den.am going to use MORE of the bricky color in the kitchen, less in the laundy so the fade to the den will be subtle. .am going to take more pics today....those rooms don't need any wall paint or treatment..and if WE live there right away I am keeping the light fixtures that are original to the house..thank you all for sharing this with me! and I love reading about others' adventures as well... we can't seem to stay away from the place.. p.s. you can't believe what my husband found in the shop...all intact, a myriad of tools, weeny jars of parts and stuff, all perfectly arranged...and we have an attached 'hobby room'and separate store room, along with a lovely screened and stormed sun porch.....and then there's the garden shed, all equipped............and those heavenly towering oak trees........... [IMG]http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/1962/braggrearyardtohouse.jpg[/IMG] By [URL=http://profile.imageshack.us/user/ancientoaks]ancientoaks[/URL] at 2010-11-28 [IMG]http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/878/braggeaststreet.jpg[/IMG] By [URL=http://profile.imageshack.us/user/ancientoaks]ancientoaks[/URL] at 2010-11-28 did I do this right????? grr!

Just a update. I came up to Tahoe for a few days to see my daughter. She got two days off work, after working 12 hours/day for thirteen days straight. Her summer is going great. The kitchen is running smoothly. She's been learning how to manage her kitchen staff, 10 people including two assistant supervisors and a bunch of junior cooks. Lots of training, teaching, correcting, encouraging, and now doing job reviews and planning staffing for next summer. She's also been writing up recipes and procedures, filling out employee evaluations, and other administrative stuff. Along the way they've had to deal with equipment breaking down, water shortages, a small forest fire that closed the road and interrupted food delivery for awhile, and other interesting aspects of cooking in the high mountains. The camper feedback on the food has been very good. People have told me the meals have been the best they've ever had in years of coming to camp. She's been asked for her recipes several times. (As an aside, I think they need to change their policies for accommodating special dietary requests. This being a Berkeley camp, families are always requesting that their meals for the week be gluten free, dairy free, meat free, nut free, kosher, vegan, soy free, low fat, low carb, without certain spices, no raw vegetables, no garlic or onions, no peppers, no tomatoes, and on and on - the list of idiosyncratic restrictions seems endless. Right now the camp kitchen accommodates every request, which means they have to improvise a special variant or two of the meal, for one or more individual campers, almost every day. I told her they need to develop a standard list of alternative dishes using food that they will stock all the time and offer those and only those, instead of trying to create bespoke versions of every meal served during the week. For example, they should always be able to accommodate vegetarians or gluten intolerants or lactose intolerant, but I don't think a camper should be able to present any arbitrary list of restrictions and always expect to be accommodated. This isn't a restaurant, it is a summer camp.) On her first day off, we drove to Reno and found a restaurant supply store, and I bought a bunch of little stuff they need. Things like more aprons and oven mitts, egg slicers, thermometers, etc. My daughter was like a kid in a candy store. The camp kitchen needs a lot of other equipment, but my "helpful dad" budget does not extend to a commercial mixer (the kids are making dough by hand because they only have one Kitchen-Aid for 140 people), a Robot Coupe (they chop everything by hand, no food processor), a commercial rice maker, etc. The kitchen does get improved a little every year. Maybe next summer they will actually have their new ovens installed. Can you imagine feeding 140 people a day with just one large flat top, four burners, one small oven, and one charbroiler? At the former camp in Yosemite that burned in the big forest fire of 2013, the kitchen was well equipped. At this camp in Tahoe, the kitchen is nowhere as good. I've been vagabonding while I'm here. The first night I put my sleeping bag on the couch on the deck of the tent cabin that my daughter shares with some other girls. That was comfortable enough but I am a bit appalled at how messy four teenaged girls can be. The next night my daughter and I slept on the beach at Lake Tahoe, outside a friend's house. We watched the local bear splashing through the water about 70 feet away, then fell asleep to a fantastic lightning storm on the other side of the lake. Pictures below. Tonight I'm borrowing that friend's tent cabin, so I'm slightly less on guard about the local bear. He has never threatened anyone, in the five years that he's been living in this grove by the lake, and I've been within 40 feet of him a few times, but you still have to make sure you don't have food in your car or in your sleeping bag. Well, that's it for now. It might rain tonight, so I'm glad my sleeping bag isn't on the beach.

Cute kitchen with lots of opportunities. Replacing the countertop, backsplash, sink, faucet, pendant lighting and removing the wallpaper will make a huge difference. Paint the air return the same color as the wall. Rework the chotchkies on the shelves - right now they are too linear. The trim around the door is white while the ceiling molding is stained wood. I might consider painting the ceiling molding white too to eliminate all the oak look and freshen things up a bit. The breadbox needs to go. I'd also remove the picture over by the door - it looks crowded over there. Have fun with your project and embrace the oak. It'll probably be back in high fashion in a few years :-)