Thanks for your replies, pink and candj! I'm glad you took my question as intended, not as slamming you for your decisions. Sometimes I read the remodeling posts and think people have been brainwashed by the TV programs and slick magazines sponsored by...the remodeling industry! I'm such a smartie that I don't have a clue how to post photos! Good point about this being the Ultimate Remodel. Because we saved the foundation and a fireplace, that's exactly how the city treated our project. Since then they've changed the code, adding a $10K demo fee and some other expensive hoops. We tore down a 2000 sq ft 1950s low-pitch-roofed ranch with dubious additions (sinking foundation under one). We built a 2900 sq ft one story with walk up stairs to a full-height attic that can become another 2000 sq ft of BRs and baths (for a future owner). We spent an extra $40K for that attic due to advice that we'd never get value back for "such a small house" on an expensive acre that is zoned for 5-6000K sq ft. Our appraiser neighbor has since sold his ranch on an acre -- now a 5000 sq ft two-story. Through my open window I can hear carpenters putting up two other large homes on teardown sites nearby. The neighborhood is down to only three or four more likely teardowns now. There are other "historic" larger homes, too. These are "infill" projects, not the destruction of an entire neighborhood. I agree that your house is your HOME, but it is also for many people the largest investment they own. As long as you're happy with the results in the long run, that's all that matters. May all your materials come in on time (undamaged) and all your workmen show up regularly (and sober). May your house turn out to give you exactly what you've planned! And when it's all done, your family can go camping to recapture that "livin' close" feeling.

Pamghatten, the colors in your pictures are stunning! Mtnrdredux, that is a skylight and I hate it. It's over the middle of the kitchen and adds about 100 degrees of heat to the room. I've been exploring options to add a motorized solar shade that would filter out some of the sunlight during the hottest parts of the day. I can't put in a reflective shade because the build-up of heat could blow out the glass. I love your new beach house, BTW...gorgeous!!!

Like Jakabedy, I watch the HGTV house hunting shows quickly too. I like hearing the bio of the person/couple at the beginning and I want to know what they claim their budget will be (usually it is X-Y range and you can count on the realtor starting at Y+ cost houses :). I FF through the long list of what they want, because who cares? l confess I rarely watch the classic first time buyer couple with zilch to spend episodes. No offense, but I just don't care all that much about seeing $100K starter homes in Buffalo LOL. I skip the commercials, I skip the 'debate' on which house. So basically, those half hour episodes are about 15 minutes of watchable. Love all the oceanfront/Caribbean/island house hunter shows but skip through the travelogue bits-I live in the subtropics so I don't really need to watch the giddy middle aged Ohio transplants take their first snorkel tour, jet ski run, nibble at the fruit market or drive along the island agog at the vegetation! and the ocean! and the sunshine! On Property Brothers I skip the tour of the dream house they can't afford because again, who cares? I skip the obligatory cutesy sequence in which the couple shows up at the newly purchased house so the wife can giggle while she ineffectually swings a heavy hammer at a kitchen cabinet or tile wall and then acts all googly that she's so little and frail and incompetent that nothing happens (aside-still a mystery to me why women on home fixer upper shows all seem to think that's so cute and adorable). I like the section in which the contractor brother discovers grave problems in knocking down every wall, or that the entire house is falling apart structurally. Skip commercials, and voila you have a 30-ish minute episode. House Hunters Renovation? I make a game of figuring which house they pick by scanning the teaser at the intro, then I skip right over the other houses they look at because (all together now) who cares? Skip the googly kitchen bashing that goes on there too and once more, an hour becomes 30 minutes. As for whether they are realistic, of course not. But I'm not watching them as cinema verite. If I want that I can cast my mind back to projects I've done on my own house. I watch that stuff for entertainment and mindless relaxing tv, and for me it works quite well.

I love the orange shower! It reminds me of a field of California poppies. What a great way to start the day ^_^ I had an orange kitchen sink in my very first apartment as a grown up. It was otherwise a very traditional space, so the orange sink was an unexpected surprise that got lots of comments from visitors. My husband isn't nearly as adventurous as I am, so other than lots of traditional stained wood trim and built-ins on our first floor, we don't have a lot of fixed color in our house. He let me "go crazy" with black & white tile in our laundry room and kid/guest bathroom because he doesn't spend time in those rooms, but otherwise we went fairly neutral. Once we moved into our house and he loved the 2 rooms with the black & white tile, he said he wished he'd let me have freer reign in the other areas. The most colorful built-in item we have is our kitchen counter granite. I hadn't done any research before we made the decision to build a house together, so we had to make quick decisions on fixtures and that REALLY stressed me out, especially with the kitchen. I wasn't sold on even using granite, but our builder acted like that was the only reasonable choice there was. My biggest fear was that I'd end up hating the granite I picked, but 11 years later I love it even more than I did at first. It looks like green-blue sea foam mixed with sea shells to me. I was worried it would limit color choices (for walls and such) in our open floor plan... And maybe it does, but in a good way. We don't live near the coast anymore, but I'm still attracted to things that remind me of it. Here's a picture of it from a distance: And a close up: