Green Designs. Your statement by itself is exactly what I feel is the problem around here. When you say I've received help from a dozen professionals, can you name them? Do you know them? Would you recommend them to a friend? If I open a new GW named Renovator9 and declare I'm a professional, am I? When you say they "speak loudly of my GC skills". Do they know my GC skills? How would yet know what I do by day? If you knew the type of construction projects I was involved in on a day to day basis, where I coordinate with 9-10 different trades, prints that are 60-70 pages with spec books that come in 3 binders? I've met deadlines that would cost companies hundreds of thousands of dollars in production costs daily. So did I ask once if I should be GC? No. I'm plenty capable of handling having my house built by a couple qualified local tradesmen. . Will I be able to handle the dreadful scenario that the plumber and the tin-knocker are both planning on using the same space? Probably from my phone during my lunch break. The problem with some of the professionals on here is that they've put themselves on a pedestal in which anyone who asks an opinion shall not questions thy answer. I realized this when Renovator8 continued suggesting I hire a qualified architect, meanwhile the architect who I had all along brings enough experience and credentials to the table that I wouldn't be surprised if he wrote the books Renovator8 recites from. In closing.5he GW is a useful website but it lacks the credentials neccessary to justify anyone actually following the advice given because so and so said so. I've learned alot on here and plan on learning even more, but I won't be warned or censored without explanation. I guess when they check the specs they'll see that there's no violation and if so-show me.

Alexx - I really love your kitchen! It came out beautifully!! I have a question about your counters. I am doing a similar look with the white shaker cabs (framed w/full overlay) and quartz (Caesarstone Raven) countertops. I will also be doing a mitered edge with a 1.5" overhang. My question is ... how far do your counters project past your cabinet boxes, as well as past the doors/drawer fronts. There is some dispute between my cabinet maker and the countertop folks. Cabinet maker says I should have a 1" projection past the doors/drawer fronts, while the countertop folks are suggesting a "flush" appearance (not truly flush, but more like a 1/4" projection). Can you tell me what yours are? And if anyone reading this has suggestions or advice, I would appreciate it! Thank you!

I'm not seeing the stone. It seems like there is so much texture going on already with the brick and the dimensional roof shingles that more texture is going to take it downhill and confuse the overall look. I actually like your current columns very much. I think the right paint choices will make the most of them. They are a lovely detail on your house. As for the windows, I had some similar "wrong" ones--plain casements on the second story of my 1929 Tudor. I couldn't replace them so I got corner brackets that fit inside the upper corners, sort of like gingerbread but more plain, and screwed them to the inside of the top of each window so it gives an arch to the overall shape of each one. That helped immensely. They are painted the same color as the windows on the outside so they don't look added-on. I also used heavy lace draperies on the top floor to "sell" the whole look. Sort of a chalet-style or Bavarian thing going on. My windows on the first floor are six over six mullioned windows, and surprisingly the two different styles of windows actually work now that I got the arch going on the top floor. You might want to do something like that. I noticed that the windows are of different sizes so too much of the arched business might look weird. I'd do it on the top floor only. And add on mullions on the lower level, so that the two floors aren't trying to mimic the same look. I think the white trim and the yellow is a big part of the problem, like has been mentioned. Can you also paint the white trim on the windows? Then painting those large surrounds around the windows also would help. I'm seeing a darker color to bridge the transition between the roof and brick elements and maybe a similar color on the windows themselves, or something like taupe surrounds and charcoal window frames. Or even a dark red on the windows and charcoal surrounds. Something like that. And then you can paint the big columns to fit with that scheme. Either garage door would look good to me, but I'd keep the brackets and paint the area above the door. I'm seeing Bungalow when I look at your house. With some Tudor. There's a great book by Jane Powell called "Bungalow Details: Exterior" that you would get lots of ideas from. There's another one out there with a similar name but it doesn't focus on the exteriors, so see if you can find the "Exteriors" one. It's a beautiful book full of great colors and details. There are similarities amongst Bungalow and Tudor elements that you can use between the two styles. I don't think you need major work, but rather very careful selection of paint colors and some window corner/brackets/mullions to change their shape. And the garage door will make a big difference too. I think it has so much potential without doing too much to the actual structure.

We decided to put some glass-fronted cabinets in the kitchen, but not right near the stove. Normally I keep a lot of utilitarian things near the stove and my prettier things, such as handmade pottery dishes and pretty glassware, are on another wall / hutch-style area. The things in the glass-fronted cabinets are still utilitarian because we use them almost everyday, but they are pretty, so I like putting them in a glass cab. Since a stove area is already a busy work zone, my personal opinion, for me, is that I would not like my glass-front cabs to be there. It's already a busy work zone, and adding glass cabs would make it more busy visually. As far as lighting. I wanted lighting in the glass cabinets, but if you have solid shelves with an LED light shining down form the top, the light is blocked by the uppermost shelf and doesn't illuminate all the way down. If you have glass shelves, you see the greenish edge of the glass (and I personally don't care for that). So what we came up with was to create a wooden "frame" in the dimensions of a regular shelf and then the glass company supplied the glass inserts for that. So when I am looking at the glass-fronted cabinet I am not looking at a raw/green/glass edge (I am looking at a wooden edge), and the light goes all the way down. Also, the glass fronts have no dividers, so I can adjust the shelves however I want and don't have to worry about lining up the shelves with any dividers.