kristine, Sorry, I just saw your last message. Now that I've had the tub and surround for over a year, I will tell you this (although I'm sure you are done with your project): If I had to do it all over again and I had the extra $$$, I would have gotten a Kohler cast iron bathtub and a tile bath surround. I'm thinking it would have cost an extra grand. But I was already over budget for the bathroom with my kitchen still to do. The bottom of the Sterling tub IS textured and it does require a little bit more elbow grease. But I am still crazy happy with my new bathroom. I love waking to it every morning. Everything has held up well....the beadboard from Nantucket Beadboard is superior! It's designed to be moisture resistance and perfect for bathrooms. It looks as good today as it did last year. No wear and tear at all on the paint....not even near the sink! My quickie purchase $99 faucet from Home Depot, due to being in a hurry....turned out to be one of my favorite things about my bathroom. The faucet is easy to turn on and off and a breeze to keep clean. I'll never again feel the need to do a more vintage looking, wide spread faucet with both hot and cold again. I love the mix of the modern style (sleek) faucet mixed with my vintage choices. Kompy Ps. Since doing this bath, I have found out that the city records for my home is incorrect. My house was built before 1927....probably 1925. I found the original owner's grandson....by CHANCE! In fact, I was doing his kitchen remodel and we got to talking....his grandparents were the first owners of my house and his mom graduated from the H.S. by my house in 1927. The grandson is now in his late 60's or early 70's. He sent me a ton of pictures. AMAZING!

For curiosity's sake...here's some other items I'll have to address: -Landscaping-the house was abandoned for 2 years and the entire yard (was) overgrown. I ran a mower over it but it needs a LOT of attention! Might shoot over to the Gardening forum for help there. First though I want to be able to live in it, then we'll worry about that! -Furnace and Central A/C unit-both shot-being replaced as we speak (the heating/cooling guy is there right now while I'm at work) -windows and doors-the windows are horribly insulated, and here I have a dilemma. Do I go with cheap, energy efficient white vinyl, and make sure I paint the trim to match, or spend three times as much on wood windows that are more suited to the period? I think I can get away with GOOD vinyl as long as I match the paint color of the trim well enough. While I will spend top dollar in some areas I would like to cut corners where I can. Exterior doors are rotting, I'd like to go with steel or fiberglass if I can make them look good with the decor. The photo below is the basic jist of what I would like the interior to look like. -bathrooms - Two full and two half baths, one is so bad it looks like something out of a bad horror flick, the other three are usable but just need freshened up. -exterior - needs a power wash and probably paint. That's a project I want to do before fall. -basement - dry, but dirty. Looks like it was flooded at some point. Foundation is solid, but I do want to waterproof it to be safe. -much more...but you get the drift! Here is a link that might be useful:

I'll be contrary and say I'm against keeping that cabinet. The "old" cabinet is a hybrid from the (I'd say 50's-60's) previous renovation and the original cabinet. The bottom is original and the top has clutzy replacement doors instead of the (probably) of inset doors, the new doors were probably an attempt to blend the new cabinets with the old. The kitchen probably had one of those long wall sinks with integral drainboards in that area and the photos show the newly improved arrangement with only one small full depth base cabinet - the sink base. If you keep it, I think you can't place the dishwasher where you've drawn it - I don't think you have even 18" for a dw between where a farm sink cabinet would be and the edge of the antique base cabinet. You already know that its height from the countertop prevents you from using that counter space for anything but storage. If you keep it, you might look for new doors for it and a better companion cabinet for the other side of the sink window. The wall cabinet there looks like a replacement ir later addition anyway. Doing the return (making the little "L" on the dining room side) doesn't actually get you much - you lose more of the easy storage in the corner, the upper becomes more difficult to use and you don't really gain USEFUL counterspace because you can't use the counter in the corner. A lot of this will have different charateristics than it does now because you're much further away from that upper when you use standard size cabinets. The "L" prevents changing the dw to the left side of the sink - again I think that's necessary if you want to save the antique cabinet. In what I drew, You can have the ref where drawn free standing or with a small pantry that opens towards the bathroom. If you choose to do a range in that location, the suggestion above for an antique range is a good one - craig's list sometimes has chambers and others listed for baltimore that work and are reasonable. The issue with an unrestored antique range is SAFTEY. They sometimes have problems with gas leaks, rust or ovens that don't work right. You could also maybe do the 40" Frigidaire for something that feels more like an older style. Lots more cash than that gets you a restored antique range. Some more cash gets you something really stylish like this bert. At about that level of pricing, you can just reach a pro style range like an american or blue star. In any event, What you can't do is keep that partly old cabinet and "recounter" it deeper, put a counter in front of the window and expect to be able to reach inside it on either the uppers or the lowers (without crawling). By increasing the depth of the counter, you're increasing your distance from the upper and you won't be able to reach as well as you could before. You also won't be able to use either of the drawers because of the extended depth of the counter. I had to laugh about the wall fan (I have one). Isn't your kitchen greasy? Don't you spend time cleaning the grease off those pipes and the exhaust fan itself? Don't you find kinda gory dust on the ceiling fan - dust that clumps up because of the grease? Little flecks of greasy stuff on the walls and cabinets that are nearly impossible to clean off? Here is a link that might be useful: Frigidaire range

Hi Joanne, what a great find! My only advice is about the lead. You can determine in 3 minutes if that has lead or not with a cheap test from the hardware store (and I urge you not to guess if there are kids living in the house or visiting!). You may be pleasantly surprised and find that it isn't lead paint. Lead paint was more expensive and so was not always used. Some houses have lead paint throughout, but I have had 3 houses built in the 30s or before that had no lead paint on walls (although they had plenty on the exterior, window trim, etc.). If you do find out that it isn't lead paint, it will increase your options -- you could carefully remove the beadboard and replace it after adding support, for example. On the other hand, if it is lead paint, then you can put down plastic, wet sand, etc. You could even strip the paint with steam if you are patient.