I went to visit a local flooring store today and was so pleased to see they had everything I could possibly want and their prices were very reasonable. I had them give me prices on the various glass tile I'm interested in, some porcelain floor tile, marble and a beautiful Santos Mahogany laminate by Armstrong that is so gorgeous you'd never know it's laminate unless you touch it. It has a beautiful sheen to it just like a hardwood floor, has beveled edges and just looks divine. Not to mention it's about 1/4" or more thick. Actually it's the thickest laminate I've seen. I guess it was 10 mm or more. So I'm feeling a bit more at ease now that I've finally found a source for all of my tiling needs and it's 5 minutes from my house. Love that!!

xantippe, it's no longer a double door house..that is our oddball window, and the one that concerns me about accenting the window trim. It doesn't have the wide trim around it that the other windows have, it's also longer than the other windows. I've thought about gray, but I was thinking that I wanted a change..since the white already looks gray :) I love deeper colors on houses (and not just because of road grim..something about them just has always appealed to me) Bulldinkie, living in Pa is so wonderful for driving around looking at all of the old houses. It's always been our dream to own one, and now here we are...living in our very own money pit..lol! kindred ny, we have tossed around the idea of extending the porch..I love the idea! We'll have to see what the budget dictates when we get to that part of the renovation. One thing is for sure though...I HATE the hip roof on the porch...so whether we extend or not, the porch redo will have a shed style roof and not a hip roof! Since I took the pictures last week, I painted the front door and front storm door red...it does a bit to perk up the front but mostly it just makes the rest of the paint on the house and porch look sadder :) How stupid would it look if I painted the trim around the windows and the oddball window didn't have the same treatment? Any ideas on what I could do to camouflage ...or should I perhaps just accept it as part of the quirkiness of the house?

Plate, Cost per square foot is irrelevant for your project. For decks, construction unit price figures are for standard jobs without compounding site conditions which include: Accessibility, height above ground, slope of the grade, soil conditions, existing structures, flights of stairs...etc. Actually you are getting a bid for 3 separate jobs. 1. The foundation (to support a future roof). The details required by the engineer or building dept. are unique to the job. This is really not an ordinary deck footing. The foundation alone may be $15K. You are at the Jersey shore which probably has poor, sandy soil. 2. The stone stairs. This is not deck building. You may find a better deal if you get bids from a mason. 3. The actual deck. Your deck is 360 sq ft. A close to ground level deck with no railings, regular pier footings, made of PT could be built for under $5K. High end material, still under $10K. I agree $50K seems high for this job if the deck is the main cost factor. I suspect the foundation plus masonry stairs are more than the deck itself. I don't know how you calculated $200/sq ft, the math doesn't work out. If you know what has to be built, you could run the project as your own GC and get bids from different subs to knock the price down. Right now I am building a two level wooden deck that serves as an exit stairway for a small commercial building. The 3 landings total 300 sq ft, but the lower landing is completely concrete. So really the wooden deck area is about 180 sq ft plus two flights of wooden stairs connecting a total of 12' elevation change. The foundation and slab designed by the engineer contains almost 9 yards of concrete. The Simpson hardware spec'd by the engineer cost $5k alone. This deck is costing well over twice as much as a similar deck for a residential application. My point is building cost is highly variable and unit prices really only work out for jobs that are broken down into parts. I visited the Jersey Shore last summer. Nice place to have a summer vacation home, or just go to live if your work and lifestyle permit. The only thing I got tired of hearing was the ubiquitous expression "OH GAWD!" It reminded me of listening to my Grandmother converse with her sister ;^)

Agreeable Gray by sherwin williams is actually the color I would suggest! I like Pure white for the trim. For the rest of this, I am going to make a list of suggestions. tile: Baja Tecate (12x24) with sahara beige grout (matches agreeable gray wonderfully) carpet: ride it out -whisper (shaw floors) stain- weathered wood. It's a gray stain. I would do a heavy stain on shaker style cabinets. (I know you're wanting white, but this is just for thought). perhaps bathroom cabinets? cabinetry hardware: Remington with barpull hardware (something like Hickory Hardware Bar Pull in stainless steel finish) They're very clean looking, and I love having actual handles instead of the little knobs on cabinets. countertops (kitchen): viatera quarts- cirrus backsplash: Nove Hex- Steel Mix with frost grout kitchen sink: siligranite- single bowl -anthracite black (I LOVE the single bowl sinks) bathroom vanity tops and showers: gray swirl (I don't have more information on this at the moment, but I can post pictures of what I am referring to) for lighting, door knobs, faucets, etc: keep things brushed nickel and chrome