Great thread!!!!! I'm just outside of Albany, NY and have owned this 1871 Victorian farmhouse for 9 years (my husband's grandfather's house which we bought back from a subsequent owner). She's pretty big--3200sf on the two main levels and a full basement and full attic as well. If we weren't both on teacher's salaries with three young kids, I would be an 11. Or a 12. Or just off the charts! Unfortunately, my "purist" sensibilities have to be knocked back a bit mainly due to cost and practicality. I would say I'm a 6-7 with our current budget and lifestyle. EXTERIOR: Still has 46 ORIGINAL windows (and one new wood bay window in kitchen) but 1950's aluminum siding over top of original wood siding with scalloping on the eaves. No original shutters left, which were on every window from an 1940's photo we have. 1950's aluminum exterior storms over original windows. One section of original front porch railing remains and will be replicated when we redo front porch. KITCHEN: I designed and gutted the 1930's kitchen that was in place but "updated" in the 50's and some in the early 80's--so I felt no sorrow at tearing out the robin's egg blue flecked Formica counters, drop ceiling, peel & stick tile, etc. Drooled at people's 100K kitchen renos over on the kitchens board, but settled for a complete, modern reno with stainless appliances (an Aga would be nice, but $$), full-overlay white doors (wanted inset, painted), Brazilian Cherry floors (wanted reclaimed southern yellow heartpine), and soapstone counters and a giant farmhouse sink (both exactly what I wanted). The kitchen looks like it fits and works well for our busy family. WOODWORK: Have not TOUCHED the floor to ceiling built-ins in the dining room. And no other owner ever has either--other than to gently refinish. Crown jewel of our big, old house. Original wainscoting is still perfect--will put in new wallpaper (in this room ONLY--otherwise, wallpaper is my arch-enemy!) Still has 100% original trim, 6-panel solid doors, and flooring (except kitchen). Downstairs trim/doors have never been painted. Upstairs was white when we bought it. (secretly, I wish it was ALL painted when we bought it--hubby would never consider painting trim downstairs, but the white upstairs looks so fresh/clean with bright room colors!) floors are all original (southern yellow heartpine and quartersawn oak). --Put in central A/C upstairs only--installed in attic with minimal distruption to house--just 1-2 grilles in each room. Oh well. I LOVE it! Best update we've done :) --No major changes to the blueprint of the house since it was built--open concept would have been nice, but now that my kids are 4, 7, 9, it's not as necessary as when they were little babies. Only changes were when the house got indoor plumbing! --Gutted one horrible 1950's bathroom and tried to make some aspects look "period" while on a budget--saved on fiberglass tub but got basketweave tile. Relatively cheap vanity/mirror from Lowe's but refinished original cast iron radiator. --90% of the house still has the original plaster walls. --Have all of the original Italian marble fireplaces, but have not broken through to make them workable again (simply due to $$$). --Took the 6th bedroom (which is the smallest and has no closet) and made it into a 2nd floor laundry room with front-load washer/dryer. No regrets here either!! I like to remember that this house was never built as a museum and it's not in a super-trendy historic district--it was clearly just a big, comfy home for one of the first families in this area. I try to imagine what "improvements" the people that lived here 140 years ago would be ok with--don't want to anger the ghosts, but I have to make it "liveable" for our family and this generation. Am I still a 6 or 7??? -Sarah

Ppbenn, the wallpaper is "peonies" from tempaper. It is not standard wallpaper. Its a self-adhesive wallpaper, aka a giant sticker. I don't know how it would take water color bc of the finish. But, Tempaper sells a product that is plain that you can decorate. So maybe? Tempaper has a website with faqs, and they would likely answer questions too. It's a sm company/neat story. Good luck! I am sure my kids will paint ours soon. I've already wiped up pen and pencil. Marker and paint are likely not far behind. Fwiw: hanging this is just slightly different than regular paper. The back is very sticky. That is great if your flat walls meet crisp edges of the even/level ceiling. With my old wavy plaster walls and old wavy plaster ceiling, covered in tons of paint, a standard wallpaper likely would have been easier to hang because it would have been more forgiving to stretch, move and slide. But, this paper was worth the effort. And removal will be so much easier, though I have no plans to do it anytime soon. Fori! I remember you asked questions about the smeg. I hoped you would pull the trigger before me! I will try to remember to post a more thorough review after we use the speed oven more. I want to try to bake, heat a frozen pizza, and grill fish or meat. Then I'll post again. In the meantime, as I mentioned above, we have abused the oven feature on the smeg everyday for more than a month: reheat french toast, warm left overs, cook chicken fingers, spring rolls, eggplant parm, roast veggies and chicken, make nacho chips and cheese. It just gets hot so much faster than my 30" Berta gas range, which isn't particularly slow to get hot. And I think/hope it has to be more efficient to use the small electric oven than the larger gas oven. (?) And the mw is in use everyday, reheating my coffee, cooking frozen broccoli etc. The mw performs well, as I would expect. We have not baked, used the grill function, or done any speed/combo cooking. But to be honest, the combo features were secondary. I am not very good at following directions and I usually never use the pre-set options on anything! If and when I bake, it's usually in batches; I imagine I would usually use the range to bake and the smeg to cook dinner. I will use the grill function; hope it works well. We decided to take the leap, or be the guinea pigs, bc we only had so many spots to put a mw. The best spot was prime real estate, below the counter. To give up cabinet drawers, I wanted an appliance that would do more than mw. I cook, a lot, everyday and on holidays. A second oven was really attractive. Obviously I didn't have space for a wall oven. I don't even have space for a countertop convection or toaster oven. So we looked at combos. Since I only have 24" my choices were limited. The reviews on the Miele were really good. But it didn't sound like $$$$ better for how I would use the appliance. And I didn't have that extra $$$$ to just get the Miele bc it's the Miele. Really, my biggest concern: yes, my kids play with the knobs. But i can't blame them. It is cute.

So here's the completed project with the Centor Blinds. Check out the install video at their website and realize that the casing that houses the blind assembly sticks out from the door unit a good 4-6" and looks shady onside- wish I'd taken a photo of that before having the left and right sheetrock furred out to make the screen flush with the interior walls. The mechanism slides well, but once in awhile makes a large "clunk" about midway that seems like it isn't lined-up straight on the reel-out of the screen side. I emailed Centor for care instructions, as I have a Phantom Screen on another french door that I silicone regularly, and they never replied. The only care instructions I could find were to keep the tracks clean. You see where the blind meets the screen, and there is a full-length magnetic pliable stip attached to make the connection between the two. It is so magnetic (most likely due to surface area of magnetic material, that t it is a STRONG two-handed separation to open the gap. I'm going to run some quality Scotch 32+ electrical tape at intervals to see if I can make separation more manageable. We have "lake" or "rice" flies that hatch at different intervals of the summer, and if they are on your screen or blind, they get crushed-into the material, and need to be removed via tooth-brush, etc. I'd do it again, but I'd check other brands to see if there is a comparable option that is US instead of Overseas-based.

Blast, I'd typed a message, hit the wrong key and it went away! Argh!! Try, try again. I'm good with spatial and function aspects of kitchens but I stumble when it comes to design advice so I'm hoping that others chime in, too. I love the stained lowers/white painted uppers look so that gets my vote but you can't go wrong with your other choice. And actually, now that I look at Plan E, the only uppers you'd have that could be painted white and could also have glass are the ones on the top wall - the 60" section. All other cabinetry on the perimeter is tall storage (pantry) or oven column. I'm afraid that having only one small section of white painted uppers will look unbalanced, like you ran out of cherry cabs and made do with something else. So you may be better off going with cherry perimeter and white island. You can lighten the look of all that cherry on the perimeter with glass fronted uppers in that 60" section. However, think about what you'll store in them so that form doesn't trump function. If you look at Giada's TV kitchen, the frost glass does obscure items but color still shows through. When you say tall cabinetry, are you referring to the pantry? Or do you mean uppers that sit on the counter? If the latter, they are usually shallower than the base and have a drawer at the bottom. That way you can have items on the counter in front and still open the cab doors. You could do one of these in part of that 60" section but I think I prefer only uppers here. It's a balance thing again. One upper with glass, one upper to the counter with glass, each the only one of its kind in the kitchen. If you had more uppers, then I'd say, go with a to-the-counter unit. If you look at Giada's TV kitchen again, you might see what I mean about balance. Have you discovered houzz.com yet? Gobs and gobs and gobs of kitchens just waiting for you to discover them. Seriously addictive. ;-) Ooh, I just did a search for "white upper cabinets" and found this stunner. [[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/presidio-heights-condo-contemporary-kitchen-san-francisco-phvw-vp~65186) [contemporary dining room design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-dining-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_722~s_2103) by san francisco interior designer Artistic Designs for Living, Tineke Triggs It's the reverse of what you wrote - stained uppers with frosted glass, stained island, white lowers and white talls. You could easily do something similar - white uppers with frosted glass, white talls, cherry lowers and island. That would give you balance.