athensmom - I agree that the Emtek sandcast bronze is too rustic for your house (or mine). Look at Emtek lost wax cast bronze. That is what we are going to use for the front door and, probably, the French doors. It has a much more refined look and the Medium Bronze doesn't have the purplish cast of the Burgundy. They have knobs as well as levers. I thought we were going to use the Emtek French Antique brass for our interior knobs until I actually got to see it. It looks very "artificial" and not at all what we want. I would love to have unlacquered brass and let it age naturally (or will a little chemical help) just like the pulls on my antique bedroom suite. Even though I swore no ORB, we will probably go with Emtek ORB for many knobs since they have the copper underlayment that does look nice IRL. Unfortunately, it looks like all of the Emtek brass knobs/levers are lacquered. So, to get antiqued brass we would have to remove the lacquer. Its sounds like it is hard to do, but, if I want to be so masochistic, how would I do it? Also, we want to have about 4 sets of glass knobs. Would the chemicals used to strip the lacquer from the brass mess up the backing on the glass knob? House of Antique Hardware has unlacquered brass, but the glass knobs are only 12% lead crystal rather than 24% for other brands. I'm just not sure those would look as good. Does anyone have another source for unlacquered glass knobs? Thanks - Jo Ann

The black and whites are pictures from our travels and I like them. I'd actually prefer to add another two where the red painting is and shift the red painting to another wall, but DH has put his foot down - he likes that wall as is. mtnrdredux - you remember right! It actually looks really good in the listing picture and looked much less good in person. The wall paper was relatively inoffensive, but textured and impossible to either remove or paint, the carpet was red (and filthy) and the ceiling was red plaid. By the time the house had sat vacant for a while it really was starting to look sorry for itself. Absurdly flattering listing pic: When we were looking at the house.

i don't think you will notice the faucet. i am not happy that our over the range microhood is not lined up exactly with the range. both appliances are white and the cabinets are stained. of all the people that have seen the kitchen re-do over the past year, not one has noticed it until it was pointed out. honestly, they didn't...so i decided that it would be unrealistic of me to care too... the only way that i would go over budget to fix this mistake in your case is if the mistake affected the feel of standing at the sink using that faucet, not just the look. if it affected the way that you can use the sink or look out the window, then change the window. otherwise no. i know what i am talking about here with the windows...good old DIY hubby put in two windows along the back wall of the kitchen, with much measuring. turns out they are one inch higher than the same window in the mudroom. what to do? i just couldn't make him take it all out after working an entire weekend...decision is to leave the kitchen windows uncovered and to put a lovely curtain over the mudroom window (that we don't really look out of anyway.) it bothered me a lot....for exactly 2 weeks...now i don't care. good luck whatever you do!! kren

Thank you for your fast response. I am so sorry I didn't include enough pertinent details The doors are solid red oak, they are a deep what used to be called Spanish Oak (Minwax) stain. The finish is exceptionally smooth probably due to the years of beeswax I have used to polish the cabinets. Given the age of the cabinets, the finish is probably varnish as opposed to urethane. The grain of the wood is very defined and quite pretty. I do not intend to refinish them myself. There are many Amish furniture refinishers in the area who do amazing work. Several have done various refinishing jobs for me, but none I have queried have any idea except plugs. One Amish gentleman who refinishes gun stocks suggested using sawdust stained with a dark stain, mixed with glue, packed into the hole, allowed to dry and then sanded smooth. However, he is not interested in tackling 18 cabinet doors. And I'm sorry, I don't have a clue how to submit a photo here!