A mood board is a great idea. Force yourself to prioritize. What is the one piece you really don't want to give up. I'm betting its the stove. (That would be mine! That stove is to die for!) So make everything work with that. On my monitor I hadn't seen pink in the granite. Now knowing that, I'd say the cherry color in the cabinet wood is just fine with the granite you chose. Is the color of the stove also present in the granite slab? If it is, you are good. its really hard to judge color from a photo posted online, so here's one 'rule' that may help you focus in on what you -may- want to consider changing. If the color, or any shade of that color is in your granite slab, you can use it in the room. An exact match is not interesting or necessary. Second, you usually want a dominant tome and then other colors you bring out of that slab will be accents, so you won't use so much of them. Now, there are a million caveats to that, and of course, breaking the rules can bring fantastically stunning drama, but I think if you start with that one rule as a starting place, your own vision will begin to materialize. Whatever feels good to you will work. Just keep at it until it gels for you. With all the ideas coming from folks here and what you can see because you're looking directly at the different colors and where they will be in relation to each other, and considering the light in the room, it will begin to come together and you'll get a feel for where you will or won't want to challenge color 'rules'. I should say all of the above goes out the window if you're going for a monochromatic look. LOL BTW, I love my miele vacuum and I didn't even know they make dishwashers, but I can wax poetic about my bosch dishwasher. In addition to how well it functions, I'm very sensitive to background noise and its sooo quiet. Since its the way your faucet will stay where you aim it that really attracts you to it, maybe look at upscale stylized commercial configurations. I don't have any experience to draw on, its just a thought.

Hello, been lurking a bit. Lots of good info here, thanks. FWIW, I agree that if the things you can't change are right and there is room in the price to do the rest ... thats a pretty good place to be. I knew the minute we walked into our current home, it would be ours, more than 20 yrs. ago. We had looked at a few dozen as I recall but the search was over when we got here. Since then we've added several investment props to the pile and since last fall have been looking for a new joint for us. Found an REO that is the only house of hundreds that can tick off every item on our list. Trying to convince the bank that they should stop holding on to it has been frustraiting, aggravating, stressfull etc. but now it is finally fun. They are offering counters in less than 24 hrs. and moving proposed closing dates up. Still not moving as much in price as they'll need to yet but it is vast improvement. Guess submitting the roofing bid and the well test did the trick :-) It kinda feels like I'm the lone bidder. Its got great bones and for us, a great loc. (acerage close to where we need to be). Its way more than we need but the lot, loc. and subdivision are pretty near perfect. Some minor damage from the eviction but I'm pricing that in and will order the full blown insp. once we have a deal. I was at the auction, I know the number ... they might get it but I'm thinkin not. There is a lot of inventory out there.

Thanks so much. How much do you think a second-story project would cost (there are so many variables, I know, but sq footage about 900 and including a bathroom)? We have thought of paying a contractor to do the 'heavy duty' stuff that we simply CANNOT do, but we *can* do all the finishing work ourselves (or most of it): drywall, painting, trim, flooring, all bathroom fixture installation, etc. And we'd probably pay to get an architect to draft the plans first, then work on saving for 5-10 years so we could pay mostly or all cash. Such a fun thing to be able to plan! For now, too, any advice on how to make a 'modern' house have more vintage charm would be great. I think when we replace the carpeting (ugh) with hardwoods, I'll also install higher baseboards--mine are pretty short. And I'm thinking of handscraped hardwoods or wide planked, perhaps! Thanks so much. As an aside, I'm happy to report that we went to see the 1912 farmhouse we were obsessed with for 3 days and it's a definite NO---a gorgeous, beautiful house with so much potential,and the most beautiful views I have ever, ever seen from a residence, but *too* much potential for us at this point in our lives. I have always lived in older houses (except for the one we're in now) and I walked out of there, turned to my husband and said "run away NOW!" :-) One day perhaps we'll find the right older home for us, but that one needed an extraordinary amount of rehabilitation! I hope and pray the right buyer finds it--it could be fantastic!

Your question asks about an interior designer. An interior designer helps you with the overall style and aesthetic look (form rather than function). Since you are talking about renderings and 3D images, I suspect in reality you are talking about a different type of professional. I think you will need to have some architectural drawing to submit for permitting purposes. These aren't horribly expensive. I know so many people here to say hire, hire, hire. I guess my main concern would be if it is a good overall layout, and that is where I might want someone else's advice. Think about how much you know and how you pay attention to functional details, layouts, clearances etc. It sounds as though style-wise you already have a pretty good idea of what your eventual goal is. Over the years we have done several fairly significant remodels without hiring the whole slew of people. Decades ago we added on to our kitchen, changed the basement stairway and the outside entryway, and added a powder room. We designed the project ourselves and with one exception (the outside door we chose) have been pleased with it. People still complement us on our kitchen. The draftsman who drew up our plan gave us one good suggestion about a cabinet placement that we would have never thought of on our own. Other than that it was our plan. I am the one who made the trips down to the city permitting office to meet with their employees and get approvals. Then, we had a contractor build the exterior shell for us. After that, we acted as GC, did a lot of DIY, and workers for the interior portions of the project. We designed the entire remodel ourselves when we gutted our 1000 sq, ft. basement. Frankly, we found that we could do a better design job than some of the locally well-known, design/build firms we contacted. We did the drawings on some very low cost software we bought. We first contracted with an egress window company to install those, and we hired a drain tile company to install drain tiling. It wasn't hard to arrange, and we saved money having that work done first without GC profit tied on to those structural portions of the project. Then, for the rest, we hired a GC to do the actual remodeling work. Being available and on hand to catch things and answer questions is key to this working out. Now we're in the process of a major remodel in a second home we recently bought. We have done all the design work, but I have asked TONS of questions here about the kitchen. We have a GC, and he arranged for an architect firm to produce the measurements and drawings that we had to submit to the county for permitting. I have always enjoyed the idea of remodeling and architectural design, and my husband knows a lot about mechanicals and handyman issues. I've always paid attention to and visited the various remodeling showcases locally. So, for us it has worked out. I guess you need to think about your background and knowledge before you tackle this. I am a huge fan of the architect Sarah Susanka and highly recommend her book Not So Big Remodeling. Buy it today.