After a long day of rearranging the LR, hooking up electronics, and being w/o phone/ internet service, I am back!!!! Parma - that's exactly what I envision. Since I do sweep fairly regularly I want to find a real handmade broom to keep in the corner in the kitchen. I'm sure that DS1 would call it mommy's witches broom! Martha Stewart did a segment on handmade brooms one time and I wish I'd have paid more attention. And old flooring - I think the more aged, worn and dinged up it is the better for me! Stinky - Gardener (Great name) -I've actually been buying stuff here and there and packing it away for a few yrs. now. The house that we live in is Victorian on the inside but I've known the house we are moving to for a long time and it's more in line w/ our simple comfort level. There's no way that our current bedroom style would work in the other house but I am very happy w/ it and yrs. down the road I'm sure that it too will morph into a French Country Farmhouse style. For now I just want to enjoy the finished product. Tish - that sounds perfect, European Farmhouse! I will def. have to google that term and see what pops up. I'm thinking that Shabby Chic look too but w/ way less cottage & flower prints and a lot more farm and durability! Kmcg - thank you very much for the link. Guess what I'll be doing during downtime at work today after all of my work is finished?! Polly - that sounds so pretty - hopefully you will opst some pics anyways despite living through a reno. A real nice thing about GW here is that we've seen pics of eachother's homes at their worst. One of my favorite threads was one where everybody had to go take a picture of their kitchen in the moment and post it. It was great to see kitchens in their 'disaray state' that were typically posted after having been 'staged' for their GW photo op.! I really want DR chairs w/ rush seats and a farmhouse table but DH is so attached to his grandmother's fancy set that I don't even want to suggest it. Ronbre - both of your homes sound very lovely. I can see where it would be tough to decorate in the exact same manner after such a horrible event. I'd love to see pics of the man room and your MBR. Tina - right now I have much of the hardwired stuff packed away like my chandeliers and sconces. Most of it I'd pick up at deep discounts when I worked at Bombay. Our storage rm. was laid out so poorly that items would get stuck in the most hidden spots and forgotten about until I'd rip the place apart and find things that had been there for yrs. My 2 favorite chandies were only $59. Currently I visit them in my attic and peek in the boxes and dream. I didn't want to hang them all and then have to turn around and take them down to sell this house and put all of the original stuff back up. If things pan out alright I will take pics of the LR after I have some more stuff done. I def. have to paint again. When DH moved all of the entertainment stuff I forgot that I hadn't painted behind it all. There's a big bright blue patch! I'd also like to pick up a ceiling fan and paint out the ceiling after 9 yrs. here. There are just wires hanging from the ceiling now. Someone here had recently posted a photo of their Baby Turtle walls and Limestone ceiling and it was so gorgeous so I am going to follow suit and do the same.

this is a gorgeous kitchen! More on India ink as stain: I've used it on furniture a lot. Be SURE you get permanent India ink. It has some shellac in it to make it more waterproof. It has amazing coverage. I have done an entire armchair frame with only an ounce or two. It's also very messy if you drip it, so wear old clothes and get some disposable latex gloves. It may raise the grain on some woods. Sand the wood smooth before applying it, then do a very light sanding after it's completely dry, if it feels at all rough. Apply a second coat if the sanding removes any of the color. The color is a warm black. It's opaque but the grain of the wood will show through, unlike with paint. It's a pretty unique finish. I have never used Waterlox over my ink finishes, since they were furniture. I think you do need something though--the finish doesn't seem to be super permanent even though the ink is labeled permanent. (That's more for when it's used on paper, not furniture or counters that get a lot of wear and tear.) I used beeswax on the furniture which seemed to seal the ink pretty well. I don't think I would use it on wooden chair seats, though. Too much risk of rubbing off on clothing down the road.

Claire, nope they are all level. But maybe you’re seeing the gaps in between the planks that are typical for old floors. We choose to not fill them in. They still have to finish the toe trim.

Beth- I have been through a similar experience to what is going on here with a simple question ([mine[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/looking-for-feedback-on-ikea-kitchen-plan-for-new-construction-dsvw-vd~5253147) was on the kitchen forum) turning into a thread where suddenly you are inundated with critiques on a plan you loved. Our plan was very, very similar to yours. At first my husband and I just wanted to dig in our heels and go forward. After all, it wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough, right? After a few days we started trying to make some additional changes in order to address the issues mentioned here. Inadequate light, too much space devoted to walkways, etc. We had already had our plans engineered, and we really did not want to start over. I even started a [thread[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/i-didnt-realize-farmhouses-were-such-a-big-trend-dsvw-vd~5269101) in this forum as a sort of last ditch effort to convince myself that it would be ok. I did not post the floor plan this time because I was too afraid of what the feedback might be! I received a lot of helpful advice regarding farmhouses in that thread, by the way, so you should definitely check it out. These forums can be brutal, but you can also learn a ton by using the search tool and coming up with a list of books that are recommended here to help you as you undertake this enormous commitment. Some of them (A Pattern Language, The Not So Big House) I had read a few years ago, but went ahead ahead and re-read (or skimmed). Ultimately I came to the conclusion that I just could not go forward with the plan we had. It didn’t fit the lot. We could “do better,” as is said so often here. Is it painful to think about starting from scratch, especially since we have sold our home and moved into a smaller duplex already? Yes. Have I spent restless nights rearranging our house plans in my dreams (not to mention all day long in my head) trying to come up with a way to just make it work? Yes. But I feel like the thing that I would regret the most is going forward with a house plan that just wasn't right because I didn't want to spend the extra time and money upfront to get something that is "right." I am not saying that you have to come to the same conclusion, but I do hope you give some serious consideration to the comments on your thread, because they truly are trying to help you build a house that you will love for years to come. Often we "don't know what we don't know," and the posters here can bring issues to your attention that you may not have even considered. If you consider them and decide to go forward with your plans, at least you are going forward with your eyes open. Best wishes with your house!