lyfia, thanks, and we agree. The glass company said building codes only require us to use safety (tempered) glass for the two end panels; the center three could be annealed, if the glass started 18" off the floor. How crazy is that? We'd never want to take that risk, either. Yikes. Fortunately the bid for tempered glass was only about 15% higher than annealed glass (which really surprised me.) So we'd only consider tempered 1/4" if we use glass. Laminated glass (with the plastic skin in the middle) would be the safest, but it's super pricey. I think safety glass would be OK. Another option is 1/4" plexiglass, which I think would work as a substrate for the glass mosaic, as long as I didn't go too big with the panels. (I think big plexi panels might flex, which isn't good for a grouted mosaic...?) At some point I need to go ask the folks in the stained glass/mosaic forum here. So far the pricing for thick plexiglass seems comparable to tempered glass. There would still be small grouted glass pieces on one side of the divider (we could put it on the low traffic side) but I don't think the surface would be risky for kids, since all the sharp edges would be embedded in grout. And it would be pretty hard to break. We considered colored plexiglass panes too, but it just seems so "mod" for the informal, earthy textures in the house. Colored tempered glass and frosted tempered glass are way too expensive (pushing $1000 just for the frosted glass idea, for five 5' panels.) I considered frosted films and frosted spray paint, but I think those ideas have a limited life span (especially if the house has active kids) since the spray frostings can scratch off. And DH keeps wishing for color, and he's got me agreeing. It has to be somewhat transparent or it blocks too much light. So, now considering a fairly open wooden framework, with smallish glass mosaic panels scattered. Still playing with ideas...!

Thanks live_wire_oak - I find myself agreeing with nearly all of your style points. I don't think we realized how prominent the roof was until we really spent some time looking at it from the street. I don't think changing the roof is in the budget now (it's pretty new), but we'll definitely keep that in mind. We're both really intrigued by the suggestion of a slab door - what is that? We picked up some paint samples yesterday. Old gutters are down and the house is already looking cleaner, even without the new ones up. We picked a gutter color that is called 'wicker', and had SW mix paint to match. Here's a pic of the samples we put up. It's dim - by the time the paint had dried, this area (east facing, under covered patio) is shaded - but you see the colors we're talking about, over the green and next to the brick. Trim/gutters - light tan (color matched wicker metal gutters) Front Door - BM Currant Red (1323) Shutters (if we do -- causing marital strife) - SW Umber Brick (more marital strife - not painting though!) - 6140 Moderate White. I like the green but we compromised and are currently planning on going with the tan color -- which we color matched from the gutter color we're putting up. That will be all the trim. The dark brown we were thinking for shutters, but if we don't do shutters... Clearly we won't use it :) Would you consider using that brown to paint the aluminum visible in the picture of the front? We'll replace the windows -- they're 1966 single pane glass -- but not sure when, and we don't like the aluminum lines.(could be usable) I like your suggestion on the planters and I'll consider today a success if I can get them dug up before the Rangers game :) Melanie, I believe, on the landscape forum, suggested creeping thyme -- I think we'll do something like that to try and break the planter box line. I also like the idea of semi-circle as landscape bed. My kids aren't playing out there - too close to the busy street - and having something to break up the monotony and add curves would be great. Melanie -- thank you for explaining! I'm looking at his books on ebay now. Thank you SO much for your help here and on the other forum! You've made us like our house a lot more. Summary on what we're going to do this week: Gutters (wicker above unless someone can talk me out of it in the next day) installed, trim/fascia/sofits painted to match. Paint front door Remove boxwood in planter boxes up front Pause and evaluate.... To sum up questions: If we don't do the shutters in Umber -- which my wife wants to do, and my painter assured her it was easy to shave the raised brick to install them, what else can we do in the brown to pop? The window frames? We had a decorator come to help with color selection, and she was a strong advocate of both shutters and painted brick. My wife is still on board with leaving the brick unpainted for now, but the shutters idea has come back with a vengeance. For what it's worth, most house in the neighborhood do ... But, this decorator also suggested we call a Realtor and ask for advice, which is exactly what I DON'T want to do. I want it to look good and not offend those that know what they're looking at! We were going to paint the windows in the white color, but would the brown pop? Give us some color without having to throw up fake shutters? VERY interested in learning more about doing a copper door. We're going to paint the door and frame in that red color above - more of a magenta. Finally, what are you guys thinking about the below picture? Dim again - my photo skills aren't the best - but this is an angle shot of my back patio. Same brick, which you can see. To the left is another bay window just like the ones out front, this one into the breakfast room/kitchen. The ceiling you'll see the drywall portion is white -- and then the wood portion turns to the trim color. The decorator we had suggested we paint the same color, the moderate white, so there's not a line -- opening the space up. But the problem is, if I paint that white, I think I have to carry the white all the way around the house under the roof, meaning the wood on the underside of the roof would be white, the rest of the trim tan. (We're thinking the white above) Or -- can I just tape off a logical line somewhere and transition from white to the trim color? Or .. I can just paint the ceiling the trim color, but then it all kinda blends in. THANK YOU!

Congrats on your first home. I have a small house also. The entire front was covered with large bushes. Instead of a porch roof it had a metal awning that was falling off, and so on. No curb appeal at all. Over the years, and on a very limited budget I have tried to make it as "cute" as possible. This photo is "testing" the possibility of painting it from grey to a lilac-grey. Best of luck. I look forward to watching your progress.

Welcome to the Kitchens Forum MGF123! To start, I suggest checking the "New to Kitchens? Read Me First!" thread. It contains a wealth of information from how to use the Kitchens Forum to planning and implementing a Kitchen remodel. You've already started the first step, which is to identify your goals. Next, I would check the Layout Help FAQ thread and Design Guidelines/Best Practice FAQ threads that are linked in the Read Me thread for additional information and to understand what people will be commenting on as you proceed. Note: Unfortunately, Houzz only displays the last 50 posts in a thread, so you will need to repeatedly select/click on the "See XXX more comments" to get to the meat of the Read Me thread. A couple of things that would help immensely and are mentioned in the Layout Help FAQ: A fully measured 2D layout of the spaces you want to work with on graph paper or similar. (Graph paper can be found for free online.) In your case, the Kitchen, Dining Room, and Family Room are key as they are all involved in your plans. A sketch of the entire floor the Kitchen is on. It doesn't have to be to-scale (but it does help!). Include the dimensions of each space. Again, welcome and good luck!