The tiles are Porcelain off-the-shelf from Lowes The color is called: Tuscan Bone See the link below for details. Here is a link that might be useful: Tuscan Bone Tile

The paint color on the lower half of the wall is just a very light lavender. The upper half is more purple. I actually mixed the lavender myself, by adding a little of the purple paint to some white paint. The fake tile (sheet vinyl) floor came from Linoleum City in Los Angeles. I looked and looked and looked for that vinyl and Linoleum City is the only place that sells it. I called a salesman there and asked about it. He said they had a unique contract with Tarkett (I think) to produce this product and he didn't think it was sold anywhere else in the country. Their number one client is Hollywood. Set-building people buy it by the roll to use on the sets. The sheet vinyl creates the look of early 20 Century hex tile floor in a jiffy. :) The light fixtures and medicine chest are reproductions. The light fixtures came from Rejunvenation Hardware and the medicine chest came from Van Dykes Restoration hardware. All these years of writing about old houses and I finally got to use some of the resources I've been writing about. Thanks for all the nice comments. Rose Here is a link that might be useful: linoleum city link

Sleek and modern! Beautiful remodel!

We generally prefer historical cost basis over any time of assessment, so what you paid for an item. However, one problem with the historical cost basis for ad valorem taxes is it adjusts for realized gains and losses while not adjusting for holding gains and losses. This means that two identical houses would pay two different taxes based on the last time they were sold. This isn't quite fair so to remedy this, ad valorem taxes are occasionally adjusted to compensate somewhat for holding gains and losses. In other words, we don't want people who bought 3 acres next to Central Park 65 years ago, to be paying property taxes on $100,000 when an identical property next door pays taxes on $15,000,000. That is the entire purpose of adjusting property values. Improvements aren't simply holding gains, it is putting money into the structure so that it is nicer. If you want to fairly tax improvements you would need a tax on the increased value less a tax credit the amount paid over the marginal assessment value. So, the premise that you have some moral obligation to pay marginally higher taxes because you spent $50,000 for a nicer kitchen that adds only $20,000 to the property value, is one I find questionable. In other words, if you paid more for the remodel than it added in property value you should get a tax credit against the increase. However, that is far too complicated and thus taxing jurisdictions who are acting efficiently and attempting to be fair, avoid increasing valuation for improvements and replacements, but do increase valuation for additions. Now this is completely different than rules that allow select groups to avoid assessment for holding gains and losses.