Chips and Mtn yes both me. I think I changed it to make it more generic. I had to reset Houzz and I guess it reverted back.

ETA: ojay back to Eld61

I like it very much in the last iteration rather than yellow

That sweater is going to be a wardrobe workhorse!

I think I’m agreeing with Mtn. I like the sweater with everything, including the yellow blouse, but not the yellow skirt.

"Changing" was the easy one to figure out, but "rafters" had me stumped.

Have never seen site built rafters for these complex roofs ... all have factory built trusses here in FL.

I would demo the hearth. I did that in my previous house and had no regrets.

This would be my favorite:

Run the hearth across the entire space and leave what is left of the recess just plain.

I would remove the hearth, and never paint anything else gray.

Fabric for a family room sofa is fine ... as long as they offer Performance or indoor/outdoor fabric options.

Do you need a sectional? You could have a longer sofa, move it down just a bit closer to the door. Then use a small stool/ottoman if you want top prop your feet up.

Not a designer by any means, but as someone who has never been an olive fan, I think that olive sofa with the caramel recliner look great together.

So I just need to decide on color and material.

Light stained wood floors have been trending for several years, but it might not be the best stain color to complement your other permanent elements, like Travertine and dark stained cabinets.

I like your current floors. My prediction is that with design trends moving to warmer traditional styles, these warmer medium stained floors will be getting more popular again.

My choice would be to sand them and put a Natural Seal on them.

As others have said, the wood floors are beautiful. They’re a lovely deep brown. I see none of the reddish tones that usually come through with red oak.

Though I prefer one uniform flooring throughout, your floors perfectly coordinate with the travertine floors in the rest of the house.

❤️❤️❤️ You ladies are too nice. Bangs went bye-bye during Covid.🤣

I don’t typically book paid domestic airfare this far out. It’s usually ridiculously expensive. But I looked and it was about $700-800 from LAX. Hotel is booked, might check miles rates.

lol, Dani's coming? ... if she can get to Dee's first?

After saying I don’t buy airline tickets this early, I remembered a credit that needed to be used. Found a Delta LAX-Sarasota via ATL for under $600 and went for it.

I would have done that sloped section in the wall color. There are no rules, some rooms look better one way and some the other way.

Why two colors at all? They are not a great combination--one is very white and the other more yellow-ish. Too close for contrast. I'd paint the entire room one or the other, whichever works better with the furnishings.

All one color and probably alabaster

Individual elements are lovely, but as a whole, it honestly should have had quite a bit of editing. An arch, a beam, a niche, high contrast hardware, a commercial faucet, a statement hood, an accent stone and shelf at the range, two colors for cabinetry plus the hood color, and glass front display cabinetry.

If you like it and it functions for your family, then that's what matters most. Maybe your friends aren't into bling and are more the "take off one piece of jewelry" people so don't expect validation from them.

So great that you and your family love the kitchen and it works so well for you

In general i think it’s a more dramatic space with higher contrast surfaces and that likely isn't to everyone’s taste (which is fine. we all like different things)

if it were me, I’d strip out most of the decor, I think it’s bringing the space down. I’d also square out the coffee station entry and put a lovely set of low key doors there that blend in with the walls (it will be one less design element and will simplify the space)

lastly — and i don’t mean this harshly — but when it is our own big home project - we obsess and find it ALL very interesting (I know i do) but it’s pretty boring to most everyone else - so it may just be that some of your friends just don’t find the reno that interesting, and it is easy to interpret that as not liking it

(fwiw we built a lake house recently and most of the close people in my life (except for DH) were very uninterested in hearing about it - it is hard to admit, but it hurt my feelings at first and then I realized it wasn’t about the house or me - it’s just hard to understand/relate to all the work, details etc when you are not going thru it. And it’s likely a little boring to hear about — I quickly learned to just keep the process and details to myself - no one else really cares)

Wow! This forum did not disappoint! I asked for constructive feedback and you guys delivered! Thank you!!!

Thank you for the AI images, @Emily, those are super helpful and easy changes!!

Thank you all for the resell advice! Many of your suggestions I will tuck away for the future, if ever we sell and are looking to appeal to a broader audience.

@la_la Girl -- you are right! I have obsessed over this for the past 2 years and no one else really cares! Ha! AND like @chispa said, I kinda needed to emotionally process it. Reading all your suggestions--asking myself why we made the choices we did, and ultimately realizing that there are very few things I’d do differently--has been very good for my soul!

One of my goals was exactly what @kandrewspa said--not looking exactly like every kitchen I’ve seen in the past few years. It appears I achieved that, and perhaps a bit more! Ha!

Easy suggestions I will be tackling immediately:

-Reduce/replace decor (J@Jan Moyer the cutting board next to sink is just to protect the marble, it fits nicely but can easily be removed when not in use...but it's in use lots!)

-Change out hardware on cabinets, possibly for something gold/brass

-Replace sconces flanking the hood with something smaller, cigar shaped maybe

-Paint interior of glass cabinets--or put glass mirrors

Suggestions I won’t be following, because function wins over form:

--Removing soap stone backsplash --that area gets too oily/stainy for travertine

--Removing the arched pantry--that’s one of our favorite things, both form and function

--Painting/Staining the cabinets--I really wanted all wood lowers, painted lowers are too fussy and show food/stains/dust

--Removing Glass cabinets---those hold all our dishes, are right be the dishwasher. Yes, I see now that they crowd out the hood, but I guess I chose storage over breathing-room

--Putting Dolomite/marble on exterior --we chose Soapstone for exterior because it’s a living stone, and can’t be ruined by heavy usage. The dolomite/marble island is gorgeous, but too fragile to put everywhere

-- Painting the plaster hood--the plaster is soooo easy to clean, matches the pantry, and matches the Island, IMO

The most important takeaway from all of your amazing comments is what most of you said--the only thing that matters is that I like it. I KNOW this to be true, but have allowed myself to get hung up on the caring-what-other-think nonsense. Thank you for the many reminders and even sharing your own experiences. That has been soooo helpful!

The best comment of the entire thread is no longer there--and that was a much-needed reminder that this is a first-world problem. I know this to be true and even say that out loud often. But I needed someone else to remind me of that.

Thank you all for your input and feedback and for being gentle, yet honest. I feel soooo much better just kinda knowing what reactions my friends are probably having, and knowing that i still wouldn’t change almost any of it. And @kimbers333 is right, my friends still love me, even if not my kitchen. And that feeling is reciprocal. Can’t think of many things that should impact a friendship LESS than differing design choices! Ha!

Thank you all!!! This place is amazing!!!

"Why wouldn't they just make a straight seam instead of that odd curved one."

It's called a French Miter.

I had visitors most of July so I didn’t get much purging done. I did offer them first dibs on some clothes, and what they didn’t take becomes the start of a giveaway pile.

I have a few tees that I save to wear for messy tasks. Who am I kidding? I don’t do any messy tasks so those need to go.

Like Sue, I moved some less than favorites down to HHI but I don’t wear them there either. Time to purge that closet, too.

eta: I let my niece take a travel purse I didn’t remember I owned until we came across it, and now I’ve been thinking about that purse for a week. 😆 I’ll forget it soon enough.

I purged some very nice, dressy pairs of cowboy boots this week … a teen relative by marriage was visiting and they fit her perfectly. She was so excited (so was I). They took up a lot of room in my closet, so it’s nice having that space. And her big smile and twirling around in them made me so glad I didn’t sell them like I’d planned.

My next purge project will be our small utility room. I have a junk drawer in there that I cringe even opening. Ugh. I’m going to clean it and the cabinets in there. I need to order some organizing storage trays today.

This thread being active is helping to keep me motivated*. Thanks, 3katz and everyone. :)

*So is watching Dateline episodes. If they ever filmed my house, I‘d want the voiceover to say it was one of the cleanest, most organized homes they’d ever seen. “All of her hangers match!”

”The murder weapon was obvious, there was one hanger missing from her exquisitely organized closets.”

@Diana Bier, have you seen the latest Ballard Design catalog? Traditional and color is back. Ballard never went full in into the Gray Trend, but now they are back to a mix of traditional/transitional with color and pattern.

Lots of people are going to be sorry they threw out all that "Brown" furniture (like OPs table) that Grandma or their parents had given them.

My Mom had to sell her beautiful table and hutch (custom made by a craftsman that now restores antiques for museums), because it just did not fit in their last downsize. I already have a table I love and my sibling also didn't have space for it. Mom hates her newer table. It fits, but is generic and the finish is nothing like the older woods.

Diana, thank you. You are a woman after my own heart. Out of pure nosiness, I recently attended a neighbour’s recent open house. I always thought that it was one of the prettiest, grand, old historic homes in the neighborhood. I was a little suprised when I went in. It was beautiful and put together, in a many shades of grey sort of way, but something was truly missing, that I knew must have been there once upon a time. This white washed renovation, although beautiful, seem to strip away the very soul of the house.

The history, the imperfections, and the story are all part of what I love about having an old house. Most importantly, it gives me the perfect place to keep my treasured old junk and rugs.😜

I subscribe to House & Garden UK online and receive a link to a story daily. Even if I'm not a total fan of any particular home, I still appreciate the personalized decor. There's not a gray room to be seen, and even if a home is neutral, it still has life. I agree that these white-washed renovations have no soul.

I guess you've never seen the shower scene in movies where the victim never sees the crazy stalker/killer coming, because of the opaque shower curtain!! Clear glass could save your life! LOL

Many people design showers so that there is no glass at all.

There are no rules. Get whatever you think will work for you.

On thing that occurred to me, based on @chispa's comment is: We currently have a shower curtain. While I can't see through it, I can pull it back to see if something is going on in the bathroom. My husband sometimes comes in to brush his teeth. A dog pushes in to get water (we have an old dog that mostly stays upstairs, so we provide a water bowl.) Sometimes I peek out to see what's happening. With a shower door that's textured, I can't do that unless I open the door.

I read frosted is hard to maintain--it can get scratched. I do like textured--I think I like fluted or reeded--but I'm reading those cost 3x as much. I'm guessing we'll go with clear. I'll see when we get closer to a decision. I'd be counting on it to fog up. I don't need to look at the toilet while I'm showering. As for when it's not in use, maybe we'll spend a little more on nice fixtures and try to keep the shampoo neat.

I made another post about the shower door and general design help if you want to help with that.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6583163/shower-bathroom-design-help

I don't think there is any kitchen layout out there that "demands a strong refrigerator"!

It is just an appliance and not a design focal point!

I see your situation with upgraded choise limits you don't see the added value of. Talk to the builder about not installing things you'll want to replace for a credit.

Production builders will not agree to not install certain items and no way will you ever get a credit! My parents have built 4 houses with production builders (NJ and FL) and even when you tell them you will pay for it, but don't want it, they will still insist on installing it. And my Dad is a good negotiator. There is no reasoning with them!

Are they truly closed? Wood-mode Cabinets closed down a few years after I did my kitchen in 2018, but they were able to re-structure and re-open a few months later with many of the same employees.

Please place a straightedge against the warped door and post a picture.

Thanks I corrected it. I do agree a picture would be big plus

I used the Kohler Caxton sink in every bathroom in my build and it didn't matter how large or small the vanity was. We don't do anything more than wash hands and face in the bathroom sinks, so that size works fine.

Click to see dimensions.

I agree with Lyn. 24” sink is plenty. We used this sink in a 60” vanity

https://overlandremodeling.com/bathrooms-gallery/modern-bathroom-design-simi-valley-ca

Vessel sinks are great for powder rooms. They’re not practical in my opinion for primary bathrooms.

I also used Kohler Caxton sinks for my bathroom renovations (four sinks - two for primary bath + one in each upstairs guest bathroom). They're a good size.

no. it looks great just like you have it. IF the cabinets went to the ceiling then it would be nice.

The shower didn't need glass on that wall. If you had closed it in, you could have done a nice built-in with drawers on the bottom and doors on the top.

You had plenty of room for storage.

Using recessed medicine cabinets over the sinks would also have given you storage for items you use everyday.

Sure you can add a freestanding cabinet, but the back won't be finished/pretty and you would see it from inside the shower.

If you had skipped the glass on the that wall, you could have had something like this. This is mine and it is just outside the bathroom in my master bedroom. I keep spare towels, sheets and toiletries in there.

Love that!

Good idea!

They have thicker felt rug pads. You can move/shift a rug on a felt pad, but once you have all the furniture on the rug it will stay in place.

Have you had wood floors (site finished or engineered) with area rugs before?

The wood floor areas that are not covered by the rugs will fade. It starts to happen quite quickly.

I try to minimize the fading by having light filtering blinds and closing them when the sun is coming into those rooms. I now have wired/automated blinds, so they automatically open/close at the right times of day and I don't have to run around the house doing it myself, or it not getting done at all if I'm away from the house.

Thank you all for your much needed advice- just WOW!

BeverlyFLA Deziner- thank you for the website :) the area rugs on that site are just what I was looking for and still affordable. Do I need to purchase a pad- premium or low profile for the bedroom since the king bed will be on top of it?

I am thinking the pad may be useful in the great room since there's more of the carpet that will be walked on.

Please note possible positions for area rugs under Queen or King size beds.

It's your choice whether you use a pad or not.

What is often recommended is a simple Felted Pad

Maybe the Barkwood based on your photos since it appears best with the brick. Weathered Wood looks a bit gray in your example. I’d stay away from any browns that lean red-ish. You’re wise to want shingles that are a solid color or have little variegation. There’s already pattern in the brick, and adding more could be too busy.

When I remodeled the master bath in my previous house I used a free-standing tub from Tyrrell & Laing. It was expensive (the factor you didn't mention).

https://tandlinternational.com/

It looked and felt lovely to the touch, but when I built a new house years later I went with a much cheaper tub. We aren't tub people, so it didn't make sense to buy the "Rolls Royce" of tubs again!

I think this is the model I had:

https://tandlinternational.com/pacifique-freestanding-bathtub/

In my bathroom:

Hard to see in the photo, but the tile behind the tub is glass tile, with a slight iridescence, so the photo doesn't do it justice.

Found a better photo of contrast between tub and glass tile.

I have a Devon & Devon f/s soaking tub, made of resin. Once filled, the water holds the heat for a long time.

I saw one in my local showroom. I ordered it (4-month lead-time while it shipped from Italy). The tub arrived damaged -- and the store refused to accept it . At my request, the showroom sold me the floor model, at a substantial discount, but still $$$$

I think I have found want I want...the Victoria and Albert Mozzano which has a 38 degree reclining angle. Thank you for all the responses and suggestions. Certainly a splurge financially, but there seem to be few other options.

Order another box for $464. It is a small cost relative to the total cost of redoing the 2nd bathroom.

Of the two, I prefer Downing Earth. In photos it reads just a bit warmer, which I think looks better with your stone and wood-look doors.

We recently had our screened porch painted in SW Safari. It is lighter than the options you have shown, but it seems like it would work with your stone. I am not at that home currently so I have no pictures.

The garage doors and the stonework both have warm colors. For that reason, I’d nix anything grayish or blue-ish (for example, the Downing Earth looks much too gray to me).

Go warmer with beige, tan, rust etc colors.

I know better to even attempt barrel pants, and I never wore skinny jeans for the same reasons. I can look at them and know they are just not going to flatter me. I don’t care if boot cuts are in or not, that’s what I wear. The best jeans are my jeans that are about 20 years old, Levis, Gap, etc.

We rented a ski condo once that had ceilings like this photo you posted.

You could hear EVERY single footstep upstairs, and not just the sound of the foot hitting the floor above, but also lots of creaking sounds too!

Voices will also be heard between floors.

Agree with leaving the lovely home alone on this - sometimes a room with a lower ceiling can feel especially cozy and inviting, I’d lean into that

Personally I don't think 8 foot ceilings are a problem unless you play in the NBA. They are normal sized ceilings for normal sized people.

Resell. Eat the difference. Tables are usually a standard height. You’ll be hard pressed to find a table that will work with those chairs and if you do, it will be awkward for the diners. There’s a reason why dining room tables are the height that they are. As well, I think you can do much better in scale.

@chispa

You really have no landscaping!

Find a local landscape company that can work with you or go to a local nursery and they might have someone who you can pay to come up with a landscape plan. You can then implement all at once or in stages to spread out the costs.

You will also need to add irrigation or expand it, if you already have it.

In my previous house I replaced the large asphalt driveway with concrete pavers, and it really improved the look of the property. If you live in a freeze/thaw climate, you can still use pavers, but there will be more maintenance.

We want to see pictures as you add touches to this gorgeous house.

Glad you like the rendering, @atalieplus2--and do show us pictures!

Pictures can be deceiving as to space, but is there room to turn the whole living room layout 90 degrees (rug included)?

Is the bar floor sunken (step-down)? Looks like a 1980's Toll Brothers plan. We saw a few with that layout when looking at houses in southwest FL, but they were original and needed lots of remodeling!

Are you sure you want the glare of the exposed bulbs?

The essential design feature on the light fixture is that the glass ball/glove has a glass neck which is not typical. This one from Lucia Living doesn't come in chrome or in a 3 light.

Here's a list of almost all the Brand Name 3/Vanity Lights on the market on one site.

https://wilsonlighting.com/bathroom-fixtures/three-lights/chrome/clear-textured

Is it presently in the powder room or is that the picture from Marketplace? If in PR, suggest flipping so lights face down (won’t accumulate as much dust either).

The chances of finding the exact fixture might be difficult and be paying full price.

Maybe search on Marketplace for a set that might even suit better, are proportionate to mirror(s), and complement the faucets and hardware. If patient, you’ll eventually find (and may even suit better).