Dear Bronwyn: thanks - I am an anthropologist - took a lot of linguistics and LOVE identifying regional names - I seem to do pretty well. However, yours is such a classical name - would be hard to mis-identify! :-) I am SO glad you have fallen in love with your beautiful home. I assume you are in England ?, not US, definitely go to flea-markets, swap sales and find an old stove replacement if this your concept. I don't know how big any of your bathrooms are, but we placed our double-stack in the bathroom! I also then made a very "small" partition - about 15 inches framed- which provides the idea of separatness from the bathing area. However, our bath is a rather large space - as it was the original back porch. This could free up some space in your pantry? And you might consider framing in and doing a cabinet finish for the fridge - then it would not stick out like a sore thumb. Please check out on line: Rusteoleim (paints) - they have entire new kits for refinishing cabinets -and countertops? Since you are a re-doer - perhaps having wooden countertops made would better suit your home? I would certainly NOT use granite, or something of this ilk - I think this would detract from the feel of the home. This also might give you an opportunity to save some pennies and wait to get what you really want to have - I actually did NOT have a kitchen sink for 15 years - it was in the bathroom [(one of those long old porcelain kitchen sinks (country)] because this was the only place in the home which was plumbed - OUCH! I guess the moral of the story is: I could be worse! :-)

I found a website that might be quite helpful for you http://www.colourtouch.com.au/ to visualise what colours and finishes could look like on your house. You can choose a style of house that closely matches yours then choose a number of set schemes, or start with a blank canvas and play around with any colour / finish you like.

I've just been looking at your colours, I think the Dulux Dieskau would work the best with the other colours you have to work with, choosing colours is such a personal thing and I know it can be really hard to choose and hope you make the correct choice. Oskuee is right, a paint job can look terrible half way through so you need to make sure you finish to get the proper look of colour. But the biggest thing to remember is it's only paint and it's the cheapest thing to change so if your not happy with the colour you choose you can always try something else. Happy redecorating :)

That’s a good idea, we’re going to go with painter on the first room, once he leaves we can decide whether or not we paint the trims. More work, but playing it safe!