Please ignore all the still-missing door and drawer fronts, the wires hanging out, the mismatched and wrong color electrical outlets and switchplates, and all the rest of the mess. Clearly, much still needs to be done.

View into dining room

the peninsula and long counter

The hood is still missing the tile around the bottom and it's being redone in quartersawn oak, rather than the plain-sawn you see here.

main prep area...note the missing drawer and trash door! ERRGGG!!

back door and supplies in an antique pine step-back cabinet. Still trying to decide whether to paint the door the color of the green cabinets (it's the color of the walls now)

The itty bitty adjacent powder room, also newly added...yes, it's just off the kitchen...owners of old houses can't be too picky.

powder room window

along the long wall (ignore the kitty litter box, please...it will leave, eventually.

the scullery/ butler's pantry area...awaiting plate rack and glass doors on the upper cabs, plus a long horizontal cab and crown molding on the top , not to mention the DW panel and under sink pullouts.

Oh and look a bonus...a picture of the "spectacular" urban view out MY kitchen window.

You know, the most authentic-feeling part of your kitchen is the sheer amount of thought and detail that went into everything. Old houses are always full of clever little touches like phone nooks or coal chutes or whatever, that you don't ever find in a new tract home today. You know the saying, "They don't make 'em like that anymore." Obviously, in your case, they do!

Also, don't let the contractor rain on your parade. You have a created a beautiful and amazing space that I see many a happy times taking place in to wipe away all of the frustrations with the loser contractor. Enjoy. By the way, is that a piece of Roseville I spy as your utensil holder? My grandmother was an avid collector. Love it!

Love the PR vessel sink.

It does real justice to your lovely home.

Over the past couple of days I have been concerned about how so many kitchens and homes seem to be so brown. My latest Elegant Homes magazine is brown from front to back and I've been wondering where has colour gone. Well today Someone posted some pics of amazing blue granite and then I saw your kitchen. We need to get over our fear (?) of colour and start making a commitment to it. Thanks for sharing your kitchen.

Nancy

And I can't wait to see the finished project, not only because I want to see it, but because I know your angst will be OVER!

The conceptual and aesthetic attention are much in evidence already, melissastar. Hooray, hooray, hooray.

However, what I see is fab! And guess what? The shades in my family room are the same William Morris print (I mean EXACT same) as your dining room wallpaper. Go figure!

I really do love your kitchen, even as-is. Good luck!

Soon you will be enjoying your completed GORGEOUS new kitchen and the the RTSOG will be a distant memory. I am sorry that you've had such a miserable time creating your beautiful vision, but you're almost done. Hang in there girl!

Louisiana, yes that's a bit of Roseville. It's the Dahlrose pattern. A few months after I moved here to B'more, I went to a flea market and saw some Roseville. I'd never been interested in pottery before, but I just knew it was right for this house so I bought it, expecting to use it in the living room. When the kitchen developed, I realized...it was perfect there.

The color of the green cabinets is BM Webster green. It's a bit less blue in real life, but does have a cool undertone.

Francoise: Yes, Rejuvenation.
KItschy: Good eye...yes, it's William Morris "Fruit". It's one of the rare nice things I inherited from the PO and the kitchen was designed to work with it.

Again, thank you all for the lovely compliments and the words of support. I am now in the stage of awaiting assignment of a state investigator to look into the complaint filed against my contractor. I hope it won't be more than a few weeks before I will know at least if he's going to be deemed culpable. Unfortunately, even if he is, it could take a year or more to recover the funds.

It's obvious you were meticulous in your planning of every detail. I'm so sorry RTSOG has caused you such grief. I hope everything is finished soon and you can begin to forget that creep and enjoy your b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l kitchen!

BTW, would you please post some close-ups of your Motawi tiles? TIA!

Just beautiful, melissastar. Thanks so much for letting us see, and I hope it all works well.

This is going to sound nuts, but I think my favorite part is the bowls on the window sills on either side of the clock. I can see you are a vesselarian : ).

The "original" bits -- wallpaper, wood trim, stained glass -- are gorgeous and the kitchen does them justice and vice versa.

Becky

I am also in MD (down the road in Calvert Co.). I will tell you that my MIL had a very bad experience with a licenced contracter about 7-8 years ago. The Maryland Guarentee Fund was very helpful in helping her recover the funds. It did take 8-9 months, I believe, but it worked out in the end!

This is truely a great renovation/restoration. From the cabinet deisgn and color to the integration of new appliances to the selection of sinks and faucets and countertops, I've not seen any better even in so called designer magazines.

The butler's pantry is awesome and I especially like the stained glass in the powder room and the wood burning stove.

I'd go with the cabinet color on the back door.

Good luck with the state investigator.

Great job!!

Can you talk more about the windows? I can't see them so well, but they look like leaded and colored glass. Where did you get them, are they custom?

On the large side windows in the kitchen, I sort of mimicked that using a heavily textured glass on the bottom sash, to provide privacy, but clear glass on the top sash to let in more light. The two small deeply set windows in the kitchen have inexpensive ($150 or so) stained glass panels (the gingko pattern) that are hung inside fixed panes of clear glass. The same is true of the Wright-like window in the powder room.

The transom above the back door also has a fixed clear glass transom, but the stained glass hanging in it is an old stained glass transom original not to this house but another Baltimore row house (bought on Craigslist).

Two of the things which distinguish B'more row houses from those in many other cities are the prevalence of stained glass...even very, very modest row homes usually had at least one, over the transom. The other distinguishing feature is a front stoop of white marble. They're everywhere. And one advantage of a city NOT prospering economically is that vast swathes of original old buildings remain...no surge of new industry and business meant no tearing down old to build new. Sadly many of those vast swathes of original old buildings are abandoned crumbling ruins.

By the way, my last house...in Arlington VA, was a 1916 foursquare, though I think I may have been luckier than some other foursquare owners. My original kitchen had only 5 doors!

Back to your kitchen.... it really rocks and looks new but also like it has been there all the time. You fit the look together wonderfully. I keep going back after reading comments to pick up more details. It is so well designed that much of what I love most about it is subtle.

Any visitor would feel instantly at home here.

I hope the RTSOG gc gets what is due him and you get more than what is due to you. In the meantime, you have a great kitchen, despite the few items not yet done. You will have another chance to have a new kitchen when the details are completed and you will be even more in love with it!

cheers

The kitchen is beautiful!! I love your color choices - yay for color! It's so nice to see something besides neutrals. All of your hard work shows through in your thoughtful details, and that powder bath is charming!

Congrats to you for creating something so lovely in the middle of all this adversity! I hope you're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

~ Mastiff

I love the QS Oak and aqua (or green) combo! I also love that you put the subway tiles in a herringbone pattern. And I LOVE all the stained glass windows.
I also like that you keep grains, flour and beans in glass bail jars - me too!

I

G

H

Absolutely stunning! Honorbiltkit said it well, "Only the kitty litter and the undoored trash allowed my heart to keep beating."

This sneak peek is more like a giant ogle for me! Really, it is simply beautiful, with so much character!

I love your powder room.

I love your HOUSE!

:D

BTW. I love RTSOG. I think of my STBX as a SLTCSOB (Sneaking, Lying, Thieving, Cheating, SOB. Cud be SOS, but Sack o' Garbage is nicer than Sack 'o Shhhhh, eh, you know) but your acronym is much more PC.