I am going to put another plug for new construction open houses. You can test things in action by flushing toilets and opening faucets. That was how we ruled out certain brands and styles that looked good. 
For our kitchen remodel our designer recommended a specific person āMelindaā at a specific appliance store. She was excellent at explaining why we might want this or that for everything from ovens, to sinks, hoods, refrigerators, etcā¦ For our bathroom remodel she recommended a different person at a different place, and she wasnāt nearly as good. She showed us a variety of things but wasnāt nearly as good at explaining WHY I might want this vs that. But I did get an idea of what the options were, etcā¦ I really like the idea of touring new construction.
Touring new construction is a great idea! I have been looking at open homes around my neighborhood off and on for a while to get an idea of what is popular but I hadnāt even thought of looking at new developments.
The problem with ādevelopmentsā IMO is that everything will be builder-grade, and largely identical from one house to the next. Unless they are putting up million dollar homes where each one has its own layout, you arenāt going to see a whole lot.
"For our kitchen remodel our designer recommended a specific person āMelindaā at a specific appliance store. She was excellentā¦ "
Good that she knew what she was doing, but this type of thing always has me concerned about kickbacks. I hope you price-shopped what she came up with at some other stores.
Our contractor sent us to an amazing person for our bathroom remodel as well. She saved us a ton of money. I definitely did shop around though, but she was worth her weight in gold.
There are some very posh subdivisions here, with individual floor plans. We specifically went to those higher end homes, $2M and up. Luckily, there is an abundance of those here. No builder grade stuff was used in those homes, although some builders put Viking appliances in the kitchen - ewwwwā¦
We have lights in the powder bath which we liked from of one of such homes, and we also got ideas for guest bath shower. Decided that we did not like industrial kitchen faucets and farm sinks.
Reporting back on my bath remodel āoops.ā The person Iām working with has been very gracious. For some reason, the fact that I am getting a granite ābacksplashā(very normal to do) on top of our counter got lost in translation, and that may have been part of the measurement problem. In any case, I am being charged extra for the backsplash, which I believe is fair, and they are not charging me for moving the light up a couple of inches. She also offered to have the mirror trimmed down for free, but I was out of touch for the half day they were going to have someone come pick up the mirror so it could be delivered back in time for installation.
I think it worked out fine.
Remodel and converting guest suite into rental
Iām moving on over here to the Home Improvement thread because I have made a long hard decision that I need to repair a lot of deferred maintenance on my home, try to lighten and brighten my interior and exterior and set up for rental income. I am recently widowed and have to take a hard look at my finances after many years of draining savings. I could sell my house and be set for life. But no!! Instead I decide to bite the bullet and make the plunge to improve my home to where I want it and generate enough income to cover property taxes and maintenance expenses. Trying to hold onto a very valuable piece of land as long as I can. Time will tell if I made the right decision. I made the decision on the fact that I live close to my friends and my home is our gathering place. I went out house shopping to an area over the hill with San Diego harbor views (my preferred location) but couldnāt really find anything I could visualize living in at my downsize price.
Hereās my list:
Close off back room that already has separate entrance, add kitchenette, remodel bath, new flooring and paint, French doors and private covered patio with expansive views. Try hard to find a way to get small laundry into the space. This will be for rental.
New roof
Change to two tankless water heaters (have to remove regular water heater to make room for kitchenette in back)
New flooring throughout (my friends are horrified because my flooring is gorgeous in living room but room flooring is chopped up and I want continuous lighter flooring)
New stove (mine is broken) but keep kitchen
Remodel both bathrooms
Update laundry room
Paint
All new furniture and decor
New doors and trim
New front door
New horizontal siding on exterior to modernize, currently have 1950s board and batten. Donāt like it.
My biggest decision right now is whether to paint out my high vaulted ceilings that are wide knotted pine with white beams. I just want light and bright so Iām going to paint it out for my own desires. Itās funny, men have a fit when you paint natural wood, but this time itās just going to be āall about me!!ā
There is always an Oops and many compromises. I just went through 5 months of Oops on my last project
Iād like to change to tankless water heaters too. I currently have 2 water heaters. An electric one that is too small and serves two bathrooms so hot water can run out. It is also inside on a high shelf in a closet. Not a great place to be if it leaks!
The other one is gas and is out in an old garage that needs to be demoed. It takes forever to get hot water from that one to my master bath, and even to my kitchen. Forever! I spoke with a plumber about replacing them and he said that the electric tankless ones arenāt very good, and that you need a big supply pipe for a gas one. And some kind of cycler so that it stays on. It sounded very complicated and too hard to retro fit.
Iād love your insight @coralbrook! I was house hunting with my cousins last spring and the tankless models were everywhere, looking tiny and efficient.
What is a ābig supplyā pipe? Google companies that specialize in boilers and give them a call. Not just tankless installers or garden variety plumbers but boiler specialists. We have a boiler that we will be soon replacing (the old one has been neglected and is on its last legs), and I am loving the endless hot water it produces. We also have a recirculation pump that kicks i at certain times of the day but even without it, turning on the hot water anywhere in the house will turn on the boiler. The brand we will be getting is Lochinvar. Apparently, it is easy to maintain and has a long warranty.
@coralbrook - I am all for natural wood, but it is your place, so do as you please. Just remember to use oil based primer on it. 
I am thrilled that you are not going to move!! Your house is your happy place. Glad you are keeping it.
Iām not familiar with electric tankless heaters so cannot comment. And not sure what your weather is.
They are very easy to install outdoors, no venting required for the gas exhaust. They should be at least 4 ft away from any window, or located above the window.
The way they size the gas pipe is by how far it has to go from meter to the tankless water heater. So, if you can install the water heater inside or outside near the main pipe coming from the meter you do not have to go larger than the standard 3/4ā gas pipe. If you are more than about 30 ft away, they recommend larger piping which then can cause you to upgrade your meter which no one wants to do!
Your garage hot water heater has hot and cold water pipes and gas pipes going across your yard to get to the heater from the house. If you could locate the tankless on the exterior of the house (depending on severity of local weather) at the location that these pipes enter your house, the plumbing changes would be minimal. But not sure where your gas line is. Locating as close to your gas meter will be cheaper for hooking up the gas lines.
The recirculating is an add on feature to any water heater. You have to add a return loop of cold water I think. It wakes up the water heater at a programmed time and pushes hot water through the pipes to a location (usually furthest sink) that you clamp a device onto the pipe under the sink. It doesnāt work well unless there is a return cold water pipe opened up so that the cold water is released out of the hot water line so the hot water makes it through the lines to the location.
Itās a trade offā¦ waste energy heating up water every morning and circulating it. Or waste water running the shower/tap forever waiting for hot water. But the tankless itself is energy saving because itās not keeping a giant 50 gallons hot 24/7.
What is the difference between a boiler and a tank water heater? Are they the same thing, just different words from different regions? I always thought a boiler was a heat furnace
How can I post photos of my ceiling so I can get help with my decision??
Since Iām not allowed to link to a photo sharing website??
OK, my avatar is now a strange lopsided picture of my ceiling ceiling nags are about 15 ft tall
These terms are interchangeable; a boiler can be used to provide either DHW or heat or both (the latter is know as combiboiler which is what we have), but installers who specialize in boilers do only boiler work and are much more knowledgeable than garden variety plumbers, because they have been doing this type of work long before tankless heaters became popular. There is nothing worse than an undersized heater that canāt supply enough hot water for your shower when someone decides to turn the dishwasher on!
My three season porch is all tongue and groove pine. Instead of paint, we stained the whole thing with white stain, so itās light colored but a lot of wood grain shows through.
If you like the wood at all, that might be worth considering.
Itās the giant dark knots that I donāt like. I feel they are distracting and create a āpatternā on the ceiling. Itās a shame because the old pine is very wide and cannot be found. I think another issue is that there are some boards that have water stains from a long ago roof leak
Even if you prime that ceiling well, the knots will still be hard to paint over. I am with NRE - whitewash the pine! It is gorgeous.
The knots on mine are fairly small (although thereās a lot of them). The stain mutes them, but you can still see them.
Clear pine in the quantity I needed was hella $$$, so we have knots.
If you decide to paint, use Kilz or Zinsser B-I-N first, or those knots and water stains will bleed through.
ETA - just noticed cbās profile pic. That pine looks gorgeous to me, and the knots arenāt that big. But then, Iām a male. 
Pine that dark will be difficult to whitewash to a really light color.