This cOld House 41

Wow!  Over three years since I've had the wherewithal to post.  I guess a massive update is in order.
After working with many, many contractors, and being disappointed in several of them, we finally hit upon a company we have been happy with through several projects.
This house has been an education for me.  And I'm not talking about the crash course we've had in civil engineering and water mechanics.  A couple of good things came out of working with the bankrupt contractor.  First, the electrician he used was a genius.  And even though he stiffed him for 16K on my job, the electrician understood it wasn't my fault so he didn't sue me (like the plumber did,) and we've maintained a good working relationship.  He's more reasonably priced than any other electrician I've used and is pretty intuitive when it comes to the funky wiring in this place.  (Like where the back porch light, half of the plugs in M's room and the dining room light are all on the same circuit.) Second, the cabinet maker he used, (and whom I thankfully paid separately, instead of through the contractor,) was very good.  We liked his product but his design sense is what stood out.  And the cabinet maker ultimately led us to our new general contractor, Daystar.
The first project they did for us was the kitchen.  We had been hemming and hawing on this one for years, and had seen plans from an architect, a kitchen planner and two different contractors.  None of these plans 'sung' to me.  The kitchen had a rather significant traffic pattern problem, which may or may not have been identified by these other designers.  In any event, no one had adequately dealt with it.  Daystar saw it immediately and economically addressed it by moving a door ten feet down the wall.  Finally, we had a plan.
We knew we'd have to go down to the joists and studs on this huge project and we are glad that we did.  We were able to correct a number of problems, including insect damage in the walls and subfloor, and a less-than-level floor.  We ended up putting the oven into the old incinerator flue and moving the door to the dining room gave me a true working triangle with no interruptions.
We were not prepared for the fact that the ceiling joists went in two different directions, dashing my hopes of an open floor plan with a massive island.  We were able to recover nicely, adding a short wall that will eventually have a custom half-round table installed on it.  It gave us the opportunity to put in a 'landing pad' for the kids by the back door with a place for coats, shoes and book bags, and on the other side, the fridge and freezer tuck in for a custom looking installation.
While we were in the middle of this job, we expanded to scope of work to include finishing the room beneath the kitchen.  This 'room' was the original garage.  All of the kitchen mechanicals were carefully routed into two chases, one down the east and west side of the ceiling below that were then enclosed in soffits.  A closet was built around the remaining floor level mechanicals (furnace and breaker box) in the new family room (aka 'man room'.) We switched out the windows and door that were installed when we converted it from garage to basement space and then we leveled the false floor, carpeted and drywalled.  
We probably would not have done the additional room had our experience not been as positive with our new contractor, but it was and we were feeling that our luck had finally turned around in that we trusted him, he was careful with the budget, he had an excellent sense of how best to marry the renovation to the original flavor of the house and he knew what the hell he was doing.
Regarding the kitchen, I only have a few regrets, and I can live with all of them.
1. I never saw a mock-up of the cabinet doors and they have a small gap between the bead and frame that I would never have okayed because it's a pain in the ass to keep clean.
2. We leveled the floor in the kitchen but did not think to level the ceiling.
3. Water pressure to the kitchen sink is low - we should have insisted on a 3/4 inch pipe instead of 1/2 inch.
4. The switch for the disposal is three feet from the sink - I should have installed an air gap button in the counter.
I'm sure Dan would add that I was sucked into buying the touch-tap electronic faucets and they never work for him so he hates them.  I'm ambivalent, although I probably would not do it again because of the added expense.
A word about the flooring:  When we did the demo in the kitchen, we tore out two floors, as well as the sub-flooring that had some water and insect damage.  (We also tore out three ceilings.) We weren't quite sure how to proceeds because the 'formal' flooring in the rest of the house, (dining room and living room,) was impossible to match.  It is white oak, variable width from 6" to 10", and face nailed.  We didn't want to try to emulate it and end up having it look like a bad match. The original flooring in the kitchen was narrow tongue and groove heart pine, but that was when the kitchen was considered servants quarters, not the heart of the home.  We wanted it to flow into the rest of the house rather than keep it separate.  We ended up opting for recycled oak barn planking, re-milled into tongue and groove in variable widths from 4 to 7 inches. And it's beautiful.