Q: Downloading Mavericks from snow leopard using ethernet connection, first updated snow leopard apps. Now 4 hours downloading, not even 1/4 th complete. Earlier I tried holding the command and r keys at the restart sound.regular desktop opened any ideas?

Are you using WiFi or Ethernet to download. Ethernet is much faster.

Pete

It may be your download speed that is the issue.

Keep in mind with Mavericks installed, if you need to restore OS X or repair the startup disk, that requires using OS X Recovery and that requires a broadband high speed connection as noted here >  About OS X Recovery

You can test your download speed here > Speedtest.net by Ookla - The Global Broadband Speed Test

Less than 15Mpbs and you may have problems installing Mavericks.

OS X Mavericks: System Requirements

I went this too, with an older MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard. I had do a Secure Erase of Snow Leopard in order to a clean install of Mavericks. Once done, I did a Time Machine Restore of my data.