Thank You so much.....it looks like I might get my bath done some time this year. It was demo'd in July...so many problems and changes have had to be made. I am so very grateful for this forum. I would never have known about the caulk issue without it.....and would have let them snow me for sure. I am still a little concerned about how the wall will look with the big grout hidden by the new extra thick wall. There is no grout line visable but there is a crack. Will this look ok with a bead of the sand colored caulk put into the crack? .....or will it need something else. I plan to paint the walls a sand color with a faux texture effect to add an aging look. How often will this little bead of caulk have to be redone?

I have lots of contact info but only for Canadian workrooms. Shadylady- aren't you a pro? I seem to recognize you from.the pro forum- or I could be wrong- but if I'm right, perhaps you can help Phyllida find a pro in her area? As a guideline, workrooms charge by the width of fabric. That is for each column of fabric from top to hem. So if you have two joined together, the charge if for two widths of material, two and a half is counted as three, etc. The reason the 1/2 is charged as a whole is because it takes just as much time to seam a 1/2 piece as it does a whole. Or, your cleaner might know a workroom?

Thanks to all who have posted their suggestions so far! How far up on the wall should I go if using tile or stone? The fireplace is up to current building codes for my area (Southwest Los Angeles County), but that doesn't say much since all that is required is for the fireplace to be properly vented to the outside - mine is vented to the roof like a regular fireplace with a chimney would be - and two feet from the walls, with or without the connector to a gas line ignition (mine has the thing on the wall but is not connected.) @pesky1 - I do have a lot of empty *blah* space on my walls, some of which is due to the vaulted ceiling height and being only 5'1" (If I had the storage space for it, I'd have a ladder taller than 4.5ft, but there's barely enough space for the one I have...) but the kind of tv I have can't be wall-mounted, so I'd have to save up the funds for a taller entertainment center. Still, it's worth considering. I've spent the decade I've been living in my place getting the funds together to purchase furniture and so forth, but now that all that's done with, I'm just now getting to the point of realizing I forgot all about doing something with the walls. I sort of ignored them after having them stripped of the awful brownish plum color selected by the former resident (who didn't bother getting the permission of the landlord whom I bought my place from...) and painted white just prior to moving in. It took me a while to implement the solution to the majority of the wiring being on one wall (literally, one living room wall had like 5 electrical outlets plus the cable wiring, and the other wall had just 2 electrical outlets and the wall switch for the patio light outside!) - I'm still working on saving up the money to have the bannister for the stairs stripped back to the natural wood that can be refinished, something I hadn't even thought about being an issue later; I just wanted to get rid of that ugly brownish plum color. Who knew that years later, all the dings and chips in the paint that happen over time would make the bannister look so awful. :P Painting is an option, but if I only go to a certain point on the wall, what to cap it with so it doesn't look like I just got lazy and stopped painting in the middle of the process?

You're welcome BlueBee_Sky! Some questions... You say it's a budget remodel...are you replacing the cabinets? If not, how are you planning to get the cooktop & oven cabinets? Are you sure you want an under-counter oven? They're lower to the floor than the oven in a range. If you can get a cooktop or oven cabinet, why not go for a tall oven cabinet and put an oven and MW in it higher off the floor. I recommend you find an appliance store or kitchen showplace that has the oven you want mounted under counter and see if you're OK with how low it is. If you build a shelf for a MW in the tall oven cabinet, you might be able to reuse your current one for now. [That'll depend on air clearances required by the MW...it may not work b/c it's designed to have nothing beneath it. Check your manual or find a manual online.] What's behind the refrigerator wall? How far apart are the desk & that railing...both diagonally and horizontally? How wide is the desk? Are the upper cabinets on the Refrigerator wall the same sizes as the base cabinets below them? How wide is the refrigerator? Do you need a desk? [Many of us here have found desks to be "clutter magnets" and would rather plan a Message Center than have a desk. More about Message Centers later.] What do you use that counter to the right of the Refrigerator for? Can you tell us a little about you and your family & how you use the kitchen? Things like... Size of family? Children? Do you entertain a lot? What kind of cooking do you do? Do you cook a lot or just sometimes? We're not being nosy, these things help us to help you find a design that will work for you and your family. Here are some ideas, but they're dependent on the answers above. I'll assume you're keeping the cabinets....so, how about this... Remove the range & OTR MW (they're not very effective anyway) Put in a 30" cooktop cabinet w/drawers & a 30" cooktop Put in a wall mount range/vent hood over the cooktop and vent it outside if it isn't already. Remove the desk...both the desk & upper cabinets Put in an oven stack next to the Pantry w/a single wall oven + MW (probably just an alcove for the MW since countertop MWs are less expensive than built-ins and you have more options w/countertop models than w/built-ins. Just put the countertop model in the alcove.] Move the Refrigerator down to where the desk was (it doesn't look like the island would be any more of a barrier than it already is...the refrigerator is still a pretty much straight shot to the range/cooktop & sink...just from different sides of the island) With the refrigerator moved down, it puts it on the periphery of the kitchen. It's accessible from both the kitchen & snackers...and those snackers will not get in the way of the kitchen work. Recess the Refrigerator into the wall. If possible, recess it into the room behind it as well. Ideally, it should be recessed as far back as needed to bring the...