I needed to mount a TV above the fireplace because it was really the only place in the room it could be viewed by everyone and not in the way. The mantel of our fireplace is rather high (almost 6 feet) which would put the center of the TV well above a comfortable viewing angle. I spent months searching for a TV mount that could lower the TV to a decent height. I quickly discovered that anything motorized would cost several times what I paid for the TV. Beyond that, there were 2 options: Omnimount or Down and Out by Dynamic Mounting (http://www.dynamicmounting.com/index.php). The Omnimount is cheaper ($200-$300 vs. $400-$500) but an inferior product for my purposes. The Down and Out mount is much thinner (protrudes ~4 inches from the wall) and can lower the TV much farther (~30 inches!). I should also say that I have engineering degrees and tend to do all my own work. I thought about making my own mount but was a bit surprised at both the cost and level of difficulty. The Down and Out was fairly simple to mount on the wall and works VERY well.

I have made major progress and am so grateful to all!!! Did come up with a few thoughts last night as I lay in bed(isn't that when we do our best thinking) but haven't had the time today to actually formulate them here. Nothing major, just some tweaking. Running out again and DH has been gone all down helping his BIL 1 1/2 hours away install a flat screen for the big day tomorrow so I've been the carpool queen!!!! GO GIANTS!!!!

Holly that is what we did when we did our kitchen last year. The freestanding Valor was already there from when we had opened the fp in the kitchen and MBR during the 1st remodel. When we had the kitchen gutted to the studs we found 2 brick chimneys. One was where the sink was and the other was the one that was hidden in the wall and we already had the mantle there and the Valor. So we recovered the one where the sink went and I got up on a ladder and stood on the mantle and cleaned the mortar off and coated the exposed brick with a couple coats of water based poly. You have to do that so the brick dust etc doesn't drift down. I had a huge shop vac from my contractor and wore a mask . The cleaning of the brick makes a MESS. But it was worth it. I love the look. It is a main focal point of the kitchen. Please post pics. you download to Photobucket and then make the album public or click on the 3rd line down under the picture and then cut/paste it to the message here. It is easy and there are several tutorials for posting pics here. C.

sweeby - I asked DH what size sink he wanted, couldn't get a straight answer so I went with 2' to see how it worked in the plan. I'll just have to drag him to Lowes or HD so he can put eyeballs on sinks & figure it out. He has told me that he doesn't want a farm/apron sink. What size do you have? holligator - thank you for pointing me to that thread. I really like the way you eliminated the Barrier Island & Destination Fridge. We've been walking through model homes to get ideas & its just bumfuzzling how many have kitchens with exactly those issues. Go figger. BTW - should my pantry door open in? DH & I are the designers. Don't get me started on the architect who, even with 14 Powerpoint pages outlining what we liked and how we wanted the house to function came back with a kitchen where I face toward the doglock to cook & the prep sink has me bumping butts w/ DH at the cleanup sink. grrrrrr .... buehl - when we were in Greenville (we live in Houston) we walked through the houses of some builders are interested in and took pictures. The kitchen/nook/keeping room in the posted plan is our own modification of one we saw that we liked. Above is a picture of the oven wall in the partially completed house. One of the things we did was to push that wall so that it is in the same plane as the short piece of wall the arrow is pointing to. This gives us a longer run for the cleanup sink and counterspace. To my eyes, it doesn't bother me that the ovens are close to the door. I dunno. I could shove the ovens 6" to the east, balance the sink between 2' cabinets. Would that be enough and would it make a significant difference? To do more would require the "doglock" to be reduced which may not be a big deal since there is plenty of space in there DH really, really wants a cozy feeling banquette. We deliberately made it smaller than the usual bump out breakfast nook to get that feeling. And, we did mock it up using chairs and pieces of cardboard in our own kitchen. Our plan is to sit in the chairs so that we can look out to the woods while we eat. Also, I've mocked up putting a leaf in the table to extend & there is still plenty of room to get by. Something that is important to me is that the banquette serves as my mini-retreat, as well. I don't want to be too far from DH when he is watching TV in the keeping room, but I sometimes need a little bit of space so I can read with less distraction. I also picture myself sitting there propped with pillows, my feet up, a cup of tea in my hand just watching the rain or snowflakes or squirrels or birds and thinking deep thoughts. ;^) scootermom - yes, where to put the dishes is one of the things that concerned me. But, you nailed us empty-nesters on the head. We do just dish up from the cooking zone and carry our plates to the table. I doubt we are going to change our ways now that we've forgotten what serving bowls are for. LOL! ci lantro - above is a picture of the builders house from the prep sink. Our keeping room will have another bank of windows on the wall that has the fireplace. The outdoors seem pretty close, to me. Also, I stood in my current kitchen at a distance that approximates that & the view to the outside wall windows looks fine. Even if we moved the kitchen to an outside wall, we have a sloping lot. The back of the house will be one story above ground level at that point. We'd rather have the banquette and keeping room on outside walls for the views. cook1 - a keeping room is where we plan to do most of our TV watching and just livin'. In other times & places it might be called a den or family room vs the more formal great room or living room. Some plans also call it a hearth room & most of them have a fireplace. We opted to shift the fireplace out to the screened porch & have an extra wall of windows in the keeping room. After 18 years of being cooped up in AC for most of the year because of the Houston heat & humidity, I plan to be out on that screened porch in December with my down parka and that fireplace blazing . In any event, we have fireplaces in the great room and master bedroom, so 3 is enough. Again, thank you for the comments. We've never built a new house, before & this is our "forever" home so its a pretty big deal. Jo Ann