UniqueWoodGuy, Thanks for your suggestion. Now I'm leaning towards floating cork instead of glue type. Apparently, the distinction between glue and floating is similar to the old Chevy vs Ford debate. Each has its advocates. As far as putting the cork over vinyl, no. There are at least three layers of flooring now. The additional level would not look good against the adjacent flooring. There are other parts of the house that affect this decision as far as floor heights are concerned. I can't fix the other screwups; all I want to do is make the variations look intentional.

1) flooring is going in after cabinets, to preserve the floating aspect of a floating floor. Cabinets and appliances are going on top of 1/2" plywood; in the case of the stove (where you can see under it) we've put in a piece of cork that isn't tied into the main floor. 2) I went with a craigslist special. A general contractor had redone a large yoga studio, and was trying to get rid of their overage- 6 unopened Boxes. The cork came from Lumber Liquidators -- Lisbon Van Gogh. The boards seem to be about the same quality of the various styles I looked at in local flooring shops (APC, Wicanders, US Floors). The yoga studio has had it down for nearly a year now, with no signs of problems. 3) no matter what you go with, get samples, take them home. There is no way to evaluate the color or design of a cork floor without putting it in the space and touching it. Decent flooring places will let you take their samples home. Of course, a lot of places aren't interested in 80sf jobs... I tried for months to get a quote from several of them, and was about to go with a cheap homedepot floor when 120sf showed up on craigslist.

If you have a layout and size plan you can get an estimate from Chad at cabinetmakerschoice.com. I do not think you will be able to get both inset and white painted in the $8,000 to $10,000 range but you could possibly get beautiful all wood inset cabinetry in their higher-end line (craftsman) with blum hardware and paint the cabinets yourself. This all depends of course on the size of your kitchen & door pick. Perhaps you could do inset on the top and full overlay on the bottom with same door style? I just ordered my cabinets from the above place; I had been looking at mid priced cabinets like Medallion and SchulerÂs (sp?) from Lowes. I am spending a little bit over half of what the other estimates came in at which is a huge savings. We ordered our all wood cabinets (other cabs were not all wood) with the wall cabÂs painted maple and the base cabinets Cherry with stain plus a glaze and also have an extra line of 18" wall cabinets stacked above the 36" wall cabÂs, pot drawers w/3/4 thick bottoms, trim, light rails moldings, pull out spice cabs ect total 19 cabinets but two are without doors for display. With shipping we came in at a smidge over 8 grand and that included some odd sizes we needed. My cabinets are not inset though, they are full overlay and my kitchen is not that big.

A few more questions popped up. Hoping someone can help me. TIA! 1. We have an existing 20Amp circuit that supplies two receptacles above countertop in the kitchen as well as three receptacles in the living room. I will make sure the two receptacles in the kitchen are GFCI protected, but I assume in order to meet the 2011 NEC code (without changing the wiring of the circuit), we need to use an AFCI breaker for this circuit. Is that correct? 2. I also plan on wiring a dedicated 20Amp circuit for the entertainment center, and another one for all the computer equipments in the desk area (both are in the general living room area). I will be using a surge protector/APC unit on each circuit to protect the delicate equipments. I'll still need to use AFCI breakers for these two circuits, right? And will they not interfere with the APC/surge protector? 3. AFCI breakers are not required for any light only circuits (no outlets), correct? 4. Neither AFCI breaker nor GFCI receptacle is required for the dedicated appliance circuits (e.g. DW, range hood, fridge) regardless whether they are hardwired or plugged in, correct?