Until the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program can get more specific, we're stuck with the fact that 22.9% of the 13,636 murders for 2009 were committed in connection with other felonies and a whopping 35.4% were committed in unknown circumstances. Now, if you don't think building a "secret" room in your home might give some one of the 30-40 people building your home--including guys recruited from in front of the local Home Depot and day labour agencies--and all the people they know, an idea you have something valuable to hide and a reason to come looking for it, go right ahead. Or, as the posters above note, make it clear it's just a child's retreat etc. Interestingly, the only "secret" rooms and exits I personally know of were built by a carpenter who was "connected", so the knowledge of their existence was still in the Familia.

Since I live with more than 10K books, I vote for bookshelves on both ends, but I expect you might end up with them down the hall, as well. (At least, that's what I have.) If you are considering painting them, may I suggest a using a dark green, not kelly of course, but a leafy, pine-y, well-stepped-on, green? It's a very restful color to combine with the spines of books, which often have a decided reddish-brownish bias among all the colors possible. It tones down bright whites, as well. And few books are kelly green, so it doesn't clash with blues or greens, either. And being a dark color it serves to help make the mass of spine colors into a more coherent design feature. I think white (or light grey/white shelves) make the grid-effect more prominent and natural-finished brown shelves play up highly diverse colors of of book covers, making the shelves seem more chaotic. I expect that certain very dark greys (almost black) or deep coal-y navy blues may also work in somewhat the same way as dark green. Whatever the shade, it should be a highly complex color, with plenty of complimentary pigments in it to make it really hang together with all the colors of the books. My late Mother had a wonderfully sunny sitting room with BM China white walls, red oak strip flooring (w/natural finish) and 40 linear feet of floor-to-ceiling, built-in bookshelves along the back wall. They were painted one of the BM dark greens and l can dig about and come up with the BM color number as I repainted them in the same shade before I sold her house. If you do paint your shelves with oil paint (preferable to latex which will always have the risk of remaining uncured and attaching itself to the books), please plan on having the shelves cure after painting at least 4 weeks before shelving the books. Even then you might wish to slip a layer of the type of plastic used for covering dust jackets (you can buy it in rolls from library supply places like Demco, it's like the proprietary material in "Brodart" dj covers ) under any particularly valuable books. It's invisible and you will then be absolutely certain that nothing in the paint is damaging the covers as oil paint (and latex, too) takes months to fully out-gas. Also consider having the shelves, if not the verticals, made with 5/4 lumber in order to handle the weight of the books. Look forward to seeing your room. L.

loribee and Connie, thank you for the kind words. Connie, I just spent some lovely time on your blog, totally captivated by your new kittens and your roses. (I'm a new native gardening.) I love seeing what people have done with customizing other pieces but we're just not DIY folks at all. Hubby has ZERO interest and my abilities are limited. So mostly we either have to buy ready to go or pay someone to do things. One other reason to replace these is that I can then move some of them into my office which has shorter shelves and into hubby's office which also has shorter shelves. We need a lot of bookspace. les - no, the store won't come out here and it's not custom as in them building various sizes. Plus the store is an hour away. The fitting is pretty basic - I have 67" on one side of the fireplace and 73" on the other. All bookcases are 12" deep and there is 33" and 46" wide one to be used. So 12" + 46" = 58 with 9" left on one side and 15" left on the other because of course the fireplace isn't in the middle of the wall. :) Those gaps are too wide on either side of the fireplace to look decent and if I use these cases, I can't really make something to fit the small space and match. If I use the pine ones I have more widths to choose from, 24, 30, 36, 48 so I could do a 24 and 30 on one side and 30 and 30 on the other side which, when I add in the 12" depth for the cases from the other wall, gives me an inch to spare. But I need to figure out the heat registers and look at the case bottoms better today to see if we can cut the fronts for registers or mount them on bases of some kind. I tell you, I'm exhausted by all of this. Watching them demo the ceramic tile for the wood floor is going to be a piece of cake after this. :) The other think you might consider, and I dont know for sure what would be cheaper, would be to have the bookcases made of stain-grade plywood, or paint grade that you do in a deep black brown, or a white to match the fireplace. I spent another couple of hours looking at the various manufacturers on the stores website and found a couple of entertainment units that should work. I'll ask about them when we go today. Hubby is picky. We need something for the TV, no problem, but then the 4 components (DVD, TiVo, subwoofer and CD player) need a space that is open on both the front and the back. He won't use glass or cloth doors and wants an open back. (We'll just cut what we need from the back if it doesn't come open.) But like I said, I think there are a few pieces that would work and the handyman came by last night and said that he could do the bridge stuff I wanted. It's the heat registers to solve now. And can I just say again, thank you to all of you who read and comment and hold hands through this process? I don't have anyone local here to bounce this stuff around with so I really, really appreciate it.

Thanks for the additional pictures. You have no lighting turned on in the sitting area with the fireplace. Therefore, the illusion is that the bookcases are very "dark and large" as one person commented. Please add a picture of the fireplace area all lit up. Then we will be able to see from the kitchen what it would look like if you painted. I still think grey borrowed from the kitchen granite/backsplash, and brick fireplace is the way to go, even if you have no light. You want a fireplace area to feel cozy, so my feeling is that white is just not that. Beautiful couches and chairs as well, which your grey would complement.