I also have a lot of wood, brush piles, and dead vines everywhere in various stages of decay. Leftover from tree work and the removal of invasive plants. Sometimes I smash it or stomp on it to break it up and decay faster. It's kind of messy but it's in the back, not really obvious to the neighbors, and the wildlife loves messy places. Someone mentioned creating piles near your property line - you could make wildlife brushpiles with the larger pieces of wood at the bottom, piling up progressively smaller brush, then top with evergreen boughs to make an excellent wildlife habitat. Use brush from sticker bushes - Rosa multiflora, Barberry, etc. if you want to keep people or deer out. I've found that the birds are very attracted to brushpiles. If you have any larger logs you can "plant" a dead tree - set the log upright into a hole in the ground (like a fencepost) and this provides food and habitat for woodpeckers and other cavity nesters.

The Lennox LBR38 units are a very good mid to upper range product. They are a great southern california fireplace where heat output is secondary. They are not one of those small tract home fireplaces. It uses 10" pipe which means it will draw better than smaller 8" chimney systems. You can burn wood or gas logs. It's a clean face unit which means that you will be able cover all the black face with your finishing material. The firebox has screen pockets which allow the mesh curtain to recess into the sides of the fireplace giving you a larger view area. The H models have a herringbone brick pattern. These are very nice too. Consider yourself lucky your architect did not specify a builder grade product. You'll be happy with it.

I have a small microwave stand in my grandson's closet. Shoes sit on top' toy bins sit in the space meant for the microwave, other "stuff" that is important to him inside the doors. Because he is still small, his clothes can hang on hangars on the rod and not interfere with the stuff on the stand. Close the closet doors and everything is neatly hidden. We also use a microwave stand for my DH's bedside table. He has sleep apena so he needs lots of space for his CPAP and supplies as well as lamp, bookks etc. His has a rack on the side, probably meant for hanging dish towels or such, but he uses it store the hose from the CPAP after he has rinsed it out each day. Works great, and he can close the doors at the bottom to hide his considerable mediacal realted clutter. When DGS was very small he put a kitchen-style childproof latch on.

I think I will go for the professional cleaning and look into the odaban for follow-up. Our kitchen floor is also wood, so cleaning it in there isn't an option and I am not sure I want to smell it wet in my living room. Olychick, no worries :) We tried pee pads several times, first after six months of "regular" housetraining had little effect--thinking maybe that is what she had been trained on in her original home. No go. She won't use them. She has gone a long way (from NEVER going potty outside under any circumstances to always asking to go out first and being "accident free" all day, every day when we are not at home. So, she clearly CAN hold it, but something about 4am when there is a full moon on a day with a T in it when her moon is in Aquarius (or some combination of events equally impossible for us to figure out) just makes her pee on the southwest corner of the rug.