gldnfan, I'm curious what you say about switching out the lights...now that they are required to be pin lights, how does one "switch them out"...are there other lights that use pins? Or do you mean they have the electricians come back and change the fittings? Our understanding is that with the new law it's not easy to switch...I have the same green countertop and yellowish glow on my "cream" cabinets when the lights are on...I suppose as KD's and GC's get more familiar with this people will be advised about the combination prior to choosing it! Oh well, I find I'm starting to get used to it already so maybe eventually I won't even think about it. Gary, my understanding is that the current requirement is that you must have 50% fluorescent, i.e. if you put in one pendant as in our case which is rated for 3 100 watt bulbs, you must have at least 300 watts of fluorescent...the result being that we have LOTS of fluorescent lights. Congratulations, gldnfan...sounds like ahead of me in terms of getting moved back in. Amela, I will let you know about the insets. I love the look and because my kitchen was reconfigured, I think I gained some space to help make up for any lost due to the insets. But I haven't really been able to start moving much back in as I've had a sick DS at home all week as well as a sick DH so not much energy around here. I think it's a sign that it was really time for the remodel to be done! I'll let you know what I think as I go along about the space. The insets do look really good in my house, though, as it was built in 1931.

Some of this is personal taste and some is guidelines. I tend to do technical comments - any humor is incidental! Guidlines - I would allow 42" between sink and island and ref and island. If you get another size fridge, have kids, try to get past an open ref door or cabinet door, 3 feet is pretty small. On the other hand, you could allow a bit less room between cooktop and island. You must have fillers on both sides of the corner to avoid having doors and knobs get hung up on each other. Mixed in a bit with personal taste - be really sure you want the tall, deep cabinet beside the ref. I would like a tall, narrow cabinet in that position, but not a deep one. Why? You can't open a left or right swing door on that cabinet all the way because it will run into the counter or the ref. The last one to two feet of counter on the cooktop wall becomes unusable to a righty because a righty elbow will hit the cabinet door when closed. The counter will be blocked when that cabinet door is open. A narrow depth cabinet doesn't elimate all of those issues - it increases the usable counter. I like drawer base cabinets and I could get another foot of them if that cabinet wasn't quite as deep. Full depth also means you'll mostly be taking things from the appl garage with your left hand because it will be awkward to use your right. You could be a lefty and then it would work fine for you. The personal taste part is breaking up the depths a bit so there isn't a monolithic wall for very little storage space cost. I would also consider trading the refs - the big one by the clean up sink with the wine, and a ref drawer unit over by the cooktop or reversing the ref and the wine storage. If I'm getting a microwave meal from the ref and need to put in on a plate - I'm crossing through the cooks area to get a plate. Move the micro towards the ref - even if the ref moves. A micro is a shared use item and often the first cooking appliance a child is permitted to operate. Where you've placed it - it becomes exclusively the chefs or kids and spouse invade the chefs territory. And it would be problematic to open both the micro and the oven. I don't know how often that would happen, but I don't want to replace any appliance doors. If the ref stays where it is, move the prep sink out of the corner. With an sxs, the best landing area is behind you as you stand facing the open doors. You'd be dumping stuff into the sink or backing out (cause the aisle is so small) and placing stuff on the other side of the sink. I also like to have over-sprays on the counter instead of the floor. I would probably put the oven beside the cooktop, not under it. The oven would be a little higher and I see the contents without having to back up and bend over.

Thank you all for the nice comments! It feels good to have other people appreciate it too. We love everything and the only decisions we regret are the ones we were talked into by other people at the end of the project and they are all exterior issues: 1. I don't like where the shingle-style siding ends. To me it should be lower. Our contractor talked us out of it. We actually bought extra shingles to fix it, but we haven't done it yet. Still, they all told me, "Give it a month and you won't notice." But you know what? I notice it every single day and it bugs me every single day. 2. The posts and risers on the deck are cedar that is smooth on one side and rough on the other. I wanted to use the smooth side out but everyone told me "No one does that. I've never heard of that," so we put the rough side out. Huge mistake. Dog hair sticks to it like glue. It's a total pain. 3. There was a miscommunication on the back stairs. We wanted an extra step to lower the rise a little for our aging dogs, but two steps were added so the rise is REALLY short and now the dogs hate it even more. Fail.

Bathrooms could really use some work. For starters, consider that the bathroom parts that're used most are the sink and the toilet ... and in your master, although you have lots of space, yours are all crammed in the first few feet. The toilet-closet door blocks the main door, and a person at the sink will be in the way of either door opening: Meanwhile, you have all that empty space at the far end of the bathroom. You really don't want a pocket door on a bathroom. Pocket doors are ideal for doors that remain open most of the time -- mudroom, laundry -- but the bathroom door will be opened/closed multiple times a day. Humidity isn't kind to pocket doors, and when they break, you have to open up the wall to fix them. But, really, I'd give the whole thing a re-do ... it's hard to beat a simple two-sided bath layout -- this allows a bigger shower, a bigger linen closet, and ample access to everything -- and it uses slightly less square footage. If you insist upon keeping the toilet in a small, uncomfortable, and difficult to clean closet, here's a slightly different layout. Since no one ever actually closes doors on toilet closets, this would be an appropriate spot for a pocket door. For the guest bathroom, you want the "water items" to all be on the same wall. Ideally that'd be the wall shared with the master ... but the door doesn't allow that. You could steal 1-2' from the master to make this possible ... but "as is", your easiest switch is to move the toilet to the same wall ... and flip the tub's faucet to the other end. With a clear pathway through the bathroom, this also allows you to enlarge the vanity ... which will allow for a stack of much-needed storage drawers. The toilet can go under the window without any problem. This isn't the best of plans because it places the water items on an exterior wall ... this can be a problem if you're in a cold location (freezing), and if you need work on the plumbing, it can be a problem. I'd consider my first suggestion and consider stealing a bit of space from the master bath. The downstairs bathroom is wasting all its space on a big, empty walkway in the middle ... and the sink, the most used item in the room, is hidden behind the door, meaning you have to enter the room and close the door just to wash your hands. At 6x9, the downstairs bath can be a simple 3-piece (identical to the one above, actually) ... you can move the door so that you'd see the sink first /have the opened door rest against the top wall. I drew it in as a tub, but a standup shower would work just as well in this spot. you mentioned tub in guest bath is 6'6" and big. We def do NOT need a large tub. We actually considered just a shower in there, but put tub only for when we have grandkids some day and need a tub for baths. Any suggestions for that bath if we skip tub and just put shower in instead? If you're not going to use the tub yourself ... and just want it for future grandchildren, go with a standard sized tub (5') instead of something extra-big. Definitely needs to go bigger then. And maybe wider if it's only 3' wide. Take a look at just how big 3' wide is ... or, more accurately, isn't. I'm not 5' tall, and I hate using the toilet in my daughter's new house, and I can't imagine how her husband -- also a big and tall guy -- feels in that bitty space. regarding cp's comment on tubs and grandkids: there definitely ought to be another tub besides the master. When we visit my inlaws, we have to bathe our kids in the master bath and not only is it inconvenient (clear across the house from our rooms) it can be awkward and there are times that we simply can't use it, like times when everyone's getting ready to go somewhere at once. Just my experience:) I'm not saying this isn't a problem, but you have to consider how often this is going to be used for bathing small children. If you're talking about a couple times a year, I'd say put up with the trouble ... on the other hand, if the grandchildren will frequently be bathed at their grandparents' house, then I'd spend the money to get what's most convenient. That is my experience too at my parents house. They have a spa tub like I want and my arms couldn't reach into the tub from sitting outside it. My husband stayed at a certain resort numerous times for work, and he came home telling me that he wanted THAT TUB for our retirement house. Finally I got a chance to go with him, and I hated it: Oh, I loved the built-in arm rests, but the tub was 48" wide, and I could only put my arm on one at a time ... and since I like to read in the tub, that wasn't working out too well. It also held SO MUCH water that it would be expensive to use. After discussion, we've decided we want the features of that tub and the depth of that tub ... but not so long and not so wide.