Tongue and groove ceiling is beautiful and good for you for not ruining it with canned lighting. My family's house was built in the late 1800's (about 4000 sq. ft. including additions over the years). Lots of natural light. NO recessed lighting was ever added in order to preserve the beautiful, pre-war architecture. The house is well lit with lamps, chandeliers, and old hanging fixtures. (ceilings are 9'6"). Undercabinet lighting was added in the kitchen. Obviously, you don't see it, but provides enough light for a large kitchen, PERFECT. We are currently building a fairly large, custom home. I told my architect several months ago that I wanted NO recessed lighting in the house, ANYWHERE. To help with lighting, i've added extra windows, hanging fixtures where necessary, sconces and undercabinet lighting in the kitchen for "task lighting". However, i am adding a lot of tongue and groove paneling (including ceiling) and i think recessed lighting is very distracting (even including recessed lighting in high end homes). Well placed fixtures and lamps where necessary seem to be enough lighting for me.

I had the little tiny ants at the beginning of May. They were in the corner where the pet food dishes wre and in one spot in the living room. I couldn't see them at first because the pet dishes are on fabric place mats and they blended in. I saw Lucy staring intently at something then saw the ants. Because I have animals I use baby powder to get rid of them and it really works! I put baby powder all along the baseboards and under the pet food dishes and under the fridge and in the living room on the hardwood along the baseboards. Got rid of them immediately and I haven't seen another one since. I had them last year for the first time after they took the wall down in my kitchen and then again this year. I used the baby powder last year too because ant traps were no match for them. Anne

Sorry -- I think I fell off the end of the earth -- no that was just the first week of school, meetings almost every night since then, football and band going full tilt and I thought I could function with little or no sleep. My son had a big roller coaster experience with his college and life plans over the weekend and the first of this week. I'm still not certain where that will wind up, but the crisis moment has passed. OMG -- I'm not sure I'm ready for this senior year. I'll be okay when he leaves for college, but deciding where he will go and all that goes with that is not going to be easy for this one. I was supposed to be somewhere else hours ago, so I will quickly tell you what I was playing with and see if it sparks any interest rather than spending more time trying to get back to drawing it up and then finding it's impossible or whatever. I'm really getting caught up on the living spaces and flow of the home more than the knit-picking of the kitchen itself. The main thing that is bothering me there is the pantry being so far away from the cooking and prep areas. If you have enough cabinets to put your spices and most used staples in them near your baking and cooking zones and use the pantry for extra storage, small appliances and extra bakeware -- the things you don't need daily or won't have to go grab as you adjust or improvise when cooking, it might work. Or if you cook in an orderly fashion -- all by recipes or can gather everything once and not need to run to the pantry to get something you forgot or decide you need to adjust or improve something, it may work for you. I had a kitchen with a pantry across an aisle -- not as far as this one would be, and it drove me crazy -- to the point of hating to cook. I had very few cabinets in the kitchen itself and no room for any food other than the fridge. Even my spices were in the pantry. The walk-in pantry was one of the reasons I loved the house when I first saw it and one of the reasons I hated it by the time I left. -- but it was the whole package and you have more to work with. Just make sure you know where things will go and how it will work for you. I was thinking that instead of moving the laundry you simply move the door and reorient it, but if that has moved already, it's a moot point. I was kind of hoping that would save some expense so you wouldn't hate me if I suggested taking the kitchen to the right instead of to the back so that you could create a large great room rather than having things divided. It doesn't sound like you live divided and need the two living areas and two dining areas. I will forget that for now -- looks like it might be too much and too late. However, I would not wall off the area in front of the master. I was thinking of moving the desk that faces the kitchen and putting it over between the coat closet and the master BR door, then make that open area (overgrown hallway) a reading or game area with comfy reading chairs and/or a game table for playing cards, board games, crafts, extra dining for get togethers, etc. That's an area that will work with your family room but still give you an added function. I think I would still do that and even if you go with the kitchen pretty much as planned, the area that was patio could be a crafting/activity room that is more segregated and can be closed off from the much used door. I think that closing off that space and having traffic right through the middle of it would make it a mess in terms of too much hall and too little room to work with. If you make that area a game/study area, you could make that wall separating that area from the kitchen a peninsula - go all talls on the back wall and then have a pass through so that you can do snacks, coffee/beverages and even buffets there. If you have island seating, you then have three eating areas for when the family and grandkids are all there -- possibly even room to set up another folding table - and everyone can see each other. The thing that really stuck with me was that this house didn't flow and you wondered where the space was. I am afraid that if you wall it up and box things up like you have them, you might not improve that at all -- maybe make it worse. As I said at the start -- I have been out of the loop on all that has preceded it, so if I'm off on the wrong track I'm sorry.

I'm with lazypup. I'd have done the same thing when you see a new kid getting reamed. They're learning and you don't need to remind them in front of customers. I DO hate pompous, arrogant supervisors. Ewwwww, after 40 years of running multi million dollar companies, I retired and thought retail might be a good way to spend some time and make a buck. I guess I thought retail people were as nice and smart as corporate people. THEY AIN'T! I lasted 17 hours. What a shrew I ended up working for. Right in front of customers, she'd chastize you for any infraction...."You need to SMILE while you ring them up!" "Ummmmm, Im trying to concentrate here." Even the customers would raise an eyebrow to her. I'm over it now as I see her little business has been overtaken by the liqour store next door and the witch is gone. Trust me, my 17 hours have taught me a lot. I'm the customer, I'm always right and I can say anything I want to. I will take to task the rude supervisor in front of customers. I can, with words, want to make them WANT to work in the warehouse. I like, "Make it a nice day" not "Have a nice day"