Glad to help. We are not using any cans b/c not only do I think they are pointless but IMHO they kind of ruin the look of a ceiling (swiss cheese effect). Every ceiling on the first floor of our house w/ the exception of the kitchen and rooms like the dog room is either vaulted, has a trey ceiling or is coffered, so there was no way I was putting cans in those ceilings, especially since I also did chandeliers and medallions. I'm already kind of annoyed that there will be speakers in the ceilings, but we had to have those and I found fancy speaker grills that will go over them. Our electrical walk through took about 3 hours. Our electrician was impressed and said for most people it takes all day. I knew exactly what I wanted and what was going where so it was much faster and easier. The hidden outlets are in the kitchen because I would not allow for any outlets at all to be visible in my backsplash. This was a huge hassle with the electrician and inspector. On the one wall it was easy (albiet kind of expensive) because we just used plug mold. However, on the other wall, we had no upper cabinets so we had no place to put the plug mold. I wanted to put the outlets under counter, the inspector said no, I thought up like 10 other ideas that everyone vetoed and finally we ended up w/ the electrician using the shallowest possible boxes to put outlets in the panels on the cabinets on either side and my cabinet maker is going to make me a little piece of wood that matches that fits over the outlet and that velcros in place that I am going to put on after the inspector leaves. We didn't put any floor outlets in because I don't want the look of my hardwood floors messed up. We will mostly be using the chandeliers for lighting and we also have lighted cabinets in every room that will be on a timer. Those will go on automatically and I am hoping between those and the chandeliers, we will have enough light w/o lamps. If we need lamps, I'll put them on the furniture along the walls and just put them on remote controls. Bathrooms, we each have outlets in the top drawers of our vanities. Cel phones will charge in the laundry room charging station (photoshop mockup): As to the other questions: We used some kohler in our house. Kohler purist faucets, I think maybe kohler tubs in our other bathrooms. I wasn't brand loyal when it came to plumbing, as long as it was something I had heard of. We used whitehaus for our kitchen faucets (w/ a tapmaster!) and I got the delta touch for the dog room. Bathroom is moen (IODigital for tub and shower so we can turn water on w/ remote control and digitally get it to appropriate temp and fill level, etc.) We used polished chrome in all the bathrooms and nickel in the kitchen. We had both of our kitchen farmhouse sinks custom made (one out of concrete, the other out of marble). I did not get a toto toilet. I spent so much on the tub and shower I was not going to spent a lot more on toilets so I got the cheapest kohler that looked good and that did NOT have those buttons on the top to flush. I wanted a regular lever! I like to put a decorative something or another on the top of the toilet tank and I didn't want buttons getting in my way. HVAC- are you using fiberboard ducts or all metal? Our builder originally had us for fiberboard and we upgraded to all metal. My fiances dad is in the HVAC business and he strongly encouraged us to do research before letting them put fiberboard ductboard in the house and I am very glad we did. If you are using fiberboard, do your own research on this before you make up your mind. The metal costs more, but just do your research first! We have 3 zone heat and cooling (basement, first floor, upstairs). We have geothermal heating and cooling, backup propane, and a boiler to provide radiant heat for the kitchen, sunroom and master bath floors. When you do your HVAC, see if they give you any control over where registers are placed or what size. We have one that had to be made shorter because it interfered with trim and two returns that have to be modified to vent out of the cabinets that are going in front of them because our HVAC guy did not listen well to us. Be insistent if you have such concerns that you know where HVAC returns and vents are going before they do it. There's not much flexibility, but at least you can work w/in whatever flexibility you have.

We received our coveted Toto Soiree last week and I was dismayed to find that a large portion of the back corner of the skirt had been broken during shipping. (Be sure to inspect your toilet as soon as practical!) Even though the seller had added another thick layer of foam on top of Toto's packaging, the bottom edge was still a bit vulnerable to a hard edge. But, no worries, they sent a replacement out the next day and said that we could keep the busted one. While waiting for the new Soiree, I crudely repaired and then installed the broken toilet. With the crack almost entirely hidden in our tight bathroom, I'm pretty happy with the new Soiree, both in terms of performance and appearance. That was until it started groaning late at night, sounding a bit like a hungry baby giraffe. It turned out that the flapper was closing off-center, easily fixed by a zip tie around the flapper pivot shaft closest to the bowl. (Toto customer support blamed it on the long shipping distance, from Atlanta to Ventura, California but I think it's just a minor design problem.) Anyway, it's working perfectly now. The new toilet arrived yesterday and the flapper mechanism is slightly different than the other, the new one having a flapper that includes a black plastic weight attached to the top. Both toilets have the same fill valve and same model number but the one with the black weight is also stamped 1.28gpf. With some valuable help from the Love site, I've learned that there used to be a 1.6gpf Soiree model but that they are all now 1.28. The model numbers for the 1.6 toilets ended in CFG and the newer "eco" 1.28 model numbers end in CEFG. Both of the toilets we received are CEFG models. So now we have a cracked Toto Soiree installed and working perfectly and a new one still sitting in the box. We just have to figure out which one to get rid of.

mongoct posted some really helpful info about showers and valves, and that's basically everything I know about that topic! I'll try to paste it here: Let me know if this is the sort of info you're looking for, if it's too basic, or not inclusive enough. It's a rough first draft and can be edited as required: The sort of where, what, and why of pressure-balanced versus thermostatic: Pressure-balanced or thermostatic temperature control valves are code-required in bathroom plumbing because they eliminate potential scalding and cold water shocks that can occur in a shower. If you are using the shower and a toilet is flushed, as the toilet uses cold water to refill the tank, the pressure in the cold water line drops a bit below what it was when just the shower was running. If you had a non-balancing valve, you�d still get the same amount of hot water that you originally were getting, but with the drop in pressure in the cold water line you�d have less cold water coming out of your shower head, creating a potential for scalding. Vice-versa, if someone turns on a hot-water faucet elsewhere in the house, the hot water pressure drops and you get a shower of mostly cold water. A pressure-balanced shower valve is designed to compensate for changes in water pressure. It has a mechanism inside that moves with a change in water pressure to immediately balance the pressure of the hot- and cold-water inputs. These valves keep water temperature within a couple degrees of the initial setting. They do it by reducing water flow through either the hot or cold supply as needed. Because pressure balanced valves control the temp by reducing the flow of water through the valve, if your plumbing supply is already struggling to keep up with the three shower heads and nine body sprays that you have running in your shower, if a pressure balancing valve kicks in and chokes down the water supply to keep you from getting scalded you could end up with insufficient water flow out of the heads in a multiple shower head setup. When it comes to volume control, in terms of being able to turn on the water a little or a lot, for the most part pressure-balanced valves are full-on when water is flowing or full-off when the valve is closed. Flow-wise, think of them as having no middle ground. Where flow and volume control are important, as in a shower that requires a high volume of water, a thermostatic valve may be the better choice. They also control the temperature, but they do not reduce the amount of water flowing through the valve in doing so. Thermostatic valves are also common with 3/4" inlets and outlets, so they can pass more water through the valve than a 1/2" pressure balancing valve. Which should you choose? In a larger multi-outlet master shower, while a 1/2" thermostatic valve may suffice, a 3/4" thermostatic valve might be the better choice. But it does depend on the design of your shower and the volume of water that can be passed through your houses supply lines. In a secondary bathroom, or in a basic master where you have only one head, or the common shower head/tub spout diverter valve, a 1/2" pressure balancing valve would be fine. If you want individual control and wanted multiple valves controlling multiple heads, then you could use multiple 1/2" valves instead of one 3/4" valve and all would be just fine. What do the controls on the valve actually control? While it may vary, a pressure balanced valve is normally an "all in one" valve with only one thing you can adjust�the temperature. The valve usually just has one rotating control (lever or knob) where you turn the water on, and by rotating it you set the water to a certain temperature. Each time you turn the valve on you�ll have to set it to the same spot to set it to your desired temperature. For the most part you really don�t control the volume, just the temperature. With the valve spun a little bit, you'll get 100% flow but it will be all cold water. With the valve spun all the way, you�ll get 100% flow, but it will be all hot water. Somewhere int eh middle you�ll find that Goldilocks "just right" temperature, and it�ll be at�you guessed it�100% flow. So with a pressure balancing valve, you control the temp, but when the valve is open, it�s open. A thermostatic valve can be all inclusive in terms of control (volume and temp) or just be temperature controlling. If it�s just temperature controlling, you will need a separate control for volume or flow. Example, with an all inclusive you�ll have two "controllers" (knobs or levers) on the valve, one to set the temperature and a separate one to set the volume. In this case you can set the temp as you like it, then use the volume control lever to have just a trickle of Goldilocks water come out of the valve, or you can open it up and have full flow of Goldilocks water coming out of the valve. You can leave the temp where you like it when you turn the volume off after you�re done showering. The next time you shower, turn the volume on, the temperature is already set. Some thermostatic valves are just temperature valves with no volume control. You�ll need another valve/control to set the volume. Read the product description carefully to see what you're getting. What size valve should I get? Yes, valves actually come in different sizes. The size refers to the size of the inlet/outlet nipples on the valve. For a basic shower, a 1/2" valve will suffice. For a larger multi-head arrangement, a 3/4" valve would be better. Realize that you�ll need a water heater that can supply the volume of heated water you want coming out of the heads, so don�t forget that when you build or remodel. Also realize that if you�re remodeling and have 1/2" copper running to your shower, capping 1/2" copper supply tubing with a 3/4" valve provide you with much benefit as the 1/2" tubing is the limiting factor. You can, however, cap 3/4" supply tubing with a 1/2" valve or a 3/4" valve. Is one better than another? Thermostatic valves are "better" in that with them you can control both volume of flow and temperature, so you have more control, and they hold the temperature to a closer standard (+/- 1 degree). They also perform better if you are running multiple outlets in the shower, as they do not choke down the amount of water in order to control the temperature. But you pay for that added flow and added control. Pressure balancing valves can be had for about $100-$200, thermostatic valves can be twice that amount. And more. Will I suffer with a pressure-balancing valve? For what it�s worth, when I built my house over 10 years ago I put pressure-balancing valves in my own house. While I have two outlets in my shower (sliding bar mounted hand-held on the wall and an overhead 12" rain shower head on the ceiling), I have a two separate pressure-balancing valves, one valve for each head. With both heads going in the shower, I notice no loss of flow in the shower when the toilet is flushed and the sink faucet is turned on simultaneously. I also notice no change in temperature. So they work for me. If you are remodeling, if you have your existing sink running and you flush the toilet and notice a drop in volume coming out of the sink, then a thermostatic valve might be the better choice even if you're not having a multi-head setup installed. If, as part of the remodel, you plan on running new supply lines through your house to the new bath, then properly sized runs will take care of that flow restriction and you can probably do a pressure balancing valve instead of a thermostatic. So in a house with tricky plumbing, or with a restricted water supply, or with multiple outlets running off of one supply valve, a thermostatic valve might be the safer choice. Mongo -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part Deux clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings Posted by mongoct (My Page) on Thu, Jun 26, 08 at 2:30 Part Deux: Controls and Diverters This may be almost impossible to thoroughly attack because there are so many variations in what people want and in what different manufacturers offer. In general� You need a volume and temperature control. You can buy just the valve body, which is the chunk of expensive brass that gets buried in the wall, and buy a separate trim kit, or you can buy a package that includes the valve body and the trim kit. The trim kit is the bright sparkly metallic knob/lever/escutcheon bling that you overspend for so your friends and neighbors will go "oooooh" and "aaaaah". If you buy a pressure balanced valve, the valve in and of itself will turn on the water and allow you to control the temperature. If you buy a thermostatic valve, most valve bodies have two controllers on them, one to control volume and one to control temperature. Read the fine print though, because some thermostatic bodies just control temperature. You�ll need a separate valve body to provide volume control. Stops. Some valves come with "stops" some do not. What are stops? Stops stop water flow at the valve itself so the valve can be taken apart without having to turn the water off to that branch circuit or to the whole house. They are normally incorporated onto the hot and cold water inlets on the valve body, and they can be opened or closed with a screw driver. While I�m on this, I�ll also mention that some valves might mention having a "stop screw" to limit the maximum temperature. While a pressure balancing or a thermostatic valve will prevent you from being scalded if someone flushes a toilet, there is nothing to prevent someone from being scalded by setting the valve to allow 130 degree water to pass through it. Your first step is to lower the temperature on your water heater to about 120 degrees. For valves that have these stop screws, it�s then a simple matter of setting a screw that limits how far the temperature knob can be rotated. What you do is rotate the knob to set the water to the max temp that you�d ever want out of the shower, then you turn the set screw until it bottoms out. It will now prevent the temperature knob from turning past (hotter than) it�s existing position. Downstream of that volume/temp control is where things get dicey. You can have a simple setup where your V/T control just runs to a single shower head. Easy to do. You can have a standard tub setup with a shower head and a tub spigot, where the diverter can be a lever or push button that sends water either to the tub spigot below or to the shower head above. Also easy to do. If you want to supply water to more than one shower head, to a shower head and body sprays, or to both, either simultaneously or one at a time, then you�ll need more chunks of expensive brass to bury in your wall. If you want separate controls and the ability to have differing temperatures come out of differing fixtures, then it�s easiest to go with multiple V/T controllers. One V/T controller for the shower heads, for example, and a separate V/T controller for the body sprays. This allows you to run different volumes and different temperatures out of the different heads. Your shower head can be 105 degrees and your body sprays 110 degrees. Remember, the more hot water that you want to come out of your shower, the larger your supply tubing and valve bodies need to be, and the larger your water heater has to be. For sizing purposes, most shower heads and body sprays have a gallon per minute rating applied to them. In theory and planning only, if your hand held shower head is, for example, rated at 3gpm, your rain shower head rated at 4gpm, and each of your 8 body spray heads is rated at 1gpm, and you want to run them all at the same time�you�re looking at a flow of 15gpm. You need a water heater that can supply you with 15gpm of hot water, then you need supply tubing that can get 15gpm of hot water from your water heater to your bathroom, and you need valve/diverter bodies that can pass the required amount of water through them so you get decent flow out of each fixture. Typical plumbing is 1/2", typical valves are 1/2". For high volume situations, 3/4" tubing and 3/4" supply valves may be required. Out of the valves you can usually run 1/2" tubing to your shower heads and body spray heads. Back to the hardware. If you want a shower head and body sprays, and want to run either or both off of one valve, then you�ll want a diverter valve. Diverter valves can be anything and everything. They can be simple A/B valves, where you can run the water through the valve to only "A", your shower head, or only to "B", your body spray heads. But not both at the same time. Which leads to the A/B/AB valve, where you can send water only to "A", your shower head, or only to "B", your body spray heads, or to "AB", simultaneously to both. And from here things go wild. There are A/B/C/AB/AC/BC/ABC valves, and things just can go on and on from there. Diverter valves are usually described as having a certain number of "ports". 3-port, 4-port, 5-port, etc. Realize that one port is where the water goes in to the valve, the other ports are where the water comes out. So an A/B/C valve that has three outlets might be listed as a "4-port valve", with the fourth port being the inlet. Not all 4-port valves can do A/B/C/AB/AC/BC/ABC, you�ll need to look through the description to find out where it can send the water to. A 4-port valve might just be an A/B/C valve, or it might be a more versatile A/B/C/AB/AC/BC valve. Read its description. If you can�t get the customization you need from a single volume/temperature controller and a single diverter, you can run multiple diverters off of one V/T controller, or multiple diverters off of multiple V/T controllers. It all depends on how much brass you can afford, how much water you can supply, and if you have the space to hide all that brass in your walls. Diverters can be knobs, levers, push buttons, the choice is yours. But do remember that you need to match up the valve body to the desired trim kit so that the bling that your neighbors can see will fit on the expensive chunk of brass that they can�t see. You don�t want your plumber to bury that expensive chunk of brass in your wall, then tile, then find out later that your bling won�t fit. Very depressing. It�s all about reading the fine print. Mongo -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RE: FAQ/Answers Bathroom Plumbing for dummies clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings Posted by mongoct (My Page) on Thu, Jun 26, 08 at 12:51 How to get the water out of your walls: A fixed shower head high on the wall, an adjustable hand held, an overhead rain shower head, or body sprays? Or all of them? Normally 1/2" copper tubing is run from the valve or diverter body to carry the water to the location of the outlet. If you're going to install something permanently, or if you're going to make a connection in a sealed wall, then it�s normally a soldered fitting. For things like showerhead arms, or body sprays, these are normally threaded connections. A threaded connection allows you to change out the shower head and arm for a different one if the old breaks, or for a new style if remodeling. When making up a threaded connection, you'll want to use something on the thread, either teflon tape, teflon pipe dope, or some other sort of thread sealer that will allow you to break the connection at a later date. A common way to connect your outlet to your spray head is to run your copper tubing to the location of the outlet, then solder a 90 degree drop ear fitting to the copper tubing. You can see that the fitting has a smooth inlet for the 1/2" supply tubing to be soldered to, two holes in the "ears" to nail or screw the fitting to the framing, and a threaded outlet where the water will come out of. These fittings are manufactured in different configurations for different applications. That brass drop ear fitting will be buried in the wall or ceiling. If you are connecting a shower head, then the arm of the shower head gets screwed into the drop ear fitting and the shower head gets screwed on the other end of the arm. That works if it is a wall or ceiling mounted shower head. For a body spray, you�ll need a brass nipple like this: One end of the nipple screws into the drop ear fitting, the other end gets screwed into your body spray. Nipples come in various lengths to compensate for varying wall thicknesses. For a hand held shower, the outlet for the hand held is mounted just like a body spray head is mounted. I usually mount the outlet for a hand held down low near the bottom of the bar and offset to one side. That way when the head is hung on the bar, the hose hangs in a graceful "U", right up against the wall. Do a dry run with a piece of rope or string the same length as your hose, you don't want your hose laying on the shower floor. Hand held shower are usually mounted in a vertical bar, the head can be slid up or down the bar to adjust the height of the head. If you don�t want a bar, then there are wall brackets that the hand held head can be set into. You can use multiple bracket, one high for tall people, one lower for shorter folk, even one low on the wall to hold the head for the leg shaving crowd. Both the bar and the brackets are surface mounted in the wall, they are held on the wall with screws. You�ll normally drill a pilot hole, insert a plastic anchor into the pilot hole, then attach the bar or bracket by driving the screw into the plastic anchor. It�s easier to drill a pilot hole through grout than it is to drill through tile. Prior to inserting the anchor or driving the screw, I always squirt a glop of sealer into the hole, it helps prevent water intrusion. As to the hose for the hand held, some are plastic, some are metal. I prefer metal as they lay against the wall more consistently than plastic hoses. One end of the hose screws on to the outlet that you screwed into the wall. The other end snaps or screws onto the hand held shower head. Get a hose long enough so that it can reach all corners of your shower, and then some. It helps with rinsing and cleaning the shower, shaving legs, bathing young kids, or even the family dog. For wall mounted handhelds, you can get everything in one kit, or you can mix and match. Just make sure that everything is compatible so that you don't end up with a head that won't attach to a bracket. A good combination is a "standard" wall mounted shower head, OR a "standard" head as a hand held, combined with an overhead rainshower head. "Standard" heads give that nice spray that is strong enough to easily rinse your body or rinse shampoo out of your hair, they often have multiple spray patterns as well. Rainshower heads give a much gentler flow of water. They provide a different experience than a standard spray head. A rainshower head's flow might not be adequate to quickly rinse shampoo from hair. Some manufacturers have rainshower heads designed to mount on a standard arm that comes out of the wall. Those might not be a good idea, as the rainshower heads work best when they are mounted level, not on a tilt. If the head is mounted on an angle, instead of the shower of raindrops, you might something more like a garden hose effect coming out of one side of the head. Since the water "drops" out of the head instead of spraying our of the head, it's better to not have them too close to the wall. I think rainshower heads work best when plumbed to a central location on the ceiling. If you can only have one head in your shower, than a standard type head with adjustable spray patterns might be your best bet. When I was a kid, most of the hand held shower heads were of very poor quality. Hose fittings leaked or sprayed water everywhere, the multiple spray heads leaked or sprayed water all over. Today's handheld's are of much better construction. Construction note: If in a freezing climate, try to keep supply plumbing tubing out of your exterior walls. And if running plumbing for an overhead rainshower in the ceiling, if it's unheated attic space above then you'll want to insulate above the plumbing in the ceiling. Also, pitch the horizontal run of plumbing downwards a bit as the plumbing goes towards the rainshower head, so that when you turn the water off, the water in horizontal run of tubing will flow out the rainshower head instead of pooling and being captured in that horizontal run of tubing. Mongo

Update: I ordered the Galba toilet from Luxury Modern Home - 24.5" long and it sits flush to the wall, allegedly. Ah yes, "Luxury Modern Home," that well-known bathroom fixture maker...but at least it has luxury in the name and the Amazon reviews were not terrible. My contractor laughed at me but admits it solves a problem neatly, if it works. I will say the customer service has been good. They called to ask whether a newer model was OK (some sort of bowl reconfiguration), then found me the old version when I said I didn't want the new one and shipped it overnight by Fedex. Anyway, for those who may have a similar issue to me, Luxury Modern Home apparently has toilets in 23", 24", and 25" lengths now, all with 12" rough and slightly different styling (rounded vs square edges). I will report back about the Galba.