Wow - news to me! Ever since Thermador was bought by Bosch/Siemens, Thermador dishwashers have been near-clones of Bosch machines until now. Whirlpool at least uses different racks and various trivial differences like difference wash arms, but Thermador (and even Gaggenau) generally changed nothing but the control panel, and then only slightly. (Before the BSH buyout, Thermador dishwashers were clones of Waste King dishwashers, the sink disposer folks). Now they have a few unique features to separate them from Bosch. Time-remaining displays are commonplace, but Thermador's projects it onto the floor! Also, whereas Bosch dishwashers (at least in the US) don't have illuminated interiors, Thermador does - and in blue to match their other appliances. Not sure if blue lighting is as useful as white, but it does look cool: It also has the new rack designs for the top and bottom racks (and maybe the center - not obvious from their pictures). I really like being able to store glasses on the bottom rack and larger items on the top, which makes it easier to load and lift heavier items into and out of the dishwasher. But I see they still claim only 44db sound level on their priciest dishwashers, whereas Bosch claims 39db. Wonder what is different or missing in the Thermadors.

This is an area of expertise for me, please feel free to send me any questions you might have. Most home systems are placed either in a dedicated entertainment room, den or living room Every room will be different depending on your goals, but some rules of thumb; Most systems are 5.1 or 7.1, Meaning 1 center Chanel speaker above or below the TV, two front speakers, two rear speakers and 7.1 systems will have two in the middle of the room. The .1 is the subwoofer which is typically run over an RCA type cable to any corner of the room. You will want all of these wires to terminate in one convenient place where your receiver and DVD player will go, and have an HDMI v1.3 run from the receiver location to the television location. Installing speakers symmetrically in the room will give you the best sound, one in each corner with a centered seating position. As a rule of Thumb, the highest quality speakers are full sized floor standing speakers like Polk, MB Quart, Martin Logan, Focal.. The list goes on. Have your speaker termination plates near the floor for these. Next option are small sat speakers like bose or mirage or any other small box speaker, surface mounted. These typically mount on the wall or ceiling and your jacks should be high on the wall or on the ceiling. In wall speakers typically have a high fidelity, look for MB Quart, Niles, Bose, Infinity or Polk speakers no less than 6.5" in diameter, perferable with multi speaker arrays. The sound in the wall tends to have much better definition since it is directed, compared to ceiling speakers. Finally, in-ceiling speakers are an option. They are out of the way and can be painted to match your ceiling. The real issues comes down to Quality, bigger is better, dont skimp on the speakers of you go in-ceiling. You will probably still want a subwoofer with ANY system setup you choose. Please visit my site for more info, or contact me directly. -Tracy Here is a link that might be useful: From Plat to Place

First things first. No matter how much you spend, what you record is not going to be any better than the original. Yeah, there might be a little tweaking you can do with contrast and the like, but you will not make a DVD copy of a VHS tape which will look much better than the tape. The keys there then become the quality of the VHS tape player and the tape itself, with the tape itself being the most limiting factor. Tape quality is affected by the original formulation of the tape, how the tapes were used and stored, etc. At this point, there is little you can do about any of that. Let's just assume that the tapes you have are good enough to view and to transfer. If you already have a VHS player which has a picture you like, I would use it. You won't gain much at all by buying a new combo unit. If you have to buy a VHS player, you could consider a combo unit (though I'd check the owner's manual just to make sure you can copy from tape to DVD without problems; I've never done this myself and I'm not sure what the tape copy protection [if any] might do when recorded onto a disk). One thing to consider is the quality of the DVD itself. There is a growing concern about the longevity of DVDs and CDs. "Bargain-basement" or "free-after-rebate" disks often won't hold a valid signal after as short as six months. This is too much work to repeat in a year or two. Make sure you buy high-quality disks from companies like Imation, TDK, Maxell, etc. That will help insure that your disk copies live longer. And get "record-once" DVDs, not rewritable ones. That will help them live longer, too. As for the unit at Target, I'd be leery of why it was returned. A decent name-brand DVD burner goes for about $100; there's little point IMHO to buying a returned one for $50 and spending more on an extended warranty.

I don't know if this helps BUT we bought a MCM-ish house on an acre 2.5 years ago. The house was designed and built by a non-renowned architect in the early 60s. It is 4600 square feet. Out of the 10 or so houses on our street, a couple are smaller, most are the same and a couple are more like 6000-7000. Most people thought of the house we bought as a tear--down. We are just finishing up a to-the-studs remodel. We haven't changed the exterior much at all. We love lower ceilings. I would never buy a house with high ceilings. I especially would dislike an addition with too-high ceilings. 9' is good. We have a butterfly roof so part of our ceiling is 11'6" and I was really stressed about it. I'm only okay with it because it's mostly in public/non-bedroom area and at least some of the ceiling in our house is low. We would have loved a house in the 3500sq ft range. I think it's very very desirable. Add-on if it would increase your happiness while you live there, though. I will say that if you are interested in resale, many purists would have a problem with the addition no matter what you choose unless you are super super consistent with the rest of the house and what the original architect would do. We met with four architects. I would encourage you to meet with more architects! You never know, the right idea could really clarify things for you!