Once you upload your picture(s) to Photobucket, hover over the thumbnail and you'll see a list of four options (Email & IM, Direct link, HTML code and IMG code) Cursor over the third option, HTML code, and click in the beige box to the right. Once you click, it will show "Copied". You are then ready to paste it directly into the text of your post, wherever you want the photo to appear. Like this, When you preview the message, you should see your photo. You don't need to put anything into the boxes below where you type your message, just into the body of the message itself. I hope that makes sense!!

Thanks, I rescanned it as a picture/jpg instead of a document and uploaded it to photobucket. This afternoon I had read the "new to GW kitchens" and was still stumped! I'd like to know how people insert photos and layouts as part of their message (without the photobucket link)--that seems more convenient for people to respond to. Anyway, thanks for your help. Layout to follow in a new message!

Need help right away. Some holes cut and electrician is coming soon but we are stuck on final details. I wanted to post earlier but just figured out how to insert image. Most kitchen decisions have been made and some holes cut. We have just a couple of questions for the kitchen, but we really need help in the family room. Our original plan had many more recessed cans than I show in my drawing, but it began to look like too much light, so we took out several cans. Now we have too little light in that room, but I would like advice before adding anything back into the plan. In particular, we need help lighting the dining area and the seating area. Ceilings are less than 8. Floors are light natural red oak but other surfaces are medium to dark. Cabinets are natural cherry, countertops are dark uba tuba granite, appliances are all black. Window over sink and sliding doors to deck both face east and will not have window coverings. Wide window in family room faces south with leafy shade and probably will have shutters in a light natural wood. Peninsula has a normal height countertop facing the kitchen and a 42 inch high bank of shallow cabinets facing the family room. Kitchen Feel free to comment or ask questions about my kitchen drawing, but for this thread I will focus on my family room. Family room 1) We are not sure how many general recessed lights are needed in the family roomÂhow many and where to put them? Dining table will sit at an angle on an 8Âx8Â rug. We think we need a couple of recessed cans in the "walkway" between the half-wall and the rug leading to the sliding door. This should throw some light onto the cabinets in the half-wall plus throw some general light into the dining area, but I am not sure how often I would turn them on. We also plan to put a recessed can in front of the pantry to wash the cherry doors when they are closed and to illuminate the contents of pull-out shelves. I also will probably put a recessed can in the little cubby beside the panty. This is a place to catch clutter out of sightÂa place for storing phonebooks, sorting/shredding mail, tacking up notes, etc. I donÂt plan to sit/work there, but I will need a little light to find things back in that corner. I assume these two cans will throw a little light into that end of the room. Along the west wall of the family room we will have a bank of low base cabinets to house file cabinets and shelves behind cherry doors. We will have upper cabinets along most of this wall with a cut-out space for TV. There will be "mantle" across the top of it all about 1.5 to 2 feet down from the ceiling. This end of the room is currently very dark and cave-like. We are hoping to use up-lighting along the top of this wide wall unit to bounce light onto the upper wall and ceiling. 2) We want a soft, warm light that will make this end of the room glow. Do you recommend strip lighting or fluorescent tubes? If fluorescent, what kind of bulbs would be best for up-lighting in this situation? We plan to use some of the upper cabinets for books, but we also want to light several shelves for art objects. 3) What works bestÂlights shining down from the top through a series of glass shelves or strip lighting along the front of each shelf? We will have file cabinets inside the base cabinets. I donÂt plan to spend a long time looking into these files; but when I am there, I will need to see what I am doing. 4) Do we need to put in recessed cans in front of the cabinet in order to see into the files and shelves? I really donÂt think I would turn on recessed cans in this area very oftenÂare there other alternatives? A directional accent light will shine on a large tapestry on the south wall next to the entertainment unit. We also would like some light to shine on our red oriental area rug between the chairs and the entertainment wall. 5) Can we get light into this space without interfering with the TV? 6) What kind of lighting should we have near the chairs facing the TV? Do we want any down lights in this area? Should we look for floor/table lamps instead? I donÂt want tall lamps, however, that will block the line of sight to the entertainment wall or to the tapestry. Suggestions? 7) Most challenging is the dining table. We think we want to put the table at an angle as this feels more open to us, but I am not sure that the table will always remain in this location. I worry about cans or ceiling fixtures that will lock us in to one arrangement. Track lighting would be more flexible, but I am not sure it would look right with our low ceilings. Also, as people look from the kitchen toward that end of the room, I want them to see the pendants and the art on the wall beyond the table. I am afraid a hanging track or fixture will interfere with that view. At the same time, I want to put good quality light onto the table and the people sitting there. I am reluctant to attach a fixture on or a little below the ceiling, but I am afraid recessed cans alone would be either too bright or produce too much shadow. There is no good place for a sconce or floor lamp near the table. 8) Do you think that we could get enough ambient fill light if we were to shine wall-washing lights onto light wood shutters over the south window? Do we need more general recessed light all around the table? Any other suggestions?

Peace, I don't have much time this a.m. (Saturday is our busy day, and I don't have any rendering software at home--to keep the job and home a bit separate.) but I have to say, that's a much busier roofline than your line drawing would lead me to suspect! And, it's surprising that the gables run N-S rather than E-W. That's why advice from an experienced contractor on the scene is so much better than an anonymous internet person! But, having suggested that you think out of the box, my first suggestion to you would be to try to live within the current plan without any expansion. That's always the cheapest, and it's the best investment for resale since additions won't "pay you back" unless you plan on living there for 10 years or longer. The chimney and the stairs really eliminate much of the potential openness between the family room and the living room. But, if you eliminate that wall all the way to the chimney, and use the sunroom space, I can see turning your current kitchen into a very efficient galley style arrangement that will still be as open as possible to the living room. Keep the sink in the same location (always a LOT cheaper!) or scootch it down towards the family room a bit, and just run that run of cabinets all the way along that new wall between the patio and family room. THe range would go on that wall between the sink and a full sized glass door (single "french" door") between the kitchen and patio. Put a pantry where you show the fridge, and put the fridge on the new "mudroom" wall (and maybe laundry?). That is, make a wall extend east from the stairwell through the porch (right about where the post is in the rear shot, I'd imagine) to create the other wall of the "galley" where you create a "snack zone" with a microwave (and maybe a beverage sink?) for all of those snackers coming in from outside. The new small "mudroom" would give a place for coats and boots and flotsam to drop before it hit the kitchen. You wouldn't have to change any of your footprint, and you'd get a very efficient kitchen that would be as open to the living room as structurally possible, with minimal structural issues to be solved. No, it doesn't give you an island, or seating in a kitchen, but it will literally probably be a minimum of 50K less of a project, which if you plan on moving in less than 5 years, might make these changes be more in the realm of being able to be recouped. Like I said, Saturday is my busy day at the showroom, so I probably won't be able to check back in until Sunday to see your response to my radical rethinking. And, I'm probably making a few assumptions about you that may not be entirely correct, such as this being more of a first or second home for you (I noticed the young kids toys.) rather than a home for a mature family. If this is a home from which you will never move, then the dollar amount "invested" in remodeling is less of an issue, as you will get years of enjoyment out of creating a larger and more functional space to live in. You might post your current home's layout with a request for other input about creating the optimum kitchen from what exists and you'll get a LOT more input from some very talented forumistas with a more specific appeal to a layout challenge.