Thanks Bill. Now I have another question. So, just back from Lowes/Home Depot... Found the chair rail, but they didn't have the corner piece to finish the end of the chair rail. Argh. I asked the salespeople if this piece could be special ordered - they said they didn't think so and said that contractors are able to cut a corner piece out of a chair rail. I am having a hard time imagining how this would be done. Is it possible? Is it a good idea? Or should I just bite the bullet and go with a more expensive subway tile that has all the coordinating trim pieces that I need?

I'd find someon who'll take a shorter listing. Several years back we signed with a hotshot - a real legend in our area apparently. Well, turned out he didn't really "do" small houses and had a team member take over. It was a month before our house was advertised anywhere, including even getting feature sheets printed. He had us sign for six months and didn't even return our calls. Being the witch that I am, I called the real estate board here and they told me who to call in his agency and exactly what to say to get out of the contract. Suddenly this guy was at my door. Wow. After much arguing and listening to him say, "Well, I know I didn't return your calls, but I didn't realize they were important..." (AS IF?!?!?!?) we finally got him to let us out of the contract. Mostly we let him know that the person in charge of his office was on side with us. He went to his car and called the gentleman and came back with a much better attitude. He then balked at putting our cancellation in writing and then the whole thing started up again. I didn't back down, but my husband was ready to give in. We finally got the cancellation in writing AND added a clause that we would not be pursued for any commissions after the fact at all. (We had had an open house and couldn't get any info on whether or not anyone came, I think the answer was no as it wasn't listed anywhere, and I didn't want them to come back and claim something when another realtor found a buyer later.) Three weeks after all of that was finally over we had an offer through our new realtor and sure enough, the first gentleman came back and tried to claim that he was "sure" the offer was from someone who had attended the open house (which he didn't even do himself). He tried to put forth the idea that our document was not valid. (Remember, he assured us it didn't even need to be written and yet look what happened.) Remember, he wouldn't even confirm that anyone came to our open house when we were still his clients, and then suddenly he was quite sure this prospect was his?!? Again, it took a call to the head of his agency to get him to leave us alone. Apparently the "great legend" in these parts didn't like not getting his way. We've worked with four different agents (four different moves) and the others were all great. I know most agents are above board and do the right things, but just to protect yourself I think it's a great idea to get everything in writing and insist on terms that you can live with. If that means someone won't take you, it's not the end of the world, someone else will. Our "hotshot" sold a lot of properties and really put on the charm when he was trying to get our business, but honestly did a complete turnaround after. I'm glad I at least pushed for written documents through the whole thing. And I'll never sign for a long term again. (I'd also suggest looking at a reasonable escape clause regardless of the term.) Assuming you're above board and honest I see no reason why you shouldn't have a way to get out of a bad situation. You change doctors, dentists, etc if you are unhappy. Go for three months and resign later if necessary (and you're still happy.) But that's just my humble opinion...

I don't know how tall my crown is, but it isn't huge. It looks a little different, because of the vaulted ceiling, but where the window wall meets the ceiling it's 8'. I would rather have a single door than stacked cabinets, to allow more flexibility in shelf placement. I ordered extra shelves for most of my uppers.

Sailorman gave an excellent suggestion - what's the rest of your house like and which will look less incongruous? Personally, I'm not a fan of crown molding - it all looks fussy and bothersome to me, and I put not a stitch of it anywhere ;-). It is what I prefer. So other things being equal, I'd go for the 39" cabinets and the smaller crown molding if you must have it. I don't agree with the concept that you won't use the last 3". No one has 3" high shelves that you could take or leave. In effect, the extra 3" allows you to put something taller yet - if you need to - in the cabinet. OR it gives headroom to allow you to more carefully add or remove stuff. I have 9.5 feet tall ceilings and I have a couple of 39" cabinets in my house. I have 3 glass shelves to make 4 storage shelves all told in there and none of them are extra high. They all seem pretty normal but they give me the head room in each shelving area so that I'm not smacking things into the shelf above as I pull items in and out. I've also got some of my taller bottles and even my port wine glasses which are a bit taller than my regular stemware. All fit in and come in and out with ease. All that said, if it is the 6" crowns that work better in your house, I'm sure you could make it so that the loss of that 3" is easily mitigated. ;-) So, this methinks might easily be more of a form than a function issue. (Personally, to meet my definition of form, I'd forgo all crown molding altogether. )