A couple of years ago, Campbell's had a tomato seed giveaway. The web site had animated tomato plants which grew vertically by stretching the bottom portion of the plant (never any new leaves or foliage at the top of the stems). I have mercifully forgotten what unnatural characteristics the animated fruit had. They grew singly rather than in clusters, but there was something else ... yes: they hung from the leaf-stems. Apparently no one at Campbell's or their ad agency had ever seen an actual tomato plant, or even knew where to look for photos. Or, come to think of it, had any idea how any plants or trees grow. The last I'd heard, no one's free seeds had sprouted. Someone suggested that having been shipped without any padding, the seeds had been crushed by postal machinery.

Clara - Looks like you are certainly pumping out the lumens, and plants look happy. Two questions to ponder though: at $45 a pop, these 85W CFLs + fixture are well-beyond chump change, at least for me. At some point, it must make sense to switch over to a HID lighting system. A ceiling mounted 1000W HPS, for example, would probably irradiate a good portion of your grow space, and they can't be more than a couple of hundred bucks. Second, the size of those 85W CFLs in the HD brooder lamp seems to ensure a lot of wasted lumens, and they stick out so far, a strip of Al-foil won't do much. As someone previously said, those gigantic CFLs seem much better suited to horizontal mounting in a "wing" or "half-tube" style fixture. I think the same poster described making a simple one with a double-ended screw-in socket, 8' heating duct cut in two lengthwise, and a couple of sheet metal screws. That said, the brooder lamps _are_ very flexible in their placement. Personally, I don't exceed a 55W bulb (linked below) in this fixture because, as you pointed out, I don't like my retinas fried just walking around the room. Nice thing about this particular 55W is the squat design that just about fits inside the 10.5" hemisphere. And not too shabby at 3600 lumens and $16. Here is a link that might be useful: fat 55W CFL

The Valor fireplace is one of the few, where the fire can be turned down to just barely on (lit), to a raging inferno, all using the remote control. In fact you can sit the remote control anywhere in your room, and it will control the fireplace automatically, as I said from a quiet flame to an inferno, if you like the temp, say 70F right by your easy chair, then just put the remote there. The remote can also be programmed to turn the FP on/off at night or in the morning. Now, to be honest, we don't do that "fancy stuff" with our remote, I just turn the fire up/down using the remote, to keep the room at what we consider comfortable. After having the fireplace for 7 years or so now, and the only problem we've had, is the controller and the remote quit talking to each other after 4 years or so, I think it cost me around $100 to replace them and has worked fine, ever since. Wife still says, That's probably the best thing we ever bought for the house, even after 7 years! Gary

Interesting, I am grappling with similar question. I have a TV mounted (which I definitely prefer--looks more custom and finished in my opinion). We have a cabinet underneath that is only the width of the TV. Next to that, on either side, I have little ottomans (stools). It just looks too bare. I am thinking of either getting a longer cabinet so I can add lamps on it or putting big framed photos on either side. I will say, my wall is way smaller than yours. I think you might want to consider a larger cabinet or two chairs on either side of the one you are getting. As I indicated, I really like the look of a mounted TV better, but if you have the option of doing it later, you could wait and live with it for a while. How tall are your ceilings? If they are 9 feet, you will have a lot of space above the TV too. I think it will look empty, but you can move in and find out. I look forward to seeing what you do. I kind of bought a cheap, small cabinet just to get something. Now I regret it since it doesn't look finished and it is harder for me to convince my family we need something different.