Well until Friday I thought it would be able to put a fireplace in the basement. That Friday he told me the day before they poured the first layer of concrete. He said it was the base but not the floor or the walls just the outline of the house. As such he said there's no way that they could add a fireplace to the house now in the basement. So that leads me to ask if the builder is correct, But more importantly if he is correct and I cannot have the fireplace in the basement then should I just not have the fireplace at all? This would give me an additional wall in the family room and allow a couch/chairs on two walls. Then I could place the tv on the wall on the side of the elevator with a slight angle to the rest of the room so most of the room could see. Where is very important in this day and age to have a fireplace somewhere in the house? I really wanted it in the basement because I know some people in my family gets very cold even when it's not that cold. One person it could be 76 and they want to have a sweater on. hp

I dunno Did some reading about CBS InnerTube and it said they use Microsoft Media Player and Real Media. Yet the couple of video's I've chosen to get a look see always come up Flash Player. Interesting the Video settings(link at top right of screen) say;;;; You can choose any player yet the only one listed is Flash . You might try settings and see if in their window it gives you the opportunity to select Windows Media Player as default. ~ Flash Player 9 has some issues with lots of people. Including my laptops IE for the past two months. I just used the Adobe websites special 'Flash Uninstaller' and removed it, then nosed around there until I dug up the last release of Flash Player 8, which seems to have fixed my IE/Flash issues. Anyhow, Flash Labs has a new player in the works thats supposed to be coming out 'soon'. Yet they have also been trying for about a year to fix the IE/Flash snafu obviously unsuccessfully. Apparently fixes for some have screwed up others that had no issues to begin with. But it is sort of ,, Streaming TV! & Movies! Ad supported. I'm gonna go back and watch some Victoria Secrets model interviews - hope Flash8 works ;) Here is a link that might be useful: CBS Innertube player

From an American standpoint, it does sometimes take a bit to understand a British accent, but I've never found them difficult, it just takes a few minutes to adjust to the different intonations. That said, I live in New England, I'm a bit of an Anglophile anyway, and I've heard British accents all my life via PBS and BBC America so I may be in the minority. Now some Irish and Scots accents -- yikes. It takes me a while, but I can usually understand the speaker if I can just listen for a bit. Rapid speech would definitely be difficult. As far as "falling for" the accent, I admit guilt! I once took a college class just to be able to listen to the professor speak. He could have been reading the phone book and I would still have been entranced.

Perhaps the layout Beachem posted might look nicer, but unfortunately it's not going to happen. I already bought an undercabinet hood - the only thing purchased so far. This is a budget remodel and so I don't think I want to eat that cost and then spring for a much more expensive chimney hood - especially if it is for aesthetic reasons only. I also really wanted at least two upper cabinets that I will be able to access easily - one for oils and larger spice containers, the other for measuring cups and small mixing bowls, etc. This upper storage space is critical, especially if I also lose the shelving. The perpendicular peninsula counter will be my primary prep space with no other wall cabinets. Mama Goose - your comments make me feel better about the original layout I posted, and the pics make me think shiplap really could work on that wall . I was already wondering if my original layout would look less awkward if the shelves to the left were actually filled with something of some substance - to balance it out and keep the cabinets on the right from seeming alone on that wall. And the horizontal lines of the shiplap and shelving don't seem so overwheming in the pics - where it is all the same white color. Perhaps my mockup with the empty shelves and the prominent shiplap joints just makes everything appear worse than it really will? One thing I did think about that could possibly help ease the vertical lines of the wall cabinets would be to replace the one tall door front with stacked doors - no change in the underlying cabinet but a 30 inch door on the bottom and a 10 inch door on top. That would work with standard Ikea sizes. Only problem is that the cabinets over the range are 15 tall and not 10 but there may be a way to address that. For instance, I could use a single panel (10") drawer front over the hood and filler below. It's not a useful cabinet space anyway because the duct work is hidden there. The panel could be fixed or hinged at the top to open up and allow access. Thank you CEFreeman for the humor! Loved the Peter Max comment!