lavender, thank you, and thanks for the vote on the stair spindles. When I have a free minute I've been taping off where the spindles meet the treads, so after the ceiling trim is up, it's a go. marti, I think she was more than half in jest, but the room is painted, so it must have worked! shadygrove and shades, thank you. Do you all realized that you get to see my new stuff before almost anyone else? I just want to say that I really appreciate everyone's encouragement. I've been busy the last couple of days, routing and painting the new ceiling trim. I put up the filler on the top of the DR cabinet this morning, then my father wandered in with a bucket of cherry tomatoes. Lol, any idea how many cherry tomatoes one has to halve to fill a dehydrator? A bunch--but aren't these the cutest little things?!

It looks like the large panels in the center are the ones that have 2 panels glued together and don't pass underneath other doors. If so, I'd hang art on each of the glued panels. I'd also arrange or replace the lights so that only the artwork is highlighted. If you need light for inside the closets, can you mount some boxes in there? If you have small children I'd paint the doors for now...either the same as the wall or a shade lighter. Is the area temp controlled? Just wondering why you'd need a dehumidifier if the walls and floor are covered and there's heat down there. Can't agree with your contractor on the barn doors warping. I think he just didn't know how to deal with them.

Thank you very much for thinking of us and posting pictures of your mom's beautiful dining room, mojomom. I certainly hope that the choices we make for our home will age as gracefully as your mom's. : ) Thanks for the pictures mdln. Those are very nice. Awww, no worries sheesh. This technological stuff is so hard to keep up with, isn't it. Our video screen for watching movies is hooked up to a speaker cabinet from 1978 (the record player is even still in it) because neither dh nor I are up to figuring out the new sound systems right now, LOL. We'll leave out the electric fireplace, jlc712. In fact, we've had an about face with the whole project...Now why I didn't do this earlier, I don't know. I drew everything out on graph paper (always better than doing math in your head-oy!), and with the other furniture in the dining room, I was stunned (smacking forehead, here) that there really is only room for an 8' table. Ummmm...we're outgrowing our 8' table already, and 1/2 of our kids are under 10. That lead to a whole house evaluation, and a complete rearrangement of furniture and room functions. As a result, we flip-flopped our living room and dining room today. (Fortunately, the kitchen is smack dab in the middle of the house with the other rooms on either side of it.) The living room (I mean...new dining room) is 15.5' x 25'. It can handle a dining room table, a big dining room table. Like 16' long big. And that's with putting a closet at one end of the room (so all these closet ideas? They won't be wasted!) For DH, this means doing the longer, more extensive project of supporting the ceiling with beams rather than a closet, but it will make for a wide open and airy living room(yay, I love airy!), and a long dining room with plenty of room for a larger table. Phew. Since we often have large groups of people over, this should work very well for us. We were even able to work it so that we got more couch and chair seating in the 14'7" x 17' room than we could logistically work in the 15.5' x 25' room. It all seems good. It is so true that it pays to live in a house for awhile to see how the space functions before making major changes. Thank you one and all for helping us think this project through. You have been incredibly kind and helpful and I love the creative insights and ideas that you brought forth.

Thanks everyone. I actually can't believe I hadn't thought of using that rug in there before. bmallon - I wasn't sure if the sideboard was too fru-fru with the flowers and all. I have some ideas, so I run them by you all when I get the chance. I'm feeling pretty good about the chair pads too. It's funny, but with the old oriental rug, they seemed off to me - but with this one, they really do work! I'm thrilled.