You have a ton of questions and I will do my best to address them, I also have AADD so if I start to ramble and jump back and forth just overlook that :). We need to simplify this more because there are certain issues you can't change..... being on a slab and the weight issues. Any slab has to be reasonably flat and dry, but in your case it needs to be almost dead flat and dry. We are supposed to always check slabs for vapor emissions that can go unoticed when there is carpet over top that allows the slab to breath and release moisture without any problems. You have an 18yr. old glued down wood floor that has exhibited no problems, in my view that is as good an indicator one is going to get..... so we'll just say you are dry. I don't know how many sq.ft. is involved but it takes some space for an installer to check the slab for flatness and then take measures to correct it. Sometimes a low spot can be a few feet in diameter and with the feathering needed I may need 6', 8' or more to deal with it. If I don't have space I could be featuring up to a high spot underneath furniture. It is best to try and figure a way to go one room a time, clean it out, then go on to the next room. If you have your heart set on an engineered BC, then get it :), life is too short to fret over that as long as you know about this issue and are okay with it. On glued down floors the thickness does not really matter as much as opposed to floating. What does matter is the top wear layer thickness and using the right adhesive. A 3mm or 4mm thick wear layer is actually better in the long run as a 5mm thick . Going too thick with the wear layer can cause a phenomenon called "dry cupping" .... the NWFA and NOFMA are aware of this and it is being addressed. If you go with a glued down engineered wood floor and want to put on a sealer as "insurance" , then do it. In your case I would strongly consider using Stauf 960 which is a quality sealer and adhesive combined in one application. You pay alot more for the adhesive but you only have one labor issue. Imo you could also go with a floating floor. But to pull this off you must use a quality product and (here I go again)..... the concrete must be flat. There is a laminate out there that I have personally installed that is almost bullet proof. That would be Wilsonart , which is a high pressure laminate referred to as an HPL. Putting that down along with using their blue fusion glue in the joinery can take any weight you want to put on top of it. When I do that I recommend to the client upgrading the underlayment to a product Sound Solutions. You cannot walk on this type of install and tell that it floats. You could also go with a floating engineered wood... this is where thickness comes into play. I prefer to use nothing less than a 1/2" in thickness and a where the joints get glued up, or, choose a good reliable click-lock system like the valinge or Uniclic joinery systems. They both hold together well. The wood should also be waht is called balanced.... the top layer equals the bottom. You are very typical of alot of my clients. Quit stressing so much :).

Thanks for the responses! I was actually thinking about a Formica finish called "Black Walnut Timber," but I'm just not sure if it would make the area look smaller than it is. I haven't considered wood because I always thought it was more expensive. But maybe I should look into it. I'm not sure about the butcher block because there are very warm (kind of golden) colors in the room with the floor and the paint... But in any case, thanks for the great suggestions!

kswl: I'm glad to hear it's working well for your DS with the narrower width. With technology changing at such a fast pace and getting smaller and smaller some of these special purpose goodies become redundant. We're opting to skip the CPU cabinet for that same reason. I am putting in a keyboard pullout for me, but not my DH--he wants a pencil tray, but you make a good point about having to scoot out. greenmtn: I agree with that. We do like to open the windows as it brings in a lovely breeze. Lucky we do not get too much direct sunlight as our neighbor has a huge ash tree in his backyard that filters the light without completely shading the room. Tomorrow I will meet with the designer who did the above design. One difference between her design and that of the designer I met with yesterday is the amount of space for seating under the desk and cabinets size. The other designer has more cabinets and less foot room under the desk--which I like, at the same time it could prove annoying. I am also thinking of reducing the depth of the right most upper cabinet to 9" as I don't want to obstruct the window. I am wondering how to treat the upper actually. Do I center it on the wall (which is 33") or line it up so that it ends at the same place as the lower does? If I do the latter it seems to look funny to me -- not centered. If I do a larger cab. and bring it closer to center then it gets closer to the window too--hence why I am thinking of doing the narrower depth. I think I can still store many things there--paper, CDs, smaller books, etc. Hopefully by the weekend I'll have designs from all three. I want to get a custom cabinetry quote as well as I feel the cabinets would be better quality. These three places all specialize in garage/closet/office but the product is all melamine based. They are designed to have minimal backing and they do all the wire management to get power where we need it and hide all the cords. It's a start!

Ana Marie, My husband and I installed IKEA closets in our previous house. We only lived there around 4 years after that, but they still looked new when we left and I actually liked them better than the custom made ones I have now. The kitchen in that house was also IKEA, installed before we bought it, and they were also holding up just fine after 8 years. I had knicked a couple edges near the microwave insert, but I'm sure I would do that to any cabinets haha.