We have BM Sabre Gray in our entry and master bath, and it was what I was picturing with your choices before I read that you were considering gray. It's what I'd consider a medium gray, and is a bit of a chameleon, looking a bit different in different light and with different materials. We have Gettysburg Gray in our dining room. I love it, too...It is more of a soft green-gray, still medium in value. It's hard to tell about the lighting. I'd want one that can connect with the warm colors in your granite, and go with the architectural type line of the backsplash...which I LOVE. I think I prefer the first two Tiffany options, or maybe the very last one, if the color's right.

I talked to her. It went pretty well. She seems to be in the same boat with her kids. They are having a real hard time with dad's new relationship. Her son is taking it the hardest because he was really close to his dad. The kids were still adjusting to the divorce (it was final in May) and then BM moved in with him in August. She said he hid it from his kids on the weekends they came over, which explains why she kept leaving SD at her mom's house in the beginning. When she suggested that the kids needed counseling because everything was happening too soon, he told her that SD & her sister had gone to counseling and were just fine. (I don't know if they really believe that or are in denial that SD is having a hard time too. She's been a mess over this) She said it didn't sound right at the time, that SD and her sister must really feel abandoned. It was funny that she said all the same things I've been complaining about. She says that every Monday, at least one of her kids misses school from being sick from eating junk food. She says the kids tell her they stay up all night playing video games and watching movies. She had the same concern over where everyone is sleeping, since she knows the house has only one bedroom. I really tried not to criticize BM but she has already given BF's ex the same attitude she gives me. The impression I got from her is that she is a very mature person that is only concerned with doing the right thing for her kids. She says that BM doesn't like her and that her ex has actually called her to apologize for BM's attitude toward her. It went well. She took my number and said she'd like to keep in touch if we ever have concerns. She said her kids only go there two weekends a month and she tries to be as nice as she can toward BM. She says if BM doesn't like her, she might not be so nice to her kids. That's pretty much my philosophy too. She also reassured me that her ex hasn't been drinking for a couple of years. (she may not know that BM is a party girl and he may have partied with her, but I don't know for sure and I'm not going to throw that out there without proof) I didn't tell her everything because I think it would come across as me bashing mom and that's not what I wanted to do. She is just as concerned about the same things and that was basically what we focused on. There were no bombshells. No bashing either.

I went through the same thing that you're talking about. I was pretty much my own lighting designer, so I depended tremendously on what I could find online. I found this advice helpful: experts123.com says, "For general lighting applications a good rule of thumb is to space recessed fixtures a distance that is equal to about half the ceiling height. For example, if a room has an 8ft ceiling, you should probably space the recessed fixtures about 4ft apart. This rule of thumb should be used only as a base line." I see you will not have wall cabinets around the sink area. With no opportunity to install undercabinet task lighting here, I would want cans positioned over the countertops for task lighting. I am *not* an expert, but I would be tempted to center a can over the sink, and then, using the aforementioned rule-of-thumb as a guide, space the rest of the cans appropriately. I would include undercabinet lighting on either side of the cooktop. I imagine that UCL coupled with your hood lights would be very dramatic. Of course, you need to also adjust that plan for any decorative lighting that you plan to include. Here's a pic of my finished kitchen as an example: I have 9-ft ceilings, so I figured about 4-4 1/2 ft spacing for the cans. Then I adjusted their placements according to where we wanted the ceiling fan (roughly in the middle of the kitchen) and the pendants over the bar. I hope this helps.

It's getting there but there's still significant trouble. Good design is a lot like solving Rubik's Cube, getting the last two pieces in place takes MORE time than getting the previous 24 properly positioned. And of course some designers hand the cube back to the owners and are very convincing in that it's perfectly ok to have a yellow square in the middle of the blue side. In a previous post above I alluded to client trust. I don't know what your relationship is with your current designer, or if this person is actually creative or just a permit drafter or the current design was generated from a collaborative effort or just yourself, but for you do be doing all this heavy lifting now without collaboration doesn't bode well. The best projects come from a trusting client. During the initial meeting, a client will often reveal the degree that they trust or don't trust others. As I said above, a good architect, when given the chance, will provide a design that can give a client everything they want, but often in a way that is completely unexpected… but that takes faith and lots of trust. If I don’t think there’s trust, I usually refer them to a permit drafter. So, with that said, I would suggest you sit down with your current designer or, if there’s no trust there, another designer whom you do trust and have a collaborative design session in what I call a design “charrette”. I do these all the time and they typically last 4 or 5 hours. In lieu of doing a bunch of retyping, I posted the whole process for another hapless homeowner. It’s here (not my first post here but the one 11 down with all the photos. That's me with pen in hand with the builder in the gray shirt flanked by the owners: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3178541/question-for-architectrunnerguy-or-others?n=24 I do like the detached garage in front however. I have a detached garage myself. Done because with a lot only 50' wide it opened up the lot considerably by creating an inner court yard and gave the front of the house a lot more light than otherwise. Yes, the only trouble I had passing the architectural registration exam was that they made me leave my glass of Chablis at the door! What’s up with that!!