Thanks everyone for the compliments and good wishes! We can't believe how well it turned out either. We agonized a lot over which seating to order. Even though we played around with layouts on paper, I was worried that the theater seating group would be too big but I really wanted 3 seats there. The room feels much more spacious with the new seating then with the old couch - I think that's partly its a visual illusion because this one looks less bulky and partly the Space is less deep than on the old couch with its bulky cushions. mtnfever, the Couch Color pageant definitely helped us get clarity on the right color. For those who missed it, I highly recommend the approach of making large samples of a color to consider instead of trying to imagine with a tiny sample chip. I'll link the thread below for those who didn't see it. We knew we wanted to get rid of the hearth when we bought the house decades ago, but it took a long time to get around to it. On the other hand, I don't think we would have made as good decisions if we had replaced it back then. Bcafe, in the stores, they use the Stressless name and logo more than the Ekornes one so it would be easy to think that the company wasn't around. They still have the Ekornes non-reclining couches and chairs too. The website is www.ekornes.com/us. Enduring - yes it wasn't in scale and was way too dark. Even more, I hated it because it was fake stone. It always looked really fake to me though I've had others who were sure it was real stone. Gooster, yes all the front speakers are behind speaker cloth sections in the cabinets. The center is between the two drawers of the credenza; left and right on pull out shelves in the far left and right cabinets. The subwoofer is the black box on the floor and the rear speakers are white and mounted near the ceiling - you can see one in the first picture. Yes, we moved the fireplace to the right - doing so was only slightly more work than tearing out the hearth and installing a new one where the old one was. The hearth was fake stone on a metal mesh backing over a wood frame so that was much easier to remove than it looks like it would be. There wasn't a solid brick or stone chimney - just a flue pipe to remove and this is on an inside wall - the works were all in the empty space between the faux stone and an interior wall - so there was no external chimney to move to match except a little box on the roof. This is a one story which also makes moving things easier - the main work of moving it was patching the old hole in the roof and making a new one for the new flue to go through. We had moved it too far to be able to slant the flue to reach the old hole. When our GC took out the old hearth, there were some surprises. A joist had been cut for the old flue to go through the ceiling and it hadn't been sistered or anything - just two joist ends hanging in space in the ceiling. Our GC repaired that. There were electrical outlets on the bottom of the hearth and there were wire junctions just hanging in space inaccessible under the heart where the wiring was connected to wires from the wall. The fireplace was apparently a very early addition to the house poorly done. The TV is 65" - the size was chosen to be big enough that text viewed from the couch when using the screen for the media computer would be about equivalent to looking at text on a desktop computer screen. Also it works nicely for viewing while cooking and yet isn't overwhelming from the couch. The gap could accommodate a 73" screen, but I prefer having a little space around the screen. CEFreeman, the knobs took a lot of thought and work. He has made things like bowls and salt shakers before but never has made things that need to match as a large set. I came up with an initial design for the profile after seeing something similar in a magazine and then he made some initial variations so we could perfect the diameter, height and shape details. Then he made about twice as many as we would need since these are done freehand and the wood also varies. I sorted them into matched pairs and we used the best matches on the pairs of doors where the knobs are right next to each other in the wide cabinet and the credenza. We also put matched pairs on the left and right opening tall cabinets in case they are ever in a room where they are right next to each other. He also repairs furniture and is the only reason we still can use the rather fragile dining table chairs we have. But he does full time day care for our youngest grandchild so I only get so much project time from him. Bellsmom!! Yikes - so that's why we had to replace the hearth - to keep trolls from hiding there. I love your concept - so did my husband. (The eyes were elevations I made of our plans for the wall. When I asked about vertical blinds on the Home Decorating forum, there were a lot of people who were anti-vertical, but for the windows and style of this house, I think they are the best solution. Part of some peoples objections were based on cheap industrial metal verticals. These ones have fabric laminated to plastic for the vanes so they are quieter. We popped for the backstaker option so when partially open the stacked vanes are at the edge of the windows. We also like that the blinds can be tilted to block sun when needed while still letting us see the yard and monitor grandchildren on the patio. Marti8a, we chose to keep the same wood for the cabinets as in the kitchen - natural cherry - because we already have several woods in the area - maple floor, oak breakfast table and counter stools and some dark unidentified wood for some of the original built-ins and breakfast room doors. To differentiate them from the kitchen cabinets (because I didn't want the family room to look like the kitchen had extended into it), so we chose a different door style - a more sophisticated mitered corner raised panel instead of shaker, but still with simple lines and furniture style knobs instead of big kitchen ones. Here is a link that might be useful: Couch Color thread

Wow, Kevin, your home is beautiful!!! Wondering if your house Is a trinity? Whatever, it's gorgeous. I met you in the bathroom forum. BTW, I live in central Jersey. I've called around to lots of stores and no one seems to have the.models of tubs I'm interested in. I did see the Edenton today however, so no need to post a close-up. But thank you anyone for the thought.. It is a nice tub. I was surprised how slippery the Edenton bottom is even with the texture (and I was looking for no texture at all!). I'm concerned since I need a tub/shower combo - but I really want a comfortable tub as part of that combo. Now I'm wondering if a bath mat will stick to the textured surface of the Edenton when I shower or will the texture prevent it from adhering to the bottom of the tub? Any insights, anyone?. You mentioned somewhere that if you had to do over, you'd choose the Hydrosystems Lacey. Can't seem to find one of those on display. Is the bottom of the Lacey textured like the Edenton or is it a smooth bottom? Where in Philly did you see the Lacey and other tubs you were considering? Thanks so much! Guess I should post 2nd part of this in Bathroom forum- maybe tomorrow.

Thanks everyone again! I truly am grateful for so many things this year. cheril 27 The knobs and pulls are Top Knobs vmilmeis I'm sorry but I'm not familiar with Swiss Coffee. The trim was originally stained and I primed and painted it. A new coat of paint was put on to match the new cabinets. I bought a can of Linen White and painted a piece of cardboard about the size of a cabinet. I lived with it and looked at the color in various lights. Worth the can of paint. My kitchen is very bright so the Linen White is a good choice for my space. loves2cook4six My pantry area was behind the closet on the right. The closet on the left held extra pantry items, the vacuum, extra table leaves, platters etc. neesie I second guessed so many decisions during the process EXCEPT the company we chose. They were truly professional and on schedule. My husband and I started the whole process in February - researching cabinetry, meeting with different stores/builders in our area. We first met with the custom cabinet company in June- signed the contract in mid July. Installation began in early October - finished second week in November. I'm sorry if the six weeks start to finish was misleading. Installation was six weeks and problem free. debbiesull Grohe K4 faucet; Elkay ELU281610 undermount no reveal stainless sink

Here's a simple empty floorplan that I did a while ago (I should double some of these measurements). A few notes about it -- porch is on the far left (east) side of the house. The top half (north) is the uninsulated portion that we'd try to "square up" that we currently have some storage shelves in and a bunch of shoes :) The bottom half of the porch (south) with the window is where the current 3/4 bath is. When the previous owners "finished" the bathroom, they put all the plumbing on the exterior east wall, with the shower, sink, and toilet all in a row on the east wall, top to bottom so to speak. The kitchen is the large room right off the porch. There are stairs directly to the west of the kitchen that can't be moved. So basically, we are constrained to the west of the kitchen by the stairs, and to the north is our driveway which we also can't move. We can tear out some of the south wall of the kitchen to open to the dining room, but we would not be willing to steal space for any kitchen components, just open up. We need at least a 1/2 bath somewhere in there, and no, we're not willing to put it in the foyer (it's been asked many times already). So realistically, the only option for improving the layout and growing the kitchen a bit is annexing some of the porch and slightly expanding the porch. Below, I'm going to post a draft of a layout inspired by a fellow Houzz user that made these suggestions. A few things aren't precise, but it's an idea (there's a bit of extra space added on to the east that could be skipped if we want). I'd definitely be interested in other ideas though, and may post again on the kitchen boards.