I don't understand the "standard cords are not meant to be flexible" part. All electrical cords that I own are flexible (not rigid) My hairdyer is connected to the outlet behind a drawer in my vanity. It's no different than if it (hairdryer) was sitting on top of my vanity and plugged into the wall just above the vanity. It's used the same way, it's just placed lower and out of sight. The bulk of the cord is IN the drawer that my hairdyer is in. Monica

cfmuehling - Thanks for the nice words. I too am rebuilding after a fire - but only the kitchen was damaged. Sounds like you are rebuilding much more? I am so sorry! Anyway I didn't even need to pull permits for my fire damage, but took the opportunity to do some major work to the kitchen layout. The house is otherwise livable, so it's not as if I need a CO from the City. I will not be fined, but if the inspector doesn't give the green light he simply makes a note of it in the city's record. My contractor says that given the size of the sink and my safety reasoning, he thinks that there is a possibility that the inspector will say OK and I will pass the inspection. I am very sensitive to safety issues after having the fire. The fact is, the kitchen is upscale and attractive, the house's location is an A+ in my city, so the placement of an outlet so close to the sink, while may be the "code," is irrationally unsafe and shouldn't affect resale. I don't have a problem with a prospective buyer knowing this when I resell the house. Heck, if they need an outlet placed into the soapstone counter inches from the sink, in order to get a mortgage, or for personal reasons, I'll be happy to pay for it at that time. :) Dimmers are great, I agree!

Ha! I’m married to an electrician, too, and hear you loud and clear! :D What would work for me .... just plug ugly cords in, let them look terrible and in the way. Right out in the open. My husband would finally become so appalled by it, he’d add outlets. This scenario played out at our last house — I wanted patio lights, so got some up. The mister saw the extension cords for them and couldn’t stand it. Added outlets in the eaves the very next weekend. Another trick: I’ll need something done, he drags his feet, I say, “I wonder if I called [another electrician/company] what they’d charge me for this?” He laughs and gets on it. :D Love your decor, gorgeous set-up. (Disclaimer: Hopefully anyone else reading this understands it’s mostly tongue-in-cheek. Electrician wife humor.)

Brad covered this well. I had a single duplex outlet installed above all of my fireplaces, as well as 1x coax and 1x cat6 in the another duplex box. True I don't want a TV in every single room over every fireplace, but I wanted the option to. A picture or a mirror over the fireplace covers these. Something Brad posted (and most people miss) is the studs which a TV mount bolts in to. Most TV mounts are 16" wide, but you want the mount centered. If you have a telescoping arm on the mount, they almost never sit centered and are offset. This is why what Brad did is great, as it lets you put the mount wherever it needs to go without modifying anything. True they make very good toggle bolts that just grip the sheetrock, buy why not use wood studs if you can? Also, take good photos of every single one so you know what you working with once everything is done I also ran extra conduit (smurf tube, flexible pvc, etc) from each of these to my unfinished basement. IMO all of my "over the fireplace TV's" will never have any boxes connected to them, but ya never know. You can also transfer HDMI signal over cat6 if you really need to (say for security cameras, not a 4k movie...) so some people run 2x cat6 cables everywhere just to future proof. I didn't Plan an "IT rack" space somewhere in your house. Most use an unfinished basement room, the cabinets can be locked etc so that part is up to you. Yes everything is wifi today, but hardwired is always better and more reliable. Depending on the size of your house, most will do a WAP (wireless access point) system instead of a single bulky wifi router that sits on your basement IT rack or another bad spot. Planning a WAP puts your wifi router in the best possible location in your house, or you could do 2 or 3 WAPs to make sure there's no dead zones etc. Anyway, these need cat6 ran (from your rack) to their location (and sometimes 110v outlet so plan hardware now). Same with security cameras. If you want them or to wire for them, that all needs to feed to your IT box Put your IT box on its own circuit. It might not pull a ton of power on it's own, but you don't want a vacuum cleaner tripping a breaker on accident and killing your data signal for the entire house.