I just about never use our undercabinet lights. I used them all the time in our old kitchen (one single one-bulb light fixture in the center that created shadows) but in the 5+ years we've had them in our new kitchen, I very rarely turn them on. Probably it's because I do the majority of prep at a peninsula with a good fixture over it (no upper cabs.) We have recessed lights placed over most of the counter so that shadows aren't created. I prefer the more dispersed light from the ceiling rather than a lower light specifically lighting up the counter space. We have pendants over our sinks (and along a run of counter with no upper cabs) and in our vent hood. Since we have these lights in our major work areas, the uc lights are unnecessary. Most of the time we use the peninsula light + 3 recessed lights. Sink lights and range light get turned on when we work at them. We have 4 additional recessed lights that rarely get turned on but they are my extra lights of choice when needed. Think about how you'll use your kitchen. If you're going to do a lot of prep work in a space that has upper cabinets, you may want to consider putting a uc there. But there's no reason to go overboard. We put xenon lights under our 6 upper cabinets and when I turned one on about a year ago dh was surprised because he totally forgot we had them. I'm most likely to turn one on during the dusky early morning or early evening. We have easy to reach switches at the entry of our kitchen area so there is no need to leave any lights on in the kitchen when nobody is using it. When building our kitchen I couldn't imagine not having uc lights since I depended on them in the old one. But they turned out to be redundant with other great task lighting. I did find I needed better lighting as I got older. But even my mother in her 80's doesn't seem to need our uc lights (different story in her underlit kitchen.)

I think all those tiny drawers are simply a weird design of larger drawer dividers. My smallest drawer is in 12" drawer cabinets. Even those are worthless. I store 1) pot holders 2) large utensils such as ladles, BBQ junk. In the bottom I store plastic bags. In it's mirror image, I store shelf support things, then paper bags, then nothing (so far). I'd put in a full height thing for trays, or a step stool or something. That seems like a silly waste of space, though. Just me. I am tired of small drawers and skinny cabinets. I think 12" cabinets were invented just to fill in space, not for actual usage. Just my op-onion. C.

Why pay for insurance if you don't intend to use it? If you have never had a claim before, I doubt you would see an increased premium. People who have premium increases are typically people who are filing repeat claims every couple of years. Even if you do have a premium increase, it would be far less than what it will cost to repair this damage. I don't think you are capable of assessing hidden damage. If it were me I would have been on the phone with my insurance company about 5 minutes after this happened. The only problem I can think of is if you don't call the insurance company, end up with a mold problem, and then try to get the insurance company to pay for a remediation that wouldn't have been necessary if you had involved them from the start. This post was edited by kudzu9 on Sun, Jan 18, 15 at 17:55

Did the grout crack around the toilet? That will tell us a lot about what's going on. Tile put on concrete tile backer (hardibacker, etc) will generally withstand a good amount of water. The tile backer is dimensionally stable when it gets wet. Wood is not. If your grout has not cracked, my feeling is that the water hasn't gotten to the wood underneath (if it's not on a slab). If water gets to the wood, the wood will swell and will crack the tile grout. If you are seeing big cracks, the wood is definitely damaged. So if you aren't seeing hairline cracks in the grout, your builder is correct. Here's the thing... it can be hard to patch that in and have it not be noticeable. BTW: A picture goes a long way here. Use your phone and snap a pic of the tile grout.