Well, if you really want Brazilian Teak flooring and do not want to promote the conversion of the rain forest to pasture or unsustainable agriculture, then source it from someone who does sustainable forestry and not just land conversion harvesting. This is probably easier said than done (especially with products coming from developing nations), as there are many people in the process between the tree and the retail flooring product and some will say/promise things that are hard to verify. Even some of the third party certification systems have found errors in their own verification in developing countries and have had to make changes to ensure integrity. A/C systems, by their very nature, remove huge amount of moisture from the air and lower the relative humidity in a home in the summer to acceptable levels (45%-60%). This is necessary for solid wood flooring that has been dried to 6%-10% moisture content in order to prevent it from expanding excessively in the summer and then contracting again in the fall and winter with drier air. When you say "putting on a humidity control on our A/C system," are you referring to adding a humidifier for the winter on your heat pump? We have a newer heat pump with no humidifier, a finished basement with sump pump, and a moderately tight house and the winter RH is generally the same as in the summer (40%-60%). If you have natural gas forced air heat, it tends to dry the air out more because of the higher temps at the registers and so a humidifier might be needed if your RH gets too low (20%-30%) in the winter time. Again, this also depends on how tight/new the house is. Newer construction tends to be tighter and hold more water inside the home than older draftier houses. The crawl space and related water drainage issues are very site specific.

Thank you so much for the advice. I am going to investigate shaker moulding and also a simple single curve crown moulding. I think the curved feet will stay in, but our cabinetmaker really likes the straight look. Buehl, great question on the DW - yes, it is to the left of the sink and the trash is to the right. Our architect originally planned the DW to the right and we had a little negotiation over moving it... because I wanted it to be closer to the upper wall cabinets where the dishes will be kept. Still haven't found just the right pendant light that will hang over the island. Architect says it needs to be pretty special and make an impact, but I wasn't sure about some of his recommendations. Any thoughts? I really like the Visual Comfort lighting choices, but have had some difficulty adjusting height of the rods in the past. Perhaps I'll post something on the lighting forum.

After reading on GW for a year or more before my install began, I knew things would happen. That was the best thing - just not freaking out over every little thing! In the end, it has to be right. Correct look, sound construction, etc. And of course you need to be around or available for questions. But the minute to minute stuff will drive you batty. Don't watch too long! Make sure everything is on site (cabinets, doors, hardware, inserts, moldings, etc). Have all specs (at least) and appliances (if possible) available. Make sure your installers know where the water shut off and panel box are located, they may want to verify certain circuits are off. Show them where the restroom is. Make sure they have your contact info. Definitely check everything over each day. Make notes if need about problems. The boxes are harder to deal with after, ask right away if they don't look right. Cosmetic stuff on doors, alignment, etc will be touched up and fixed at the end. Don't let that upset you too much during the process. If something seems off, ask. Once my kitchen was all installed and detailed, we had a walk through. Use a microfibercloth to remove any dust and hand prints. I had an elevation of each wall that I marked up with anything I was concerned about. I had told them all along I wouldn't be too worried until they were finished and had corrected things to their standard. We had already discussed a finish issue on several doors, which was an obvious factory issue. I had the company owner go through and point out what he was replacing first, I knew he was not happy with some items. He was already taking care of most of my concerns. The remaining things we went through one by one, and he indicated what could be touched up, what would be taken care of with the conditioner they applied after the new doors were on, what was a pencil mark that would come off with an eraser (but not a dry microfiber cloth), and what was a problem. Only one additional item needed a replacement. This was only a few weeks ago. But honestly, the areas I wasn't convinced about the touch up are fine. I couldn't even point them out without my diagram now, they really do blend, probably because they were minor to start with. And I already used my touch up kit to fix a large scratch from the hood install. It doesn't get direct light so it doesn't show much. I had to point it out to DH, and unless you are right in front of the range you can't tell it's there! My replacement doors came in last week and will be installed Wednesday. I expected some replacements and a few weeks of waiting, so it didn't bother me. I know from GW that's pretty common so I just planned on it. I hope things go well for you, it's a very exciting phase! It will look like a kitchen again!

Yes, you guys are very informative and I appreciate your input. I did not think about any of this stuff prior to purchase because I didn't know. Apparently there is a lot to bathroom design when remodeling and I made a lot of mistakes (which is duly noted if you're able to look up my prior posts). One thing to say is this isn't a million dollar home. It's a three bedroom ranch and the bathroom is quite small. So I tried to do this remodel on the cheap but have run into many issues because of that. It’s a cheap and cheesy undesigned approach that isn’t worthy of a well designed bathroom. It’s also usually the wrong size for a window stool, and has that dysfunctional bevel that needs cutting off to begin to fit. And other manhandling. Doing some measuring I can see now that butting it up to the window has the sill sticking out from the wall too far, so the back will need to be cut to reduce the ledge distance. Not sure how far is ideal but I reckon I can go by the other window sills in my house for an approximate size. The good thing is cutting it down will eliminate the bevel in the back. It’s a D level choice. An A level bath needs to be better. A well designed bathroom will have continuity between materials, and will use the right ones for the right job. And if that window is in the shower, there are much bigger issues. I wish I had known all of this before hand. The window is adjacent to the shower but not actually in the shower. You can actually see the edge of the shower in the last picture I posted which shows the proximity to the window.