Ouch! My head is spinning. As of this morning, DH & have a tentative plan, but it certainly is subject to change: - Use 6'8" doors and do faux transoms above the main passage type doors (into the master suite, guest suite, etc.) - Use 6'8" doors w/o transoms for doors that are skinny or we want to de-emphasize like the closets and a door to the garage on a short, angled hallway near the barrel arch to the dining room. We're up in the air as to whether the faux transoms should be glass or solid. A very kind GardenWebber sent me pictures of her 6'8" doors with glass transoms and 10' ceilings. They looked great. Then, gobruno reminded me to lookup what they are doing with solid transoms. I sent that link to DH & he now gets it. Oddly enough, even though he is older than I, he doesn't remember any houses with high ceilings and solid transoms. BTW - this is our door style. I'm not sure what they have in the picture, but ours will be shaker style with straight sticking: roseabbey - did you do glass or solid transoms & what did your decorative panels look like? tracey_b - our rope lighting will be hard-wired and on a dimmer. I'm pretty sure you can buy them at Lowes all year long that plug into an outlet. I'm trying to figure out where to put it in the master bath so that is all we need to turn on when we get up in the middle of the night. I did look at the linen closet door in my current master bath and then used a yardstick to see where 8' would be. I don't like the look so the broom closet will definitely be 6'8". If y'all have any other thoughts I would appreciate hearing them. Thanks - Jo Ann P.S. OK, the "Wall Words" ... here's the deal ... Somewhere in my kitchen will be the quote ascribed to Beethoven, "Only the pure in heart can make a good soup." I can paint it on the wall or make it into a placard or frame it as a poster or even glue it onto my fridge with alphabet magnets, but that is going to be in my kitchen. It goes right to my heart and how I feel about cooking for my family & friends.

You'll find that any method used, which mitigates the potential of damage to the dining room wall, will be expensive, may be the deciding factor and you'll be hard pressed to find a contractor who can legitimately say there will be no damage to the dining room side. This is the method that I have employed on several occasions, and keep in mind that these are full 2" x 4" stud walls. I used a 2x4 pocket door jamb amended to fit. The plaster and lath is carefully removed about 10" up from the floor. Metal brackets are attached to the studs at the bottom plate to add additional vibration damping, and the plaster and lathing removal is then completed. Metal brackets are added at the top plates. The nails are cut and the diagonal bracing is carefully removed. With the depth of cut set at 2-7/8" I use a beam saw to cut the studs for the top of the header height.(The wall may not be "load bering" but it's still weight loaded). Using a 4" grinder with a masonry blade, the plaster which has penetrated the lath is removed adjacent to the studs to allow clear passage of the table of a cordless skill saw to pass unobstructed. The DEWALT that I use is 1-1/8" table edge to blade. The studs affected are then ripped from the header cut to the bottom. The metal brackets are removed, individually, and using a sawzall blade with least kerf, the cut is completed. This DOES NOT affect the lath attachment on the opposing side. The nails attaching the bottom plate to the floor joists are removed and the bottom plate is attached in the 1-1/8" area that will remain. The bottom plate is cut and removed and depending upon the height of your existing door, filler is added or additional floor sheeting removed for the placement of the new jamb. If it's your decision to retain the aesthetics of a cased opening, the jamb will need to be amended to fit. The header and framing is set and the amended jamb is installed. With the jamb set, square and aligned, pre-drill the horizontal 1x slats in the jamb and attach to the dining room studs, further stabilizing them. A flat 2x4 is added to the side of the top plates on the kitchen side. A 2x4 is ripped to create a 5-1/2" wall thickness for the bottom plate and nailed in place. 2x6's are then ripped, installed and they are similarly attached to the jamb. The rock lath secured with screws and the gypsum plaster applied.

If you like swinging doors, but don't have the area for a full-sized door, consider this hack: http://www.2littlesuperheroes.com/2013/02/bifold-doors-turned-fancy-french-doors.html/ And convert a bifold (which screams "closet") into a double door (which screams "fancy"). All the perks of a full door, with half the swing. You can also add really easy to use locks on the doors still to make them functional, as well as full-size (dummy) handles for when you are older.

"I went to work in an office that had a pocket door that never worked right because someone had driven nails into it at some point and it was never the same after" (palimpsest) Yes. This happened to us when DH nailed the baseboard on the wall between the laundry and kitchen. The door came off track. When we renovate I will replace or remove. However, this was builder grade. On our extension I added three pocket doors. The one I had put in for the powder room is a solid core door, not thinner than most doors, as I wanted as much sound-dampening as possible with such a device. We used Johnson Hardware - not the home depot variety which runs $ 40 or so, but commercial grade. Look at the Johnson site under 1500 Commercial Grade and you will also find non-standard size frames (door max thickness 1 3/4"). Use a good carpenter.