@ace_tx From what I've read a lot of people are suggesting what you said, so I'm thinking that would be a good idea.... can you just help me understand it a bit more? Would I run all four of those wires to where the tv would be in the room? or only 1 rg6 quad coax and 1 6pr cat5e/6 lines to where the tv and they other 2 would be at a different location in the room? (Then of course all those wires would run to the central location, right, and plug into what?, I'm not sure - guess I can figure that out later) Are there any other cables I should have behind my TV in the main viewing area (assuming my dvd player and stuff are in a separate cabinet)? THANKS!

"I'm of the opinion that you do not want to put foam insulation around the pipes as this would interfere with the warming effects from the interior space." This is correct. You want NO insulation between the pipe and the heated space below. You need to make sure that enough heat leaks to the pipe. Put all the insulation you want on top of the pipe. You also need to make sure that the area with the pipes is draft free. It does not take a very large opening to allow cold air to flow into the volume of space with the pipe and cause freezing. I would see if you can 'box in' the area on top of the pipe with 2 inch rigid foam, with expanding foam used to seal the rigid foam tightly at the edges. Some foil duct tape would ensure a tight enclosure.

if the hole the coax comes down is big enough, the easiest way to get the cable inteh box with teh existing coax requires a 2 pull method. remove the faceplate and attach the ehternet cable to the coax with tape. go inthe attic, pull the coax up until the ehternet is inthe attic. then untape them and pull several more feet of ethernet cable into the attic. tape the coax back to the ehternet cable and pull the cable back down so that the coax is back inthe box and untape it. you still have plenty of ehternet cable up inthe attic to continue pulling to your destination. if you have to drill a new hole inthe top plate, then remove the existing box and put an old work LOW VOLTAGE box in it's place. LV boxes have no back, so you can easily get the cable in it.

Akimbo, those 8" cabinets are awesome! I am currently looking into installing an IKEA tall cabinet into my hallway linen closet to make it look like a built-in. We did a custom wardrobe in our old house with IKEA cabinets that turned out great. I love that IKEA's cabinets are so easy to modify (even though they have done everything to discourage it). The 2nd and third photos are the Kitchen we were working on when I asked you about the upper cabinet depth/microwave issue. We ended up using a spacer behind the microwave.