I have been renovating since December through June... does that count? My kitchen had a horrible layout. Exterior door to deck (to right of the stove) breaking up counter space. Fridge against a load bearing wall that will come down. Sink and dishwasher will also move. Who wants to look in a mirror while at the sink? Also had flourescent lights in the kitchen. Ugh. Demo load bearing wall, replace with LVL beam. Note the location of the two double-hung windows. Patio door going in where those are. And on the other side, a double hung window to replace the old exerior door. The kitchen sink will be relocated under this window. Also exposed the wall where the plumbing lived, demo'd the soffits. Had to move part of the vent stack as they hid it in the soffits. Plumbing roughed in. Can't see it here but I had the entire ceiling re-hung, taped and mudded. It was old popcorn ceiling that needed to go. Also had ceiling and wall electric roughed in and then had the same guy hang, tape and mud these walls. Drywall is one of those things I will always sub out. After I painted the walls I was free to continue the hardwood floor install. Then the electrician came back and we turned on the recessed lights. And then yesterday the cabinets went up! Undercabinet lighting and in cabinet lighting (on those uppers where glass will be) still to come. Still deciding on the countertop. Any suggestions? Toe kick and matching crown molding have not been installed yet. Microwave going up this weekend. Have to change the swing on the fridge doors. Have to order and install island cabinets and then hang up sink and island pendant lights. And decide / install backsplash. Also need to extend the deck so that I don't fall to earth after going through the patio doors. This kitchen is on the 2nd floor. (What is CRAZY is how much my kitchen is starting to look like inkycrab's (above)). Inkycrab's kitchen: Identical layout and I have the same size island coming...

Count me in for the engineered wood plank floors too. I have Robbins Passeggiata 3 1/4" ash flooring, and I absolutely love it. I live in NH - arid winters and malarial summers, no AC and forced-hot-water heat so the moisture levels swing drastically). Others I knew with solid hardwood floors got gaps every winter and that just drives me NUTS because the cracks between the boards can collect dirt and expose unfinished wood where moisture can infiltrate and spoil the finish. People are very stubborn here about "solid wood has done us fine for 300 years, it'll be fine for another 300!" so I had to fight to get engineered instead of site-finished solid that is the standard here. Site finishing was not an option because we couldn't move out for installation! Besides, I do believe that the factory finishes are more durable than site-applied finishes, since they have the benefit of controlled conditions, kiln curing, etc. (We bought an extra bundle because we knew we'd have to patch the spot by the dog's bed since his nails grow at turbo speed and the floor's pretty gouged.) I adored the look of the extra wide planks, especially the distressed and handscraped types in 7"-plus widths, but they were just SO expensive! I paid $9/sf installed for my Robbins flooring while many of the wide-plank floors I looked at ran much more than that just for the materials for a good quality product. *choke* Bruce has some relatively-inexpensive 5-7" plank floors at around $6-7/sf uninstalled but I'm just not knocked out by their finish quality, the planks were either square-edge (sock-catchers if your floors are not perfectly flat) or had a deeper bevel than I liked, and their veneer layer is thinner than Robbins. Robbins warrants for three full refinishings! As of early 2005 they had the thickest veneer layer in the industry, a full third of the board's thickness. I like their extremely small microbevel as well because it doesn't catch dirt, it sweeps out fine and you don't catch your socks (or worse chip the floorboards where there's raised bits due to subfloor imperfection). I'm not one for strip floors, I find them too busy. Besides, I am an old-house nut, and old New England houses had wide-plank floors, not these stingy little strips! I visited one early-1800s house on the town's historical society house tour where the narrowest board on the floor was 12", many were 16" and even 20", all rock-hard pine. Had I had gobs of greenbacks and a house that could carry it, I'd have gone for wide planks in reclaimed wood. *swoon*

I just wanted to share some install photos. We just finished a kitchen of One Sweet Talker. I love how it looks and I love the wider and longer planks. The customer service was again top notch. However, I hate that I have to say this but I feel like I need to share because I wish I'd known. This is our second house with Supercore and we love the company. We just finished the install Thurs. Sunday we had guests over. One of them must have had a rock stuck in their shoe or something. There's now a huge area of scratching. Almost a foot long. It's so disappointing. And I know that maybe other brands would be similar, but it just seems so soon and just under normal wear. 😕 I'll attach pictures in another comment to show how well they show up on this color.

I would look at vinyl plank it is affordable and easy to DIY the install and yes you need simple and lots of extra for the whole house . Please remove the cabinet beside the FP and find another spot for the TV. That wall where you have the photo shelves would be a perfect spot for the TV at the right height , some storage and display , check out Besta from Ikea . Is this a play room a LR or what with all the weird mix of chairs. Maybe a bett pic of the whole space