sierraeast, our contractor and his crew did some great work for two people that we know. He outbid two of the biggest local builders in terms of price and service by a large margin to win us over. A real sweet guy with a good eye for design, he somehow is very uncomfortable and shy talking about money. Also, when it comes to construction, it is like we speak two different languages. So I got confused often by his budget. This board is helping me a lot. Re the wrong french door and windows story, yeah, the width was not enough so our view now is broken up into three pieces with 6'' gap in between. But that was my fault. I approved the order without reading it carefully. Fortunately, wifey is pretty cool about it. She said just "suck it up and live with them for now. It doesn't have to be perfect." Yeah, we are diving in head first this time. That is because wifey is pregnant again and we want to be able to "move in" before... oops, here I said the 6-letter word.

drystonemason - thanks for the offer! I wish you lived in Colorado. My husband and I have a 70's wall o' brick. Really, the entire back wall of our den is covered in blond brick and the sides have custom built (70's style) cabinetry over the brick. We are planning to rip the cabinets out but our question is, what is the best way to reface this much brick? We plan to put travertine tile below the mantel to break up the look but on the rest of the wall, from what we have read, we have a few options. 1) Use a lime based plaster (not drywall compound) to fill in grout lines and eventually build up and smooth out to a rough, toweled on surface 2) Use mortar and stucco to achieve the same look. 3) Using drywall we can either frame out the whole wall and start over or use liquid nails (a lot of it) to put sheetrock on the areas that are not tiled. Hoping you might have some suggestions on what the easiest route would be considering it IS a whole wall. I will see if I can get a picture to insert which might be helpful.

I mean does a home in Southern Florida really need a fireplace? It would look completely out of place to me. Would definitely take it out and replace with a wall. Ha. My parents built their first house in S Fl in the early 50s and the one thing my mom wanted was a fireplace. The builder talked her into doing one of those weird shallow faux fireplaces instead, and that was her only huge regret about the house. She was always sorry she didn't insist on a real one. That house was on the market recently and I went to take a look at it for old times sake, and I was amused to see that a later owner put a real fireplace there when they enclosed the carport into a garage. I'm in S FL and I'd love a fireplace, even if I only used it a couple of times a year.

That's quite a hike from the sink to the cook top. Also it appears with the current layout that the cooktop is outside the kitchen. I would think through as you are cooking in your current home what steps you go through and how that would work in this design. Most prep work is done near the sink and then taken to the stove. How far are you willing to carry that? Also you often start with taking things out of the fridge and pantry and take it to the sink for prepping. How far are you willing to walk back and forth to get everything you need? If step count and getting exercise is your goal then this might work for you, but I think for everyday use you will find it inefficient. It looks good though.