The reviews on Amazon don't give me that warm fuzzy feeling. :) There's only 6 reviews and half of them are bad. That is, if you read the actual review. There are a couple of 4 stars that don't sound like they should be 4 stars if you read the comment. Now that it actually exists, I wonder how many people are willing to spend 30 bucks plus shipping for it. As a side note, this thread seems like one that lots of people feel the need to sign up for a Houzz account, make one comment on this thread pointing everyone at SwitchFlip and then not participating in any other discussions. Is it possible that these people have an ulterior motive in promoting this product? :)

“Do you have any exposed brick?” All of the brick is covered in plaster, but I would seriously consider exposing a brick wall. “Are your stair treads and risers wood?” No; carpet. But a future project will almost certainly be removing the dark laminate floors and replacing them with a lighter hardwood. When that happens, I suspect we’ll also remove the carpet from the stairs and install hardwood rises and treads. “Do you like the mood of your current dining room? It reads dark, without much ambient lighting.” Yes and no. I like the colors in the dining room – green paint, some original red-brown wood on the door and stair rail, white trim, and black cabinet (painted white inside). We have similar colors in the living room – the same green paint, white trim, reclaimed wood shelves supported by cast iron brackets, and a new (modern-ish) stained glass transom window over the door. There is a casual slipcover couch, that is white. The former fireplace, that is now a built-in bookcase, is also white. Red-brown piano. What we don’t like: the dining room is still a little dark, although new track lighting and brigher lights in center of the room have helped a lot. In some places the space in and between the rooms flows oddly. So I guess my overall inclination is to try to embrace some of the things that seem warm or quirky about the house - but open up the space, improve lighting, etc. “Have you decided what you are doing with the opening to the DR?” The plan right now is employ Rebunky’s idea. To cut away some of the left hand entry – the deep side – and infill the right wall only as deep and high as is necessary to cover the sides of the new cabinets. That keeps the space open for light to pass through, and it prevents any new visual barriers from hampering conversations between people in the kitchen and dining area. We have also tentatively decided on the skylight, and additional lights in the kitchen. There is a single overhead light in the kitchen now, so while the ceiling is out we’ll put in a series of new lights. “If you go with timeless neutrals you'll be able to decorate with color rather than rip out a backsplash when your taste changes.” This is very good point. And it sounds like everyone agrees that in trying to match the warmth and colors of the current house, we're getting too dark. I'm going to step back from the backsplash idea and try to think about what might keep the look a little more light or open. My original idea - gray and white - would certainly have been airier. We could, of course, still chose this. Then again, my husband likes the red-brown cabinets, and they do fit the setting. So maybe what I should think about is how to complement and balance the choice, rather than trying to layer on elements that dark or rich.

To each his/her own, edlincoln. For me, I have two stopping points. The first is my use of several OLD/discontinued peripherals that I use on several PCs. Drivers are no longer updated and sometimes drivers made for earlier versions of Win won't install on later instances. Available for Win10? I don't know or care, happy with things as is. The second stopping point is that I have an all-in-one Sony Vaio that I like a lot with a similar problem, Sony has exited the PC business and no longer makes or sells PCs. So, no updates for drivers. On this PC, I first got the standard "Update to Win 10" MS popup that every PC is showing, and then later a different popup said something like "Don't upgrade to Win10, there's no video driver available for what you have". There's no reason to struggle. I have Win 8 on 3 PCs, and I've added Classic Shell to all. It's fast and stable. I like it a lot. I won't hesitate when the time comes to buy new PCs with Win10 but what I have works fine as is, I see no advantage to upgrading.

Holy moly you guys!!! What an amazing cornucopia of talent we have here! Maybe that's why we're all renovating our kitchens; it's at least half artistic, as opposed to strictly functional. This is such a great thread because it's a way of recognising that each of us has unique talents, and that we should feel good about that! I notice people seem more at ease talking about their anti-talents and being quite self-deprecating about their talents. It's OK to say out loud that you're good at something! cpartist, I saw your drawings up further on the thread, but missed the fact that you drew them! I thought they were photographs of "real" things. WOW!! You are amazing! The flowers are my favourite. Do you sell your art? Where would I get more info on that? I'm asking 100% totally seriously, not just trying to be polite. Do you take special orders? Do/would you frame your art? mushcreek and cpartist, I'm with you on test taking. Between my ability to retain what I read and my skill at test-taking, I'm the perfect student, and that's good because I've been back to college since 2007, with 2 1/2 years to go to get my PhD (2 1/2 years under my belt from the late 70's). It doesn't mean I'm smarter than others; it just means my natural skills align with what universities use to assess knowledge. If I had to do a car repair or paint a portrait or program a computer, I'd be the dumbest person in the room. I'm glad people are starting to realise there are different kinds of intelligences! mushcreek , I'm also an ace speller and perfect at English grammar, and I know the APA 6 handbook like the back of my hand. But I'm hopeless when it comes to crossword puzzles, sudoku, any type of puzzle. I couldn't put together a 100 piece puzzle on my table if you had a gun to my head. I always score exceptionally poorly (under 30th percentile) in any kind of mechanical perception test, like where you see a set of pullies and wheels and you have to figure out where the chain ends, or where you see a piece of paper with dotted lines on it and you have to figure out how to fold it to make the origami object they show you. I'm terrible at visualising anything 3D, which is why it's weird that I can picture interior designs for a room with perfect clarity. But I can't draw anything, especially not floor plans, which is a big reason I decided against going to college for interior design. I would have to draw, draw floor plans by hand and on the computer. I would flunk out, even if I had the best rooms! Even on these forums, when posters put their floor plan here, it is extremely difficult for me to visualise it. If they post photos of the room, I can see it instantly and know exactly what should be done. :-) Funkycamper, I'm glad you keep reading this thread! It's funny how we see things in others as talents, but see things in ourselves as just natural things that anyone could do. Believe me, your gifts in recalling numbers, finding things geographically, test taking, spelling, and multitasking (which mushcreek also has) are TALENTS!! I know they just seem natural to you, but I guarantee people would give anything to acquire those talents. I recently read an article that said multitasking isn't really a thing, except in rare circumstances. People say, especially in job interviews, that they can multitask, but usually the human brain doesn't operate that way, and people actually end up taking longer when they try to accomplish several things at once, as opposed to doing them one at a time. The article said, and I've read this before, that when people are interrupted by the phone, or in person, that it takes 15 minutes to get focus back on what they were doing. SO... what you and mushcreek have described is a rare gift!!! The article mentioned that there are people, like you, who can truly multitask. So stand up and be counted as having an amazing talent!! :-) I'm not a great multitasker; I am easily distracted--shiny!--but I am great at doing things in my head. I almost always write my papers in my head before I write a single word on my computer, and most of my papers are 20-35 pages long. I've got some good sized chunks of my dissertation in my head right now. I can also do grocery lists, lists of errands, and stuff like that in my head. My DS has the same thing. Before he went to MIT, he got a Bachelor of Music in classical piano performance. I used to see him lying on the sofa with headphones on, eyes closed, and fingers wiggling in the air. If I asked him what he was doing, he'd say practicing piano. He'd have the entire work committed to memory before he ever set fingers to the ivory. Funkycamper, may I ask the origin of your screen name? Also, your geographic memory is awesome, and I'd give anything for that talent! I bought my house in October, and before that stayed there as a houseguest of the owners, one of my best friends and her husband, for the entire month of September. I'm not moving in until June, but have occasion to go out there fairly often. I cannot find my own house without GPS, and sometimes even with it! :-) Whenever someone uses the phrase "jack of all trades, but master of none," it reminds me of an old joke in academia. As you progress through college, you become more and more narrowly focused. Your doctoral dissertation will be on something very specific. So the joke is the more education you get, you know more and more about less and less, until finally you know everything about nothing. Haha! Jillius, I LOVE the idea of "one and a half attention spans!" Brilliant! That would make an excellent study. Keeping your hands busy with physical activity you can do mindlessly with muscle memory that enables you to focus on the lecture, sermon, your spouse's long story about their day, whatever...that's a great concept! I'm a note taker too. My ex and I used to go to a lot of baseball games. I LOVE baseball! But I would get so distracted by everything else that goes on in a stadium that I'd miss important stuff like home runs, lol. I finally found the thing that allowed me to concentrate on the game: filling in the score card you always get with the program. It was a steep learning curve for me to learn all the symbols of official scoring, but it kept me super focused on the game because I couldn't miss one pitch. :-) I also put a headphone jack in one ear and listened to the live radio broadcast! My ex thought I was nuts and my friends thought it was funny, but it worked for me! I've so very much enjoyed this conversation and I hope everyone will join in as we celebrate our talents and empathise with our anti-talents! This is fun!