Okay, while I still like the idea of PLEX giving me PC connection to my WiFi - thus to my TV via Roku, I tested my Notebook (Toshiba Windows 7) connections to my existing 24" LED HDTV. When connected between the VGA 15 pin (I think) connectors and picking "RGB" for my input channel on the HDTV my computer display came up very nicely. Of course I have to get audio separately, Then I tried the HDMI connection and found after some difficulty W7 and/or Toshiba will support only two displays - thus with the Notebook screen on and my VGA desk LED display on the HDTV shows a "no signal" for the HDMI. I didn't test to see if the setup would support HDMI and Desktop Displayl (Notebook top closed). I then, after some problems with some long winded W7 updates finally rebooted the Notebook and disconnected the VGA connection. The HDTV picture and Sound come up on the HDMI input - all worked great. Happily I had a 10' HDMI cable on hand - a spare one. This will work, but I need to replace the old living room SDTV or get PLEX working - better get both. I am now looking at at 28" Sansui that is sale priced. It has three HDMI inputs, great, one could go to the Roku, one for the hanging cable for connection to my Notebook W7, and Laptop W8, and still have a spare HDMI which could go to an updated Cable Set Top. And there is still a VGA, I'll likely not use. . My existing SDTV is a 27", and so the 28" LED HDTV has a longer diagonal (really 27.5") but due to the 16:9 aspect ration has a few less square inches of screen, which affects only signals with the older TV aspect ration, whatever that is. Interested in any view/questions.

We used Plain & Fancy cabinetry. We have a mudroom with built in cabinets and a bench adjacent to the kitchen, but we actually ended up with a desk in the kitchen. I needed to have the phone, laptop, and drop area there for convenience. It does get messy but it's better than the mail ending up on the counters. What helps our area is a window at the desk. We do have a built in file cabinet to the left, which is great for keeping track of kids papers, bills, etc. I am very happy with the desk. Honestly, though, I am the only one who sits there. When the kids want to do homework they end up at the island. But at least my island doesn't have mail on it! We have a cabinet beside our clean up sink with 4 recycle bins. I thought it was a silly idea pushed by the contractor, but I have gotten to really appreciate it. For some reason, my family had a difficult time carrying the recyclables out to the garage. But they have no problem pitching them in the special indoor bins. The kitchen table is in the foreground of this desk picture: This is a little further to the right showing how the desk ties into the kitchen. The shelving to the right of the desk holds cookbooks. You can also see a tiny bit of the mudroom/bench area to the left where the backpacks end up: And just to show how it ties into the rest of the kitchen with the island where the kids prefer to spread out their homework, this is just a little further to the right of the desk: Hope this helps. Good luck to you!

Well to keep the censors at bay, let me first say that I haven't made any interesting improvements to my small house. My septic tank drainfield stopped working and had to be replaced. Home maintainence zapped the home improvement budget so everything else is on hold for a while. Add my son's 16th bday on the 9th and Christmas closing in fast and there just isn't any cashflow left. In fact, it all left! My son and I did engage in a rather fun and interesting project two weekends ago but since it was more furniture related I didn't feel right airing it here, but since you asked..... I bought him a flat screen high def television for his birthday. My first. I had a 27 inch conventional tube TV sitting in a typical entertainment system/wall unit. That unit was quite large and included a concealed, swing out rack on the left to hold the CD's, DVD's, etc. and a rack system on the right for stereo equipment. Although the old wall unit was quite large, my new flat screen TV (37 inch) wouldn't fit the hole for the TV. I had looked around for a replacement stand to hold the cable box, my son's game system, etc. and put the flat screen TV at an appropriate height but couldn't find anything. We had unloaded the old wall unit and wheeled it out to the porch so we could load it into the truck and take it to the dump. We had talked about designing and building our own stand and since the old unit was very large and very heavy, we started dismantling it to salvage hardware and make it easier to handle. The more we dismantled, the more I started thinking I could cut this old unit down to size and redesign it. So we did. My old (1985 vintage) component stereo system had developed some problems so the stereo section was eliminated. I liked the concealed rack for the Games. Cd's, DVD's so we disassembled that, shortenened it, changed the location of the shelves and reassembled it. Then we shifted the stereo cabinet upright panels over to the "TV hole" and shortened them, creating a shelf for the cable box, game system and another shelf for the modem and wireless router since all that connects to my incoming cablevision. We shortened and refitted the top and voala! A redesigned cabinet/TV stand for zero dollars. The old unit was about 60 inches wide and 50 inches tall the new unit is about 40 inches wide and 34 inches tall. Perfect fit! And, my son and I had a great time thinking through the redesign and planning it out so most of the old hardware went back into the factory holes. It was a fantastic father/son project and one we won't soon forget. This will do until we find a better solution or until we design and build a replacement unit from scratch. Fun enough? Sorry that took so long to describe. Scott

We've always had a TV in the kitchen. Previous TV was over my double ovens. New kitchen has ovens below the counter so not an option. Our solution was to design a wall cabinet which houses the MW behind an Aventos lift-up door with the TV in the space above. Our cabinets are inset and the cabinet is big enough for a 32". Yes. the TV will be partially covered when we lift the door to use the MW, but we are not big MW users, so did not want to invest in a MW drawer. When this MW breaks, it is an easy swap with another inexpensive MW. Thought about putting retractable doors for the TV, but truth be told they would never be closed. It's similar to this photo, but designed as a wall cabinet. The space above has a removable panel 5" back from the face of the cabinet which will hide the the outlet and cable stuff.