sieblonde, it's all lovely! I can't see as how YOU need ideas . . . but you asked, so; It might be nice the wall you're going to put in on the righthand side be a bit taller, for contrast, and to give a choice of two different seating heights. It looks like you intend to curve it, that will give some nice variation too. I am working with brick out back and stone out front... but nothing fit to LOOK at right now. GH-

Staceyneil, here's a pretty good link on the topic. http://www.forteelectric.com/Howtolayoutcans.html There are a lot of factors to consider beyond the lights themselves in making a good lighting plan. For example, how much natural light will you have and from what direction? The colors of your cabinets and floors and, especially, the type of countertop (i.e., light/glossy to reflect light or dark/matte to absorb light?) all matter. Placing recessed cans can be hard, because you don't want them creating a glare on your cabinets, but you need them close enough to light your countertops without creating a shadow when you stand at the counter to work. Placing pendants can be tricky because you have to think both about the light cast (as in the pics above) and about the height--don't want pendants blocking your view or shining light right in your eyes. You also have to consider where the switches for all these different lights will go. In my kitchen, I have recessed cans, undercabinet lights, pendants over my island and sink, halogen lights in my hood, and two accent lights. I hardly ever use the undercab lighting, except for ambient lighting, because the others do the job well. The natural light from the window is enough for passing through to grab something from the fridge, but not enough to work, so the cans and/or pendants come on for that, depending where I'm working. Our cans are all about 4-5 feet apart, which seems right for our 8.5' ceilings. One accent light stays on all the time and serves both as ambient lighting during the day--it's in the nook in our otherwise dark pantry wall--and as a nightlight at night. We switch the cans on from either of two doorways. The pendants and undercabinet lights are both controlled from switches on the side of my island. I really like this set up, because I don't have to go all the way to the doorway to adjust the smaller lights for specific tasks. The only thing I didn't anticipate was the fact that a Great Dane tail can operate a light switch placed on the side of an island. Since we have four of those tails wagging at any given moment, I am sometimes surprised to find my lights turning on or off at odd moments. My fault for placing the dog's cookie jar too close to that light switch! Sorry for the loooooong hijack, Carolyn! :)

So Cal is only about 1500 miles from my area. I keep checking CL for a nice used sofa, and keep coming across wonderful values for wood case pieces, such as this server. I think it just reflects the state of the economy; people are downsizing their living arrangements, or selling whatever they can to raise money, or, they have no idea what the piece is actually worth.

Hey, Houzzers, From a basement remodeler who is sadder but wiser, my advice to those who live in wet climates and who are thinking of finishing their basements is: Get to know and understand your home’s water drainage system. I learned by trial and error two drainage issues (and I am sure there is more to learn. I am just a hapless homeowner who is just learning about all this the hard way) so check with your professional for your own drainage situation and needs. Before you even think about doing your basement remodel: 1) Check your gutters and downspouts to make sure they are all using the advantages of gravity and that they are not sagging and that they are connected to drain pipes and draining properly and away from the house. Much of your home’s roof drainage system is likely unseen and underground. Make sure the ‘daylight’ end of the drain piping (piping that is likely connected to your downspouts underground and which runs out in the yard and that drains by gravity) is in tact and clear of debris. I didn’t even realize we had such drains out in our yard and we paid dearly for our ignorance when the drain pipes were blocked by leaves and soil And by the yard guys collapsing them by running over them with their trucks. We had to have “The Underground Detective” come in and help us find our drain lines—a very helpful guy, btw. 2) Be sure your sump pump system is in order, including a back up pump or battery or generator for storm outages or other failures. Additionally, if you don’t have a sump pump consider if you might want/need one (for our house we need two—one on each end of the basement). Secondly, find your exit drain pipe for your “footer drains” and/or sump pump (if you have a sump pump). I don’t know much about sump pump drainage because we don’t have one yet (we are getting them installed after 20 years of living here) but I am sure they have an exit drain, either separate or connected to your “footer drain” set up. These footer drains (which if you, like me, may not realize you have) are situated eight or so feet just underneath your foundation. They have at least one exit drain for overflow water that typically works by gravity or a pump and goes out in to the yard or maybe to your sewer system. This footer drain pipe should be separate from your roof gutter system drain pipes which I wrote about above, so that in the case one exit pipe gets clogged the other is not affected. Depending on the quality of materials used in your footer drains they may have corroded or be on the verge of corroding if your house is older (ours was built in 1991) as ours did. 3). If you are on a septic system, as we are, be sure to get your tanks pumped out regularly if you have tanks. I am sure there are different kinds of septic systems—ours uses tanks. My neighbor has lived in her house for ten years and never had her tanks pumped (ignorance again) and had her basement ruined by a horrible back up. (At least we knew enough to get ours pumped.) As I said, we are learning the hard way about our home’s drainage system. After twenty years of living here and having not so much as one drop of water come in to our basement, in 2018 during a winter of heavy rain we totally remodeled our basement, and after eight months of work, on the day the contractors were leaving, our basement flooded! We sustained major damage. The cause was poor gutter drain connections and blocked up exit drains for the roof system and footer drains around the house. A very very expensive mistake made out of ignorance. (Sob). Please don’t be ignorant and pay such a price like we are paying—pls inspect your drain systems and understand how they work.