Should we turn garage into living space?

My in-laws mentioned remodeling our two car garage to turn it into actual living space.  We don't actually park our cars in there and it'd be nice to have the extra room.  I'm thinking either a master suite or a den, laundry room, and extra bathroom.  I'm looking at DuraMax Stronglasting Teton Vinyl Sheds 20221 as extra storage for the bikes, tools, and miscellaneous junk that garages accumulate.

When my in-laws come into town, I am going to ask them how much it'd cost to do something like this.  It might be something we can plan for in the future as a project.  My mother-in-law says we have to do it before my father-in-law is too old to do it (he's going to be 81 I believe). 

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Kitchen Islands and Character

Yesterday I saw a GORGEOUS kitchen. It had exposed brick on one wall and a huge island in the middle with this great copper/brown colored finish. I love islands and wish our kitchen was big enough to have one too. What a great country kitchen. I didn't notice the sink but I can imagine how copper sinks would look great in this kitchen!

We just redid our kitchen a year ago. I tried to figure out how to get an island installed but there was just not enough room. If I'd had a separate dining room, I could have but we have an eat-in kitchen so space is very limited. My next house will have a big kitchen!

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Basement Flooring

We live in a bi-level so half of our living space is halfway underground. I am stumped on what kind of flooring to lay downstairs. Being half underground, the cement floor is cold (and it can get damp down there). I know I definitely don't want carpeting, especially with our four dogs coming in and out of the house down there regularly. I am thinking either a ceramic tile or one piece laminate flooring that looks like a wood or ceramic tile floor. If I go ceramic, it will probably stay cold which won't be too comfortable in the winter (unless we make it heated underneath). If I go with a one piece, it'll mop up easily from the dogs (but be hard next to the cement like that).

I didn't think when we bought this place how hard it would be to modernize it. It's been expensive so far and we haven't even finished one level yet!

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Bar Faucets Are My Friend

We remodeled our kitchen earlier this year - new cabinets, sink, flooring. It needed it desperately. My husband didn't care about faucets so he wanted to find the cheapest one available. I, on the other hand, wanted something that looked nice with the rest of the kitchen and would function better than our last one. I wanted one in a brushed metal that came up high enough that my tall pots would easily slide underneath them to fill. Do you know what kind I am talking about? Look up bar faucets here and you'll get the idea (though I would imagine most women know what I'm talking about - the kind that you don't have to tip the pot all cockeyed to get it underneath to fill and then dump part of the water out when you tip it to get it back out from underneath the faucet again).

So, did I get my way? Of course I did. I have a brushed metal faucet that my tallest pot will fit under easily. Now I just have to work on getting that garbage disposal!

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Home Theater Lighting for Girls

My father-in-law is going to be remodeling my youngest two daughters' bedroom in the next month. The plan is to install new flooring, a new window, a new bed frame with bookshelf, wainscoting on one half of the wall (I hope), and paint to give the girls their girly room they want. So, I've been looking at lighting and I found this cute sconce that is actually home theater lighting. While I'd love to have a home theatre, we can't fit one into this house but this sconce with the stars would be perfect as a softer light at night for them. It is wall-mounted, can use a dimmer switch and is made in the U.S.A.

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