getho wrote:
Another thing that I have come up against is when you've got the tonal balance right in an image, but then you decide you want to lift everything. Adjusting exposure can wreck the balance. Whats the best way to lift without having to go back and adjust everything?
Welcome to PV2012. It's somewhat of a rubik's cube - no way to not have to adjust other things if you want to adjust one thing and keep the rest same - they pretty much act like a team. Granted, that was true of Lr3 controls too, so it's just a matter of learning and getting used to PV2012. Of course such flexibility depends on not having any controls at full throttle, else you may have nowhere to go 
.
For example, brightness (lift) is usually:
+exposure -highlights +shadows (or just +exposure -highlights)
unless highlights is already at -100...
Note: in cases when greater than max -highlights is desired, one can use a gradient w/-highlights, but note: once global highlights is maxed, you get less kick from local values, so you may need to set local at -50 to -100, to get a substantial boost.
PS - Another thought about your room shot: the place where midtone contrast seems most lost is the upper right corner of monitor and desk areas - if this were my photo, I'd brush those areas with something like:
Exposure -.2
Contrast +50
Cheers,
Rob