In the midst of planning a system for a new cottage - will include moving some of myhome system (gradually) to new cottage. For a bit I will have just L/R/C speakers - anyone had issues or recommendations with 950 for this temporary setup? Don't see any "virtual" surround modes, but I assume just setting surrounds to "Off" will suffice.

I would just set the surrounds to "off" and leave it at that. For some sources (TV comes to mind), you might experiment with stereo vs. Pro Logic II to see which works better for you since it's only the front soundstage involved. Might even play with Stereo 5 (which would actually be Stereo 3 in this case) just to see what it does for you.