Thanks for these suggestions! One of my problems has been that there are simply so many roses that it's hard to narrow things down. Gemini seems a lot darker than my rose has ever gotten, so I don't think it's that one, but Moonstone seems possible. Sheer Bliss says it's a pink center with white outer while mine's the other way around... I think Moonstone's the closest so far, though I'm not completely convinced. And yeah, I've thought of trying to cut away the red one. The very first blooming I didn't realize it was there because of a sucker, I just couldn't figure out where there were two bushes... I'm new to rose-tending. And it was pretty. Knowing that now, I'm leery because of how incredibly thorny the cultivated one is and how intertwined they are. But I'm going to try. :)

Conn 123: the door is old, and it is one of my favorite things in my kitchen. The door is original to the house, which was built in 1894. It, like everything else in the house, had about 20 layers of paint on it. We sent all the kitchen doors and hardware out to be dipped and stripped, with the intent of painting them. But we decided to just put a clear poly on the dining room door to see how it would look, and we love how it turned out. It has some dents and scrapes, but with the finish, it looks good. Definitely not for everyone, becuase it is quite "rustic." I'm sure my mother is horrified because the door is kind of beat up, and she always wants everything to look perfect and new, but I like it, and the house is really old, so it fits. We had one other door that we planned to leave unpainted, that was actually in better shape, but a worker painted it. We've left it so far (we didn't make it crystal clear that we didn't want it painted, so we didn't make a huge stink about it). I would think that if your own doors are not in good enough shape to leave unpainted, you might try a salvage place. Not sure where you would find a new door that looked old.

Sidney, you did a fantastic job with your kitchen! We have a lot of similarities, the top of my hutch is like the top of your cabs over your range. My floors are on the red side, but do show up brown on the monitor. Right now I have braided rugs in front of the stove and sink which makes the floor look a lot better and not as busy. Here's what I have to keep on my countertops and I'll give the color of each item. Coffee pot - white Compost jar - Red Paper towel holder - Red....BUT...is there a better place to put it? We have the compost jar to the left of the sink for easy access. To the right of the sink I have a smallish cream wire basket wich holds Dawn, hand soap, lotion. I don't want to have to keep bending over getting those things out from under the sink. lol The do look good in their grouping. Graniteware Pitcher - Red. I use that thing several times a day. So that's five things that must stay. Oh, on the far right side of the counter is where I keep milkbones. I have a cabinet under the area for dog food, but I get tired of bending over a couple of times a day to pass out their treats. I keep putting them up, then I just leave the box on the counter. Lazy, I know. What is everyone else's must-haves for your countertops?

@Ralph95 - sorry, I am reading my emails backwards and am responding here that way too! Our backsplash is a standard "in house" subway from KG Tile in Timonium, MD. I was sort of against spending tons of $$ on a subway as I wanted a traditional look and knew I didn't have to break the bank to do it. I went with KG's version vs. Home Depot's / Lowes' as for me it was a slight bit brighter white that seemed to match my cabinets better and it was a bit glossier...which I thought would help bring some life to the white. They also carried end pieces (bullnosed on both sides and regular subway bull noses) vs the bull nose ones at HD/Lowes which reminded me of my bathroom upstairs (where we also did subways). (Hd & Lowes have thinner pieces vs the full sized subway tile with rounded edges that KG had and we needed a double bullnosed corner piece) The sink is an Artisan. It's what the soapstone fabricator sold and we just went with that. It's their largest double bowl - AR3521. We had a 20 gage sink before and although I never noticed a tinny sound to it, I can definitely tell the difference with this. The one negtive with this sink is that the "catcher" for food in the large bowl (we have a disposal in the small bowl) sits low so it's hard to get your fingers into the well to pick out food that may have slipped by the strainer. I don't know if this can be adjusted. You can order online, amazon, etc. www.artisanstyles.com The faucet is a Moen and it was purchased very quickly when my husband and I stopped at home depot one evening. A faucet was not that important to us and we knew we didn't want to drop tons of $$ on it which you can do on some...I will try to find the name of it....but we both like it alot, the soap dispenser works well with it and it doesn't get dirty or fingerprinty!! (a big bonus) The cabinet hardware is from Restoration Hardware. I went to the Columbia, MD store to see it all in person, and then ordered what they didn't have in stock on line in the store so that there was no shipping. We chose the Hanson knobs and the Gilmore pulls...both in the polished nickel. Our recessed lights are just cfl bulbs...they take a while to ligth up but we like them once they are on!! I'd love to see pics of your progress! Exciting times!!