How about this for starters: one bag of potting soil (any size you can carry), 2-3 windowboxes, and a few seeds which are for sale all over the place. Oh..and don't forget gloves and tools. Short, bushy, and trailing plants fit windowboxes and small pots well. And for taller plants, large pots. Instructions are usually right on the seed packs. If you still have cold weather and want to WS them to give them a head start, cover part of the boxes with plastic sheets so that rain and air can still get in. Make sure to put recycled lids of something like that under containers for good drainage. Balconies + trailing and climbing plants = gorgeous. Herbs and vegetables will adapt to balconies too. Even small fountains where you can grow cress or other water loving plants. Raid library and bookstores for books-books-books. You'll learn a little bit from each one, and years from now you'll be "the wise garden" sage. I have a book from a Washingtonian gardener who made her oasis on her balcony in the famous Watergate--she suggested putting a mirror in any dark, deep shade areas of a balcony, not in the sun, and it really adds a lot to the view. I grow mostly edibles on my back balcony. You can see a little of my backyard balcony railing in this: Here's another sunny balcony (not mine) for inspiration! Nice how the yellow flowers add a little depth to the trailing petunias/torenias.

Question 2 - Don't sweat that one. Just don't inhale mist if you spray the paint or inhale dust if you sand it later. Question 3 - Yes. Nonwashable paint won't fall off the wall if you wash it. The wall will get burnished where it's washed and shine a little, turning from flat to eggshell. There is a difference between "washable" and "scrubable". Question 1 - You can mix these but the color may not be halfway between the two. The further apart the colors are the more doubtful the outcome. My "general rule of off-whites" is 25% darker with 75% lighter gets you about halfway. I don't even try to mix darker colors. I hate to waste things but I'd rather waste the paint than the time it takes to do the job over as well as buying more paint anyway. If it were a rental that may be another story but in my house I want to know what goes on the walls in case I have to touch-up later. If you do mix make a sample and judge it after it dries.

Thanks for all the help! (I feel like such a newbie - I thought I checked off email notification of replies in my OP, but I guess I didn't, as I didn't get any, and then I couldn't find my own thread to see if there were any replies!) I'm adding some pics, so everyone can see what I'm talking about. [IMG]http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d161/syk731/kitchen/IMG_1982.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d161/syk731/kitchen/IMG_1986.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d161/syk731/kitchen/IMG_1985.jpg[/IMG] They've offered to replace the 24 inch panels with 30 inch panels and build the over the fridge cabinet out to 30 inches. However, I think this might also look strange because the cabinet that is next to it is only effectively 16 inches before the corner. I think it would possibly look weird to have the fridge panels and over the fridge cabinet be 30 inches in depth, and then have a 16 inch wide cabinet be 24 inches in depth, and then turn the corner. Do you think that would look weird? What I think would look aesthetically most pleasing is for them to do the 30 inch panels and build out the over the refrigerator cabinet. I think they should also move out the cabinet next to it to 30 inches, so these are flush. But this means that they'd need to replace the cabinet around the corner with a less wide one to accommodate that cabinet being moved out. This would also be the most labor for them. The head carpenter that I spoke to this morning said that he wasn't sure the owner of the contracting company would agree to pay for the additional cabinet, in addition to all the labor. (The owner is on vacation this week, but will be back on Monday). I don't know how much to push for this. Like other posters have said, the other options are to just remove the panels. As I think I said in my OP, I did not know that there were going to be panels. We had planned to not have panels, so I'm highly irritated by the fact that I paid for this, even though I didn't even know about it. I did tell the carpenter today that if we did just decide to remove the panels, I'd expect them to refund me for the panels, since I'm not willing to pay for something that I didn't agree to in the first place and that ends up not being used. But now that I'm looking at it, I don't know that this would look any better, again, because of the narrow cabinet next to it. (Just to be clear, the layout I saw was before ordering was obviously not to scale, as it didn't look bad to have the refrigerator sticking out beyond the cabinet. But I think IRL, this will look strange.) The other option, I guess, is to leave it as is. I'd probably ask for compensation if I chose this. The spec on my fridge do not specify whether the 31.25 inches includes the door/handle or just is the carcass. The fridge is being delivered tomorrow, so I guess I'll find out. Would that affect your decision? Thanks for the help!

K s- thanks I think that's what I'll do. Since u got credit, I might as well leave them be and see if they produce and maybe I'll get a couple free rose trees out of it. I never knew about the antique rose nursery, I'll have to check them out at some point. The nursery down my block and the Wells Medina both carry rose standards but since I have a credit I rather save my money and buy from JP again, although I'm a little nervous about the same thing happening.