Lou, I'm glad to hear from you. I have enjoyed many of your GardenWeb posts over the years. There does seem to be considerable variation in the M.C.s. The ones we bought from Madrone Nursery and at a plant sale at the Heard Natural Science Museum several years ago have a more weeping, bush-like habitus, not like the ones I got from Creech and the one on Wilson Street. They all seem, once established, amazingly tough. The pinetum in Angelina Co. TX. had some along the edge of a pond and, initially unknown to us, a beaver moved in and selectively mowed the M.C.s to 4 to 8 inch stumps, but they all recovered. I must beg tolerance for our website We haven't updated anything but the database of the Angelina Unit for about 10 years. This will part of our work next winter. If you are ever back in E. TX., we would enjoy your visit. Please call ahead because now we seem to be spending more time in MO. (where we have recently enlarged).rl

Boy do I feel you on cookie-cutter style homes. My husband and I just purchased a cookie-cutter 3 years ago, something I swore I'd never do. I grew up in the nyc, and one of the things I've always hated are neighbors. When I say hate, I mean hate the with fury of a thousand demons. I don't want to look at them, I don't want to hear them, I don't want to see their dogs and kids running around anywhere I could see them. Yes, I'm probably the one with the problem, but it doesn't change the fact of how I feel. When we moved out of NJ where we temporarily lived after we got married...I will refrain from making Jersey jokes.. we knew we wanted to live in a small wood or stone house in the country, something with age and originality, but land and seclusion was more important to us than anything else. There were so many homes we saw within our price range that were exactly what I've always dreamed of, but they always seemed to have neighbors right there, right where you could see them! or hear them, with views of their pools, views of their back yards and decks. I'm sorry, but no. After 5 years of renting and searching we finally came upon this house on a beautiful 8 acre lot abutting a forest, totally secluded, in a quaint little sleepy town in CT with a covered bridge. At that point we realized, it's either land or house, and again, land was much more important to us. You can have the most beautiful quaint little house, but you move next to the wrong people, and that cute little house can become your worst nightmare. Till this day I don't understand how people are able to live so close to one another and not kill each other. We took the leap, were very excited about it, and about a month into this cookie-cutter we realized what a mistake we'd made. We had the worst case of buyers remorse that lasted about a year. But we started fixing up the place, getting new furniture, replacing fixtures, painting the walls some nice neutral colors, bought new modern furniture for the deck, and lo and behold, we're actually falling in love with this place. We were lucky in a few aspects about this house that didn't render it totally hopeless, and one of the things is that the previous owners didn't chintz out on the windows or sliding doors. All Anderson double hung wood windows. Not those horrible white plastic windows, not sure what you call them, and the porch deck is all cedar..that was a start. The roof color is horrendous, but it can be changed, and the siding is vinyl, disgusting soul.killing.vinyl.. but you know what? if I hate it that much, that can be changed too. The thing that you can't change is beautiful natural landscape. I guess you could if you bulldozed it, but I love the feeling of waking up in the morning to the sound of birds, or going to bed at night to the sound of owls or coyotes. Sitting on our deck and not hearing anything or anyone but nature. We've now become quite attached to this house. Tuesday if all goes well we have new granite being installed, and a nice sink, with an old school industrial yet modern looking faucet. I'm playing up the "farmhouse" look now. Yeah, I bought a couple things from pottery barn, and RH, but I also haunt the many of the local antique shops, and mix it up quite nicely ( you should see the amazing hutch I got for only at half price!). I too hate that catalog look. I don't want everything to be so perfect and just so. I want our house to have an approachable warmth to it. When people come visit us, I want them to feel they're visiting a home, and not entering a staged model sub-division house. Sure it was cookie-cutter when we bought it, but it doesn't have to be cookie cutter while we live in it.

LOL, ZAMSX is right. That goes for everybody living in the house. It is a pain to live staged. I used to spray the closets with Fabreeze "Linen & Sky", pour Pine Sol down the bathroom drains, and mop all the way out the door for every showing. Yup, certifiable. LMAO today. When we were selling a staged house my DH kept asking: When am I going to have my stuff back?!!! I'd say: Soon Dear. As soon as we sell. Soon. LOL Silicon Valley. Wow. I'm in NE. Two different worlds. How's your market? MB- Euro shams would be nice, and 2 regular, with the purple one popping the finished look. -Do you have a couple of white or light slipcovered Parson's chairs for the FP area? Borrow them. Any small chair slipcovered for warmth(Target has slipcovers) will work. Kitchen- Stand the 3 paintings (12x14 or so)leaning against the backsplash wall, vertically , but not completely straight. If you have lights shining on them from lights under the cabs would be nice. The reason I mentioned BM Silkien Pine in the kitchen is because its considered a neutral green. Some buyers are sensitive to green, some are sensitive to blue. You can't win. A couple of light rooms with pale grey/blue, or pale grey/green are fine. The rest should be in the off-white/ cream/beige family. You shouldn't have a problem finding paint to go with Ivoire. Any BM Neutral Whites will work. BTW- I read where you're considering making one of your sons' bedrooms into an office. Don't do it. Leave it as a bedroom. One den downstairs is enough.

yiannab, I think it's really hard for anyone to give you some color ideas without seeing the room. Any chance you have a photo. The two colors you are looking at are very different. Shenandoah Taupe has quite a lot of purple undertones and Down Home is a very chocolately color. I think I remember someone having Down Home in their Powder Room or something. Check the Gallery on the tan/brown thread. Let us know if you have a picture and we'll try to help Lindy