Stasi, Mine is still in a 3 gal nursery pot. It was too small to plant last year but I'm going to plant it this year. It's about 30" tall and wide. It is leggy and octopus-like, by no means graceful... quite an ugly bush in fact, but I love the flowers, so it's a keeper. :) I'm surprised to hear some of you say it has no scent because I found it very fragrant for the first morning of each bud's opening. The blooms seem to last about 4-6 days for me. The bush had more than one open bloom for about a two week period and as of today it's down to the last unopened bud. :'( As far as winter chill goes... I'm not sure what our chill factor in scientific lingo... but our first frost is usually late Oct. to early Nov. and last frost from mid Apr. to mid May... coldest temps can be down to -30º for a few days, -10º for a week or so, and can hover around 0º for months at a time. Our milder winters may never drop below 20º. I don't know if that's the info you need to calculate winter chill, but feel free to ask any info you may need to accurately calculate it. :) Disease resistance... disappointing... After all the talk about it not being disease resistant, I went to examine mine and discovered quite alot of early Anthracnose symptoms, so I sprayed it with Bayer for disease, and it is clean now. It's VERY early for me to be spraying for disease this year, but my two biggest indicator plants are 'L.D. Braithwaite' and 'The Prince'... and they went all lights and sirens about three weeks ago with BS, so I guess I'll be on a regular spray schedule this year. Last year I sprayed once in August and all was well. I feel it was worth the wait... but other than my Faith and family, gardening and roses are my life, so there are very few that don't find a way into my heart and a permanent home here. :) Rob:)

Thanks, Bellsmom! I wish I could do that myself. I have MBR pics, but they're espresso maple in a dark bathroom. They're also a neat combination of cabs. :) And everyone for the compliments! I'm really happy with how they're coming out. It might take me forever to paint or stain, but in the meanwhile everything's going in them instead of boxes piled against the wall. I actually find the skinny, 4-drawer drawers useless. That's why I originally ordered 3-drawer. My plan, someday, is to do what I did with the (extra) cabinets in my MBR. I took out two drawers and one set of drawer glides. I cut out the face frame and put in a single deep drawer. Like the big ones on the 3-drawer. Then, I attached the drawer fronts back onto the big drawer so it looks just like it started. Deeper drawer are much more functional than 2.5" deep drawers. Now I can put stuff actually in them. With 18" cabinets, the drawers can only be 15" deep. Need all the space I can!

Thanks to you all again! Sam, Jenny and I truly appreciate your thoughts. I am so gratified to hear that you like my projects and feel my home is 'warm'. I do love my little house, and am grateful that I enjoy sewing and projects like these, as you can make something that no one else will have, and do it just to your taste. mjsee, I stained the table first, so no exacto knife was used. I just used math and a ruler to create the diamonds, with a soft pencil, which was on top of the stain. So all I had to do was use the black paint to do the harlequins. I did them by hand with a small flat tipped brush and just tried to be careful. I LOVE old things, so as much as I tried for perfection, they aren't all exactly alike, but that works with an old piece of furniture. The faux marbling was quick and easy compared to those darn harlequins! Lisa, (bungalow) you have that right, although I am perusing Craigslist to see what I can come up with for cheap vintage furniture to play with. I may need to scope out the cellar again. :-)

Thank you, remodelfla, for the soapstone comments and pictures. I don't think that the imperfections and scratches would bother me too much, but we know we will probably have to sell our house in 7-8 years, so I need to keep resale in mind. I love the look of it so much, but I need to decide if we can keep it looking good enough over the long haul. I do wish there were an alternative that had a similar look and feel, but that was harder. Granite just doesn't have the same look, and when a black granite is honed, as some friends of mine have in their kitchen, it shows every little fingerprint and oil spot. I recently heard that Caesar Stone is introducing a lot of new colors that are supposed to look more like natural stones, but I have a hard time believing that there will be any that really look like soapstone or marble.