Flseadog, you are so sweet. Thanks for the kind words. I have to tell you, renovating three baths at once, and a kitchen, without the help of a designer, was real tricky, but in the end truly satisfying. Reading this forum, and tons of design magazines, helped tremendously. On the bathrooms, I too had the problem of what to put with what. While I love Kohler, and tend to be brand loyal, I often didn't think their suites or ensembles worked well together, or didn't work for my needs, or whatever. So I ended up considering all brands and spent a lot of time looking, looking, looking, starting online. Just because their designers put some things together doesn't mean you have to.

The Memoirs tub is lovely; I just looked it up on the Kohler website. (I answered the question about the Tea for Two in the other posting.) I agree with you that the Memoirs toilet is very square looking. However, I chose to use that one in our kids' bathroom, the same one with the Tea for Two tub. Don't know if you can see that in the photos. I'll put another link here to all bathrooms. It fit that bathroom, because it is old-timey, but it might not work with yours. Don't be afraid to mix and match.

I had the most problems deciding on how to do our powder room. I finally realized that if you have to start with a clear vision of the look you are going for -- I decided I wanted the feel of one of those elegant ladies' lounges in the old turn of the century hotels you still see in some downtown areas, the kind you visit during a gala or a ball. You mention "jewel box.'' If you can keep that vision in your head, you will find things, as you are doing your search, that will help you to fill it out.

Sometimes it starts with one thing. When you see pictures you like in magazines, or show rooms, or in this forum, study them carefully, to see what details make that a pleasing design for you. Break it down. For me, with the powder room, it started with the floor. Once I found that beautiful basketweave marble tile, everything else fell into place.

Sounds like you know where you are going too, but I'm happy to answer any other questions. I tell you, I would be up in the middle of the night during our renovation, reading this forum, combing it for answers to the million and one questions I had. Everyone here is so helpful.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hmsweethm's kitchen and bath remodels

Thanks for the responses, hmsweethm. Maybe I can consider stepping into the Tea for Two part of the morning stretch routine. The decisions are rolling over us like a freight train right now. Our prior house was the victim of the 2005 hurricane season. One storm ripped the roof off. The second, two weeks later, dumped a foot of water into the interior. The insurance wrangles took a while to resolve, in fact, longer than it's taking to build the new house. I thought the bathrooms would be easy compared to the kitchen but that was before I really dug into the choices available.

Oh, well. My youngest went off to college the same year the hurricanes got the house---no empty nest syndrome possible when the nest is gone and you have to focus on building the new one. So every cloud does have a silver lining.

Thanks for the pep talk and the inspirational photos.

I'm so sorry for you, flseadog. You deserve a really nice house. I know how you feel about your youngest going off to college. Our oldest is going next fall, and our middle one just entered her bad teenage years, you know, where they don't want to have anything to do with you. Mothers suffer through this, but we keep loving and making our homes a nice place for our families. I'll be thinking of you. Let us know how things go.

We have been blessed. The storms took the house but no one was injured and we didn't lose anything of sentimental value---not a photo or even a stuffed animal. My baby jokes that the real blessing is that this has kept me from applying for the job of dorm parent at her school. She doesn't know how close she is to the truth. So we're fine and of all the troubles in the world to have, deciding on how to make the house everything we've dreamed is a trouble I know many would love to have. Thanks again---photos in six months---probably many questions in between.