Hello nanner, I thought I'd post a bit about what's been going on around here the last few years. I wish I could say the stone house is done, but it isn't. (I feel very silly about the fact it's not done. We had every good intention of finishing it and we have laid more stonework every year, but other stuff keeps getting in the way, namely, life!) We got involved with finishing and remodeling the quarry garden and a whole bunch of other stuff, like moving the little 'barn' again (for the 4th and final time--at least, that's what we told our son, who wasn't amused!) Last fall, our furnace gave out, so we installed geothermal which meant we had to tear up the entire west side of our yard (about a half acre) and saw down trees, dig up hundreds of hostas and perennials and relocate as many as possible. The bright side of this was the opportunity to change the entire landscape of the front of the house, AND to get more rocks! Our 'digger guy' "C" is still around, too, and he was instrumental in the geothermal excavation and in loading another 130 tons from the local quarry for us. We had "C" make a berm close to the house and that's where we started the new rock garden. We're not sure if it fits in the landscaping or not, and we jokingly refer to it as 'the elephant burial mound' which is kind of self-explanatory. :-) The first pic shows one of the four trenches: Below is a picture of Carl & I after two of the six loads of rocks were delivered. By December 2009, this was as far as we got on the Elephant Burial Mound: I have to take more updated pictures of this garden, especially after the dwarf conifers and flowers are planted. I started a blog about the garden with lots of pictures and all the other goofy stuff that goes on around here which goes into much more detail, if you're interested, the address is: http://krensgarden-karen.blogspot.com/

[swoon] How emotional was I just to read igloochic's name? Bless you Sweet Woman for your words. Even though I don't even know your real name I have thought of you so freaking often on this journey. We were at Johns Hopkins and you know I thought of you there! And no, no one there thought to do this kind of testing and knew about Penelope. GW hasn't let me log on for the past few days, and I've tried on a few dif't computers. But tonight = paydirt! The floor is down and will be grouted Thursday a.m. -- no pics on this computer. I like it a lot! I really miss being able to do laundry, though. I was planning on smoothcoating the walls / ceiling in there (as I did in our powder room) but on a whim called the plaster men who did the rest of our house. It'll cost less than $400 to do the laundry room so I nearly knocked them down, afraid they might leave. "DO IT!" I practically screamed at them. After the powder room project it cost me at least that much in hand therapy due to the radial tunnel that project induced, plus, and this is not a joke, I also developed arthritis in my Middle Finger. I mean, how perfect is that?!? Of course I love showing everyone my arthritic middle finger .... I am one classy lady! flyleft -- I was so happy to see your name! I know you are our mosaicist / tile expert, so thank you so much for taking a peek! So the story is this: I was clueless as to what was happening in our son, wondering if maybe a brain tumor or could this be a transition to Autism? Not a tumor and all the "experts" agreed (along with my gut) that it wasn't Autism. A volunteer who works with my son (he does hippotherapy, therapy on horseback, 2x a week and requires three volunteers and one therapist to make this possible) talked to her neurologist about my son (bless her), and her MD said "sounds like Landau Kleffner." So she and I got busy researching LK and by golly, it sounded like a great fit! I became obsessed with it and luckily the lead neurologist with whom we were then working (at the Children's Hospital in Denver) agreed. He said the only way to definitively dx LK is with a specialized EEG, so that's what he did. Well I'll tell you: lightning struck twice. Once for this to happen to my son and then once again because the week before my son's procedure the lead neurologist was at a conference with the lead researcher from Bologna who "discovered" and named Penelope. Our MD came back, did the operation, studied the results and knew immediately "it's not LK but it absolutely is Penelope." I'm telling you it's a miracle. I have since contacted every single medical, therapeutic, educational professional who has ever crossed my son's path and not a single one, not a single one has ever heard of ESES Penelope. Not even the super-duper pediatric neurological / developmental specialists. That is incredibly telling, and not about Penelope but how much we really need to be advocates for our children / our family members / ourselves. I told my support group I'm tired of being the smartest person in the room, and by that I mean that I'm tired of steering this ship. But of course that's what we have to do, because lightning doesn't always strike, and no one has a more vested interest than we. So it's either take to my bed with a bar of chocolate and suck my thumb, or tackle home projects and sally forth. I'm still on the fence which I'll choose ... but since our bedroom / bath are now the only unrenovated rooms in the house it's not as salutary hanging out in there. But when I can afford to do them I am looking forward to a long nap and bout with depression! Ha ha on me. Oh! And about ordering the tiles: the way I did it was with Lundy at Villa Lagoon, requesting all patterns (no solids) and bright colors. I think it's now possible to order the designs you want from her, so you can be assured of the patterns you'll get. When we received our initial shipment I liked them but I noticed there was no black and not as bright as I'd hoped. Lundy agreed: these tiles had been picked and packed down in Cuba, she'd not had a hand in it, so it wasn't her fault. She then sent me a bunch more tiles with lots of black and bright colors, so it turned out really well. And I believe now she has tile in stock in Alabama, as opposed to having to come from Cuba. That would make it easier to choose the colors / patterns, plus the wait time will be greatly reduced.

Thanks for all the continued support and advice everyone. I'm getting the big clue that I need to a lot more thinking and research in this project. It now seem funny to me that I ever thought this would be a simple project. I have a feeling that you're going to be seeing a lot more of me around here :) For anyone who is considering buying the Kenyon's, I think you'll be very happy. They are beautiful, strong and solid. I love the weight of them, how they feel in my hand, and cleaning is as easy as wiping off a table top. I have one base cab with drawers -one for daily silverware, etc., and two big drawers (one I use for pots and pans and have a lid stand inside - the other I keep tuperware in). I love how roomy they are. The other is a cab with doors and 2 pull-outs (no stile) - they hold so much and nothing ever falls out! I have thought about (revenge fantasy! lol) printing out all the adjectives from this thread to read to the KD when I fire his hiney..."I'm sorry sir, but I won't be keeping you on this job because you are a bleepity, bleep, bleep, bleep...." Btw, he's not a kid. He's probably in his late 30's to mid-40's. He moved here from CA. And yes, he was very arrogant/impressed with his own design skills.

arcy, I can reposition the island. Funny you mentioned that because my mom hopped on the wagon to help me figure out what to do with the kitchen and she, too, suggested I reposition it. She also pointed out that the otherside of the island is much more attractive than the side that's exposed to the dining room. I will turn it next time I'm at the house and see what it's like. Thanks! Also, thanks for the wallpaper suggestion. I'll check out the collection at SW for ideas just in case. :) annkathryn, your cabinets are GORGEOUS! Thank you for the inspiration photos. They are gentle reminders of ways I can live with what I've got for now until I'm able to do what you did with transforming them. Great job! As promised, here are better photos of the kitchen: Here you can see the two green samples as well as a TINY bit of the Toasted Cashew I tried to sample peeking through Backsplash details (there is some splattering from cooking, that's not the tile) Close up of the tile in the kitchen (the grout will be cleaned when we move in so it'll lighten up a bit, the tile that will be installed in the dining room and living room will be similar in color to the lighter tile in the dividing strip shown here) Looking into the kitchen from the DR Someone requested a photo of the view from the back of the kitchen looking out to the DR -- pardon my lovely SIL, she was rinsing paint from her hands and the mini rollers, and my hand wasn't very steady here My mom suggested I take advantage of the side of the island shown in the above photo and turn it outward towards the DR. She also mentioned the idea of painting the island as some suggested here. I really like that idea! Hope this helps you all more than the previous photos did.