HALT!!! I just found the answer to my question by searching the archives. I need "horrible, acidic, infertile soil" for my centipede to thrive ;-) I guess all I really need to do is find a good grub killer and find out when I need to apply it. Thanks!

Roses are good in that they take well to pruning most anytime. Cutting back old and very thick canes will lead to new younger growth. Next spring you may want to consider moving Willie to a spot where he can spread out without blocking any paths. Otherwise keeping him in bounds will be a repeat thing.

don't mix yellow beige's with pinkish beige's Those two kinds of beiges when placed together can create an odd, unnatural color harmony. In general, those two kinds of colors can benefit and look their best when used with other colors -- they don't make the easiest color partnership to work with. The yellow beige, pinky beige situation is not an impossible circumstance. I believe -- I know -- that there are color solutions for every color challenge. The yellow beige/pinky beige is one of the tougher challenges and sometimes just might be beyond the grasp of DIY colorists. white in a low light room will not make the room look brighter, just more dim. Not necessarily "more dim" because the quality of light will still be the quality of light. Dim is dim. If the room receives an amount of natural light that is best described as "dim", it's still going to be dim even if you paint the walls white. The quality of natural light didn't change. Only the wall color changed to white. Intuitively it would seem that white would be the antidote to cure dim. But that's not how it works because color and light are partners. White is comprised of many wavelengths of light and it needs a light source that is robust and full to look pretty . Dim light doesn't give white paint much in the way of wavelengths to reflect back into the space -- and that's what white does, reflect. The problem is this. The sunroom, which is really part of the house and we just call it that since it has 7 windows and gets alot of south and western light, is still casting a greenish cast to the Latte. It literally looks like a different color than what is in the living room. I will live with it but for the future could you tell me where I went wrong and what I should do for the future It's that color and light partnership thing again. One color isn't going to look the same in every room due to varying qualities of inherent light -- like you've discovered. Assuming that one color is going to work in every room probably isn't the best thing to assume. You still have to sample and evaluate each paint color in each room. Determining a color's undertone is just one small step. Rules about what kinds of undertones are suppose to go with -- or not go with -- other kinds of undertones do not deal with the reality of color in three-dimensional spaces. Remember how I said that once you establish a sense of undertone for a color, you still have to evaluate it carefully in the room, in the context that it will reside? We need to do that because we cannot look at colors in isolation, the appearance of any color is affected by what surrounds it. For the next time you have to make some color choices, I'd say don't get so wrapped around the rules and what everyone says is suppose to work or not work. Relax your expectations for paint colors; they don't have to be so tight and so high. Stay organized and trust your instincts and what you *see* and go with your gut more. Focus on your core paint color knowledge. You now understand undertones a whole lot better than you did before. You may have made a few mistakes in your opinion, but don't focus on the mistakes. Instead focus on what you learned. Use that experience to *see* color better next time. When the time comes to buy a new sofa, focus on how the fabric samples look in the room and do your best to make a decision. When the time comes to get a new stair runner, then deal with the stair runner. Don't look too far ahead. You can only effectively color for your now. Make the best color decisions that you can one at a time and any future color decisions will fall easier into place -- that's actually one way to interpret "building a color scheme".

There was a post a year or so ago about heating stone counters. The kitchen owner wondered if anyone had experience with this given how cold stone can be. At the time I thought heating a counter was a little crazy, but with reflection I can see the point of it. Stone will be cold on the elbows/forearms, so I guess it depends how often and how you intend to use the space. My peninsula is similar to the picture you pasted above, my quartzite counter is flush with the 15" walnut overhand for seating. I just did a comparison test with my forearms resting up against each section of the counter - the walnut is certainly fall more pleasant to rest up against. If you really love the look of all marble, I'm not sure this should stop you, but the stone really does get cold! And I like the look of stone and wood together. My last kitchen had the overhand section raised over the main island. The clean up sink was on the island as well. Just a note - water did regularly splash up against that raised wood "backsplash" to the sink - it is important to treat the wood properly here I guess. It is more of a problem if the wood has a stain on it.