From the list I have New Dawn and Iceberg. New Dawn has rather flexible canes, Iceberg is a bit stiffer. Iceberg also was doing good for me in half shade, but it is a bit picky about pruning, so you might want to place it where you won't get annoyed by renegade branch. New Dawn is easy to train along support, but it is vigorous (read grows fast in a year), reasonably thorny and has quite a few canes, so it might be not a very good choice where you walk a lot. I would place Eden in most important place, since it is really an eye catcher, it has that wow factor a lot. They have very old one here in local nursery garden and there it seems to be reasonably sized (read, not overgrowing everything). It is a slow started though, so you can expect it to do something in 3 years from now or so. With wisteria you can do a lot of things, I have seen them grown into a tree form, very neat and tidy climbing, but also if left unpruned for a couple of years, it is a atrocity of epic proportion. We actually replanted our 3 year old one last year, for it was getting in between the fence planks and destroying the fence. Also ours was growing about 4 feet a year. I saw some of them climbing the trees 5 stores high, just to give you an idea. I have 2 wisterias and I like them, mostly because they make good summer shade and drop the leaves in the winter, so rooms get more light, but you also have to keep in mind that it is a plant mostly blooming once in spring and just being a green blob for the rest of the time, with few scattered blooms. Spring flush however is a thing of beauty.

This always works for a celebration dinner. ROASTED SURF 'N' TURF 2 lobster tails 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. seafood seasoning 1 (3 lb.) whole beef tenderloin 1 Tbs. melted butter or margarine 1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice 6 slices bacon 1/4 cup finely chopped shallots 1/4 cup finely chopped green onions (scallions) 1 clove garlic, finely minced 1/2 lb. Mushrooms, thinly sliced 1/2 cup butter 1/2 cup dry white wine 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce (optional) or 1 tsp. chopped fresh or 1/4 tsp. dried tarragon (optional) Place lobster tails, salt and seafood seasoning in a medium saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from water and drain. Let cool until able to be handled. Carefully remove lobster tails from shells, keeping meat in one piece. Cut each piece of lobster meat in half lengthwise and set aside. Cut a horizontal pocket through the center of meat to within 1/2 inch of opposite side of tenderloin, slicing the entire length of tenderloin. Carefully stuff lobster pieces, end to end, inside tenderloin. Combine the 1 Tbs. melted butter and lemon juice; Drizzle on lobster. Fold over tenderloin to resemble original shape and tie with butcher's twine. Set aside. Cook bacon in a skillet until slightly crisp; drain, reserving drippings. Crumble bacon; set aside. Put beef in shallow pan and brush entire surface of meat with bacon drippings. Insert meat thermometer in center of roast so the point is right below the lobster, making sure it doesn't go all the way through and touch the pan. Bake at 400 degrees for approx. 25 minutes or until thermometer registers 130 degrees (rare). While roast is cooking, saute shallots, green onions, garlic and mushrooms in 1/2 cup butter. Add wine and Worcestershire sauce or tarragon (but not both). Simmer until roast is ready. To serve, remove twine and sprinkle top of meat with crumbled bacon. Serve sauce with sliced tenderloin. Note: The roast can be stuffed earlier in the day and refrigerated (uncooked). Add a few minutes more cooking time if made ahead. The sauce can also be made ahead and reheated.

Staying away from white tile in a mudroom bathroom is probably a good thing. Any moisture left on the floor is going to attact the slightest amount of dirt from the bottom of shoes, even if the shoes are dry. I think the shades you most recently thought about would be best for hiding dirt--not too light and not too dark. We have green slate on our mudroom floor and it continues into the powder room without a transition piece which I think helps both small spaces feel larger. I love, love the marble basketweave but do feel it would be a bit too formal off a mudroom if you want to go for a farmhouse feel. It would be better for an interior bathroom. What I would give to have that Tulikiva in my kitchen!!!!!

Thanks, I do love the natural color of the wood and the patina on that butcher block. I am afraid that I will have to chop it down to fit in the space I have, and lose that aged edge. :-( DH loves the pantry, too. I love the look of it closed, but I am not sure that it is a very efficient user of space. With all those shelves and wood and air space, you have less room to store food. Right now, we have a irritating pantry set-up that was here when we moved in. There is a 30" w by 40" deep pantry closet. It is above the stairwell to the basement, so the floor of the space is slanted. For that reason, we cannot make it a step-into space with shelves around the perimeter. Being 40" wide and 30" deep would have worked better, too, but that is just not how it is set up. So you can try to reach things in the back, but unless you are Yao Ming, the last foot to foot and a half of the space is unusable. I think my mandolin (slicer, not music-maker) is in there somewhere, but I have not seen it in several years. So yeah, the pantries will be nice. I am hoping that the 18" one is simple slide-out shelves. I will use my current pantry space as the new wall-oven space. Because of that slant coming out 39 inches from the wall, the wall ovens will have 15 inches of dead space behind them. In other kitchen configurations, I was able to use that wasted space. If I was looking at a kitchen with 42" tall wall cabs, I would use them as base cabs against the wall that abuts the back dead space. Maybe I would bring the wall cabs forward a few inches and have a 15 to 18 inch deep counter on top. I would put a counter top on top of the wall cab (42" height off the floor, and put a an appliance garage door in the wall into the dead space, then continue my counter top from the tall wall cabs used as base cabs into the dead space. I was going to hide counter- top appliances back there when not in use. Like that Mandolin, if I ever find it. You know what is so weird? I can use all the cabinets in that kitchen, leaving only two 30" wide wall cabs and one slanty 1 ft by 4 ft cabinet. I am considering using the two 30 inch cabs in my powder room, just outside the kitchen. Maybe use one for a vessel sink base and one as a wall cab in my tiny little half bath. Okay, now I need candidates for flooring. In my last kitchen, I used real linoleum click-together plank flooring from Europe. I am not being extravagant this time. I like cork, I like real lino (as opposed to vinyl, which we have been calling linoleum for the past 50 years.) Real linoleum is made of cork, linseed oil, and pigment and is baked in huge rooms as it is draped across drying racks. This gives it a curve that is hard to work with, and means that the installer must know the special techniques to get it right. That is why they do not sell sheet-lino to laypersons. You have to buy it on MDF planks for click-and-glue floors if you want to do it yourself. I have bad feet, bad joints and a very heavy body. Cork or linoleum would be good for that. My dogs are big, and the floor must stand up to their nails. One has a brain tumor and is on Prednisone, so pees a lot. He can be incontinent, so we want a waterproof floor in case of accidents. I cannot stand the look of cheap laminate, but may be open to good laminate or engineered hardwood. Bamboo is another possibility. The paint I bought for the adjoining family room is Lettuce from Lowes (Eddie Bauer, I think. I will use it on the lower half of the dining area walls, with Pale Crocus on the top half of the wall (pallette stolen directly from Idie2live's bedroom, though my colors are a bit different). We have lots of soffits in the dining area and kitchen, and I am considering several colors for them. I am also considering a bizzare treatment for the ceiling above the dining light fixture. And we just got a Van Gogh for the dining area wall. See below Here is a link that might be useful: The Caf� Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night, c.1888