I purchased Teragren Flooring in Auburn, Washington. Within hours my floor was covered with dents. Upon calling the company many months and phone calls later they agreed to a "independent contractor" who was a Bamboo specialist to come out and remove a board and test the flooring. His testing results came back with a "manufacturing defective" floor. They then felt the need to have the floor tested by their own lab and low and behold the flooring is testing just fine. They will not stand behind their warranty of covering dents, they will not replace the flooring with the correct boards and they are not supporting the customer or standing behind their warranty. I have filed with the BBB and the Attorney Generals Office due to the lack of customer service. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND TERAGREN FLOORING TO ANYONE. This company needs to support their customers.

The textured walls are standard here in CA from what I have seen. It is standard knockdown. Actually, we have done so many projects I have become quite a pro at matching spots now. I moved a light fixture and no one can tell where the old one was on the ceiling. We purchased a neumatic gun for our air compressor. There is this hopper what you load the joint compound type stuff in and you shoot it on the wall. After it dries a tiny bit you take a putty knife and flatten the bumps down. You can make the bumps really big or small depending on how you adjust the sprayer. It takes a bit of practice but dh just told me to go for it and see what happens. It is a real pain when painting rooms when you want to make straight lines because the bumps interfere. They do sell stuff in a can and home depot told me to return the cans if it did not work as manufacturer states. It was horrible product and I did return the half empty can. Thanks for all the compliments. I was really unsure. My older sis came by and immediatly said she really liked it. The only thing she did not like was that we use the shower stall to store our snowboard gear in the winter. We go almost every weekend and it was a hassle to haul everything upstairs and too easy to forget something. I have a rod across the top to hang our coats and pants and the helmets and boots sit on stall floor. It allows everthing to dry out and easy to load to car since it is near garage door. We don't get lots of visitors so it does not bother us. In summer we hang our wet swimsuits in there, again making them easily accessible and keeps upstairs carpet from getting wet suits left on it.

@sanjuangirl thanks so much - the architect's idea for the windows really pulled things together! @gothaml Thanks, this is the Newport door. We're pretty happy with the Euro-style cabinets, though I think most CP customers prefer the full inset. They've held up extremely well, with no shifting. @ratrem - Yes, you are right! We've loved living in Dot, it's really hard to explain to most, and I usually end up being too defensive or indulging in "boosteritis" especially if people haven't spent time around here. It has suffered from a simplistic picture. I think Boston has just so many great places to live - but given the great architecture , real community feeling, and proximity to downtown this neighborhood in most any other city would be completely unaffordable. But then again, look how quickly the image of Southie shifted - I guess anything is possible. We're working to get other parts of the house finished - I'll be sure to share once things start pulling together. Thank you for the compliment - that "blend" was exactly what I was going for.

The fridge and freezer are Electrolux Icon...The snobbier version of the Frigidaire. ;-) For me the Frigidaires were too plasticky looking inside, like they might not be durable enough. I had a fridge that had pieces that broke inside all the time and wasn't interested in doing that again! I have 3 different counter surfaces... Flanking the rangetop: We wanted something heat resistant, and couldn't afford stone, so ended up with stainless. This thrilled my dh anyway, as his dad and brothers have worked decades on tug boats (as did dh in younger years), in which the galley counters are all stainless, so it seemed to fit the family legacy. It was a big plus that our local sheet metal fabricator did them for us at $17/sq ft! Also considered stone for the island perimeters, but again, couldn't justify that expense when I'd been happy all my life with laminate. We also considered doing our own concrete countertops, but since we were DIYing our whole house, we just couldn't fit that into the building schedule, which was already running months behind. But that's what led us to make the perimeter counters extra thick (2 1/4" instead of the standard 1 1/2")...To get the hefty look, and 'just in case' we ever decide to switch them out for concrete. (ha) Most of the inspiration kitchens I loved had butcherblock countertop in them somewhere, and I liked the warmth and hominess it seemed to add...so on the island seemed a good place after the stone I'd wanted for doing baking projects was ruled out. Throughout our house (door casings, baseboard, window trim, etc.) we used Douglas fir that had been milled from trees we cut in our yard before building...so we decided to use that on the island, too. It was essentially free at that point, and even though really inappropriate for a work surface because of being soft, we knew it would match and would be easy and fairly painless to change later if we needed to. Long story...But I think that explains the counter choices?