Ok, so I worked on some bubble diagrams for some of the new areas last night. As you look at the picture of the house, you'll see there are several cone shaped shrubs next to the foundation of the house. Some have boxy yews in between them, some don't. I am getting rid of all the boxy yews and replacing them with flowers. THose are the box diagrams I worked on last night. Those gardens will have delphinums, foxgloves, platycodon, phlox, catanache caerulea alba, cransebill geraniums, and campanula. Also, the one in front of the garage is larger, so that one will also have a Rose (probably 'Peace' variety). So I've got those all planned. But here's my dillema. Or actually, I have several dilemmas that I need input on. 1) Since those gardens are mostly blues/purples/whites/pinks will they look ok with my burgandy shutters? I would love to change the color of the shutters, but my roof is red, so I really can't. And I tend to pick flowers in those color families because I don't really care for reds. I do pick yellows too though. Just not in those foundation gardens. 2) As you look at the front you will see there are the three areas next to the foundation. The sidwalk goes alongside two of them and ends at the third. I plan to continue the pathway along the remaining front and wind it around to the back in the Northeast corner of the house. I'm planning on using flagstone to make the pathway. That leaves two large bump out areas in the front with a narrow strip along the sidewalk connecting the two. The narrow strip will probably contain angelonias. What should I do with the bump outs? I want to make sure they look good from the road and from the side walk. I'm going to have a dogwood planted in the bump out in front of the garage and as you can see in the pics, i just planted a multistem crab apple in the other bump out. I'm also thinking of putting a mountain laurel in each of the bump outs, but from there, I can't decide. I also want to make sure that they don't block the foundation gardens from view completely although with the tall flowers I've selected that should be fairly easy to accomplish. 3) As you go around the NE corner of the house following the pathway I'm going to put in there are more shrubs. I'm going to remove those and I am thinking of putting in some sort of large perennial like Nepeta Six Hills Giant or a larger lavendar or something. Not sure though. I've also got a lilac there that's small right now, but as we all know will grow and get larger. Should I put anything else in there or just keep it minimal? 4) If you look at the photo titled NW gardens around pool aerial view...I have started a peastone pathway which will go all the way out to the grass. Also, coming from the front of the house will be a flagstone pathway that will follow the line of the house until the deck then follow the curve of the garden and go around the pool (I think?). I can't figure out how to merge the two pathways where they come together? 5) Any other suggestions for other areas would also be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!! Tara

Thanks Boxerpups, these are very nice examples. The one yellow tiled kitchen is laid "sideways". I think of the "up and down" direction as typical and when I see it sideways it is a different new look to my eye. I think I look at the "up and down" direction as "normal" because when I used to sew wool herringbone it would always be up and down in the garment. Did you see that I posted a bunch of herringbone examples last night? I don't think there are any repeats in our 2 postings! Take a look at the link with "herringbone" in the title.

Hi Sunnysmom! Thanks for asking! The kitchen is almost done. The walls are painted, the signs are up. I got really cute towels, wash cloths, and matching placemats from the dollar store. New burner covers for the range. New cafe curtains on one window, and I'm thinking of no curtains for the window over the sink. So what's left is that I'm going to distress my tabletop and two chairs in a kind of whitewash. And when I get paid in September I'm going to get an area rug, two actually--one for under the table and a small one by the sink. I'm also going to get two retro 50's diner chairs in yellow. I think it turned out really well. :-) Joy and I are going for a country cottage look, inside and outside. I think my little white & yellow coffee shop kitchen fits the theme really well. It's not the $50,000 white on white, granite everything, humongous island with appliances from Italy and Sweeden, but it's cute, cozy, and cheery! I love it. :-) How are you doing?

Mimi, I had to laugh when I saw the "before" picture: we had the same wicker drawers under our hotel-style vanity! The new vanity drawers didn't have as much storage, but the cabinet under the sink made up for it. And looked sooo much nicer. Similar to you, we removed the plate mirror, removed the medicine cabinet on the side wall and recessed the new one, with mirrors on both sides of the door AND on the back wall, above the sink. When our bathroom was done, we could do the hall bath (the contractor said we'd save $$ if we did them at the same time, but we had a 7 year old and a toddler, we needed a full functioning bath!). There we had to put the mirrored Medicine cabinet on the side since the bathrooms backed up to one another, and we had taken the recess able space for our cabinet). What a mess, but so nice when it was all done! The fellows working on the second bath had a kid who came in towards the end of each day as they were packing up. His job was to clean up after them, vacuum, etc!