Hey Charliedawg, thanks so much for taking the pic for me! That brick looks darn close to the brick we chose! I really love it! It is so rich and looks GREAT with black accents and white trim! The next time I go to our build site, I'll try to remember to take my camera and take a pic of the house that has our brick, just so we can compare! I am sure that will look great on your home! Thanks again!

I've been there! Have you seen Shetkastone? I fell in love with the stuff, but went with marble tile since it's cheap and we are remodeling with resale in mind. Unfortunately their site is not great- the only place with photos of the samples is in the "request a sample"- we have the Counterfeit Green sample. It's much more green in the marbleized and the strips are much smaller and more subtle in the ribbon. It stood up to everything I tried with it, the only damage was from dragging a fork across it with some force, and that wasn't very noticeable. I don't know if this will show up as a link or not, but their website is http://www.shetkastone.com. Alkemi is really need looking too, but I haven't seen in in person. Here is a link that might be useful: Alkemi

Hi Becky. I live in West LA and I got it from Jackie at Lincoln Pipe, 310-396-2667. She really is terrific and I love her store. I'm sure she would send you one if you just called. Definitely tell her I sent you -- um I suppose you should email offlist for my real name? Or if you tell her I'm the person who gave her the bike at Xmas time for her needy-kids drive that would work. She'll grill you, though, as to what happened to me; I haven't been in in a while. I didn't realize it wasn't widely available. But Jackie has a select small amount of stuff and what she chooses is, I believe, good. She's very high on that touch-faucet (Delta?) too. I would be spending more time with her if she hadn't screwed up a bathroom faucet purchase for me. That gave me, for better or worse, the permission I was looking for to go the cheaper internet route, but it's always a dilemma about supporting brick-mortar v internet. Most of the bigger "brick-mortar" places are *also* internet, but not so this place. This is truly small, single-family. They have potted toilets all over the place. They're located in a renovated garage; that should give you an idea of the size of their "display floor". Their coffee is delicious and I'm missing the weekend fantastic cinnamon rolls as I write - I had thought about going in this morning but didn't make it! :( Anyway, I had no idea this was so limitedly available. If we could boost it that would be rather terrific. If Jackie can't/won't mail it to you I'm happy to. Email offlist. Thanks. Does anyone want a photo of the underside of my deck mount? It's a tube about 8" max, I haven't measured it. The 20" of the nozzle is the measurement to the base of the nozzle head to the start of the crinkling, so that means the hose is probably a little bit longer.

Jay, as much as I like those two infills, I'm thinking those designs are conflicting with and distracting the eye from the pattern of the windows. My suggestion is to use the RISING SUN design for a fence gate. I have a really fine book BY Suzanne Slesin called CARIBBEAN STYLE, and one of the houses/cases does have the rising sun pattern around the porch railing. The bottom on, with the XXXX is reminiscent of the British colonial style in the West Indies. I love a good porch rail though. So, I've taken photos of numerous railings and transom designs, and will zip the file up and send it to you. I'll meanwhile just put ONE photo up here. As soon as I get them off my camera. The book I mentioned is now out of print, but it might be available through some library. The shots are of actual railings, not just designs from a textbook. What I'm thinking would be good, is to have a GATE with your palm or sunrise, and then the same sort of design for your transoms, maybe the upper portion of your front door glass.