I want to come buy flowers from you! What a fun and potentially very satisfying (from a creative and making people happy point of view) business you have started. I didn't have any trouble figuring out why you wanted us to pretend to be a bride or a MOB. ;~) It's a time in a life when someone might be looking for things from flowers and their arrangement that they won't be looking for ever again; and it's a time when choosing the right thing and the right person to do it has a lot of stress and emotion attached to it....so you understandably want a first impression and "curb appeal" that shows you can pull things together in an appealing way. Now I personally love your periwinkle door and would enjoy visiting a cottage or farmhouse with all the doors a different color; but I leaned toward the darker soft rich green from your cushions for the doors, and using the coral pink as accent colors in a few different spots because I think that would present a sort of "together, decorated, color-coordinated" first impression that would look professional from a design standpoint but still fun and relaxed and fresh. If that makes sense! LOL Oh, btw, I don't "really" farm but I'm a definite wannabe...live in the country and mess about with farmy thigs and animals. I understand your concern about wind and a bucket on the front door....not long ago my wooden rocking chairs on the porch blew right over and a metal light fixture attached to the house actually ended up crooked from the wind! But when les suggested a flat-backed bucket or other container for the door to put rotating and/or seasonal arrangements in, I could just SEE it...such a charming idea. I'd have to look around, but I think I've seen some kind of bracket or even metal wire loop that is firmly attached to the door, that the container lifts in and out of....that would be secure enough to not move around and scratch your door? Anyway, that just seemed like a really neat idea, but you could make the same impression with porch pots where you do pretty combinations of flowers in season and then seasonal things in the fall and winter. I feel sure it will be charming because you've already headed down that road by yourself!

DO THE CREAM FRENCH COUNTRY ISLAND LOOK, DO THE CREAM ISLAND!! I cannot repeat enough ahhahah. I could have written your opening page and for a minute I wondered if it was me talking ahhaha. We just completed our custom build. Kitchen designer talked me out of cream kitchen with cherry island (gut now says wish I had gone that route) it is such a light and bright feel all around. We did cherry cabs with chocolate glaze and although they are rich, elegant and beautiful they match the wood floor dead on too- it is rather dark at times. We almost went with a black island and I think it would have felt soooo cave like although I do love black islands, not with dark cherry cabs (sorry everyone) and a wood floor - too dark. I wanted to do a french country island and again KD discouraged me as my island is very small and literally talked me into the same island cab as the surrounding and I would have sooo much loved the cream island better. Moral - trust your instinct and ignore these persuasive kitchen deisgners who say "trust me on this one, do....". It is YOUR kitchen and noone elses. We did Giallo Ornamental granite and I LOVE it for lightening everything up with the Wow factor but if I were to do it over I would either definitley do the french country island hands down or do the reverse of all of it ( cream surrounds with dark island). Other poster is right, although my wood maple floor is beautful I am a SLAVE to it and would NEVER do it again that dark as every dog paw print shows as does every crumb or juice spill that my 3 young boys spill on it. I can even see if the dog leaves a water drool on it..UGH > I literally clean them EVERY SINGLE DAY and could vacuum twice a day. NEVER AGAIN! Hope that helps and good luck during this stressful but exciting time.

Thank you, everyone, for this post. I read all of it. My kitchen is still in the state of being renovated but mostly finished. I did my homework on granite before I okay'ed it (Joseph..I about fell out of my seat when I read your message about the "man of the house". That has been my issue with my guy giving the ok 😂). Anywho...I'm having both problems here. Parts of my counter are darker where items have been sitting and vice-versa. I didn't take the granite guys word on anything except to seal it monthly (they were the subcontractors for the local kitchen remodel company). The company my guy hired SUCKS!! I've had to fix many F-ups of theirs and F-ups on the granite, too. I went ahead and bought a kit (StonePro) to resurface my granite. This is the second time I'm doing it when I ran across the dark spot. I am thinking it was the original sealant as it is kinda far back and I'm kinda short so I may have not gotten it properly the first time. My random orbital kinda gets "stuck" where the dark place is. I'm going to go over it again and if that doesn't work...I have 20 and 30 vol. developers I'll give a whirl. 🤞

Good going, glenda. It's easy to say, while staggering, that I don't need that stuff - yet. A few months ago I had some soreness in a hip, and used uncle's canes (one for going out, the other for going to the barn, that were residual following his death 16 years ago) for a week or so until the hip improved - O.K. now. There's a walker, that he used for doing chores with cattle following his hip surgeries (he had three - I think on the same hip). There's a grab bar on a ledge around an old style bathtub, ready for when it's needed. I'll have to ask the landlord if he has a doohicky that'll show us where a stud is to be found. I'm going to have put the timer in plain sight, so that I'll remember to use it when cooking supper: I have three burned pots ... scraped one out last night, cooked some applesauce ... burned it! So another scraping job on the "to do" list. Ggrrumpp! I'm trying to teach myself to load goods bought at the store on my left arm ... as I need the right to fish out the car keys: rather a slow learner, I fear. ole joyfuelled