Hi Mike, Dont buy the oxypetalum. I am sending you a few pieces of this one. It is true that they grow like crazy. I left this one at my parents house when I moved out because it does take a tremendous amount of space. I got a call from my mom and she told me that she was waiting for the day that that was going to strangle her..LOL. Once you have an established cutting, you can expect some new growths to be a couple feet long. No joke, mine had some growths that were 4 ft long in one summer!! The blooms are great! Just make sure your going to be home to enjoy them! Mine only lasted one night and that was it. As soon as the sun went down, the bud would begin to open. By the time the sun came up, it was closing. Logees describes it as having flowers the size of dinner plates. I had some that were even larger than that!!! Mine is pitifull now compared to when it was in its glory. I wished I would have found a way to care for it here. At one point, that plant was around 10ft long but I have had it for over 10 years. You can control the growth with pruning. Just make sure you do it at the right time or you will end up with no blooms. I will have to read up on my notes on this before I can tell you when to prune it. I can send you 3-4 nice cuttings next week with the others if you want okay? I also have a nice big pink epi. I don't know the name of the variety but it is really pretty. Trust me, neither of them will take a lifetime to get blooms from. My oxy bloomed in 1.5-2 years after I got it. I started a couple for friends and the one I gave to my landlords mom bloomed the same year I rooted it! The pink variety I bought locally and they had rooted cuttings with buds on them. I will say that it may take a couple years for those blooms to reach there potential. Andrew

Could you post the picture?

I think you want a trendy great room! Open spaces are in fashion. Most newer homes have them. I would remove that wall, especially if that is what you want. We have a great room in our current home. No wall divides the kitchen and living/family room. We love it! It's perfect for entertaining. When you entertain, everyone wants to be in the kitchen, but with a great room, they can be anywhere in the space, and still feel included. We have one of those open walls too in our new remodel (not done yet), and I wish the wall wasn't there, but it is not near the kitchen, and only open to the entry, so it will stay even though that opening is a dust collector, and too narrow to be of any use at all. To separate our current living space from the kitchen, we have a double reclining sofa/loveseat, so 4 recliners. Two desk consoles act as sofa tables, and hold our computers. If there is a fire in the fireplace, it can be enjoyed from anywhere as can the TV. I will miss the great room in our new home, but we still are living here till the reno is done. Suzi

Thank you so much Nightowlrn, I really appreciate it! I should have mentioned that I will run the rail all the way across the wall, just under the cabinet. The plan is to have a quiver for utensils and a small cutting board to the right of the range, some S hooks for utensils over the range, and to the right, under the wall cabinet, a shelf to hold my iPad when in use in the kitchen and a spice rack. When not using my iPad, I will keep my salt and pepper, pinch pots with my spice mixes and my olive oil dispenser on the shelf. I know the stuff will get dirty, but they are easy to remove to clean, worth it to me to get all that stuff off the little bit of counter space next to the range! I really need to make a decision and get this ordered, I don't want to install the backsplash until it is in. Unfortunately, the rail supports will have to be installed in the backsplash since there is no cabinet to suspend it from on the left. The backsplash is bone 3 x 6 subway tiles in a stacked pattern. There will be 3/4 inch travertine pencil trim running from the edge of the hood down to the counter and the tile will be set in a V herringbone pattern under the hood. Thanks again for your help!