I like my furniture in the family room too- and I love blue (can ya tell?) but in my earlier post I was explaining that the cushions have just really lost whatever shape//support they had and I keep putting it off but I have to do something as it is not so comfy anymore. I would consider reupholstery if it would be reasonable, or geting new. I don't seem to find any blues in the stores any more although it seems to be coming back- just not where I see it IRL. So since I don't know what i am doing for seating but the kitchen verticals are bothering me-- I thought white panels could work. DH(who usually stays out of it because he totally cannot visualize) remarked that he thoought it woudl look really blah/nothing. do you think I could simply do panels on the sliders and not continue in the family room? and since white/beige would be safe/neutral do you think those would work? I do NOT sew, so gorgeous as the curtain are that oceanna and forboystoo showed, I was hoping they might be ready made.......... what do you think?

Excellent news in the greenhaven house!!! I do not remember who it was that made the comment about my being able to shingle a house, but I was desperately afraid that was gong to become prophetic after we started losing shingles in the wind storms about a month ago. Well, I found a local guy who does roofing, he came out and gave a very reasonable estimate and said they do all kinds of work. "Oh really?" I asked, "What kind of all kinds of things? Like...tiling?" "Sure! We just finished a beautiful tiling job, we do a LOT of it." Wahoo! Invite that man in to give me a quote on my backsplash, yes please! So not only did I find someone to fix the roof he is going to do my backsplash, too. I am SO relieved. I truly believe i *could* do it. But I don't wanna. Truly. So happy!

I agree exactly about the practicallity that my kitchen screams. In part that is great. I had already given up extra cabinets to provide for a large window. We had originally kept the left wall solid. The large window reduced upper cabinets to a bare minimum (sometimes I think too few). We were going to use our existing cabinets (thus the odd sizes on the layout) but later decided to reuse them instead for the laundry area. When I count the cabinets that we currently have and what we are going with, we are substantially down space. That said, many of our current cabinets are empty/near empty and we are going with more efficient use of cabinets )drawer bases and a pull-out pantry). The frig in the pantry, though obvious really worked for us since we were able to "borrow" slightly from the laundry and sink the frig into a 30" spot giving it a "countertop" depth w/o the the price tag. Being that the frig being the centerpiece of the current kitchen, hiding it anywhere was a MAJOR plus. It seems like with every "special" thing in the kitchen I have to give up more space. I really like the idea of the curved island. There are some practical issues (none I wanted others to be concerned about when coming up with ideas) with venting the house that we have to be concerned about. We were going to have a short wall under the island that will house all the venting, electrical, etc. I'm going to sit down with pencil and paper and see how I could make that work. I love the idea of wrapping cabinets around the nook. The windows are 22" from the floor. We'd need an exit to the deck, so I'm not sure how it might look if it wasn't continous cabinetary. This is one of our favorite spots to sit in the house.

Well, Granlan, he can stay until I paint that hallway on the left, then I'm going to take Spicey's idea and hang it up. The quilt forum ladies have convinced me that that is the way to go. You'll see it when you exit the bathroom or walk from the craft room to the guest room. He's a cute little stinker, that Beez, that's for sure! He's been on there every day since he discovered it. If he holds true to form, he'll lay on it for about 2-3 weeks and then he'll find a new spot, but he'll keep coming back every now and then. I'll leave the pink/white quilt there but I'll have to cover it with something so he can't get it too dirty. Maybe I'll make him his own little quilt, I need a little project. One with a bee skep and bees, perhaps. Or maybe little mice. He'd like that! Thanks, everyone, for admiring my sneaky boy! He gets into more trouble around here, but he's Mr. Personality so he gets away with it. I just wish I could capture it better on film.