You're welcome. I find it hard to leave and don't on most days. We went out on Tuesday for early dinner and I hadn't been out of the house since Saturday. lol We used a different brick on the house. The arch brick (Old Cahaba) was more expensive and not enough was available at the time, even if we wanted to. I'm not sure DH would have let me smear mortar over it either! The brick was used in the arches and under the doors/windows. We used real stone over the doors and windows. I selected the brick based on quantity available and it was tumbled, so it gave me the look I wanted. Here's a photo pre-mortar wash. It made the back look too Tudorish to me. DH, the brickmasons and builder did not want me to go ahead with the mortar wash, but the brick looked horrible with the stone garage and front of house. Afterwards, everyone agreed it was the right thing to do. Against the stone. GC is looking at the front veranda that was just done. After, no question it was the right thing to do. Above the bench, you can see one of the lines I was talking about. Much worse in photos than in real life.

Here is a photo of the lower level den. I've made a few changes since this photo was taken. Gold chair is gone, replaced with rocker in foreground, and leather chair/ottoman is to right of sofa, next to table w/heart shaped cut-outs. (Wow, rug looks square in that photo. It's really 8x10.) There are some MBR photos in the link provided below. fyi, I am the Shopping Editor for AtticMag.com, and we are probably going to be doing a house tour of my home soon, so I'm hesitant to post pictures at the moment. But I can let you know when it is up, so you can come see! I noticed you don't have an email listed on your My Page. If you want to shoot me an email so that I will have your address, that would be great. You should start a thread in Decorating - include pictures. You'll get a lot of help from them and I'll watch out for it to put in my 2cents. Here is a link that might be useful: What Furniture Goes with this Bed - Decorating Thread

@kharamarie...Thanks so much for the compliment! I worked tirelessly to research my choices, with much help from this forum. To answer your question, I ordered the CT through my cabinet company, which was Wood-Mode in the Chicago Merchandise Mart. I suppose they added a finder's fee, but by then I didn't care. Head's up: it was expensive. Craft-Art is somewhere down south, Georgia maybe, so a local company did the templating and installation, subcontracted by Wood-Mode. One more thing: for aestheic reasons, I wanted the plank style, against the advice of Craft-Art, who said that edge grain would be "harder." They seem to be right, as one drawback to my plank style application is that it dents and scratches rather easily, so it's best not to drag things across the counter (ask me how I know!). Also, if you drop something heavy on it -- say, a large silver tray you are polishing a week after the CT installation -- you'll get a ding. Fortunately, these are blips I can live with, as I view my kitchen as working space and use it constantly. I'll admit I was aiming for a showpiece kitchen, but this is primarily because it's the first room you walk into from the condo's front door. Weird layout, I know. Good luck! Angelina_101 Here is a link that might be useful: Craft-Art web site

The best place to look at pictures of the kitchen is in Kitchens We Love, at AtticMag. I believe I linked it for you the other day. You can click on them to enlarge. I don't like to post pictures in threads, due to GW photo "agreement," but if you email me through My Page, I will send you at link at some point today. Allison Here is a link that might be useful: KWL - French Gray Island Kitchen.