I'm in NJ as well and when my house was completed my builder seeded grass with rye/fescue/kbg mix. It didnt fill in that well and I liked the way KBG looked so in the front of my house I kept reseeding with just KBG mixes and the back of my house with rye/fescue/kbg mix. So I think I was exactly in the same boat as you. My front looks great and it was a good thing that it was originally seeded with the mix because there is one area in the back that gets a lot of shade and KBG didnt take there but fescue did and it looks great. The rest where there is more sun fades from fescue to mostly KBG but the transformation from one to the other is unnoticable from the street. My neighbor across the street got his house built after mine and my front yard looks better then his $2000 sod. Now my backyard was originally seeded with rye/fescue/kbg mix and reseded with that as I'm still trying to get it as thick as my front yard. It looks fine but nowhere near as good as my front yard. It also doesnt require the amount of maintenance the front does and it seems to be more resistant to kid abuse. I guess what I'm trying to say its all relative to your situation and what you are trying to do. I wanted my front to be mostly KBG as it looks better but it took forever to establish and it takes more work to maintain. Not a problem for me as a like working on it. The existing mix that was seeded might not be a bad base as it will cover any places that are shaded where kbg wont grow (I dont know your yard so thats really up to you) but it wont be as uniform as the pictures posted by pure KBG owners. Tall fescue stands out in KBG and you will definitely notice it. Now my backyard didnt have to be nice but more drought and abuse resistant. Thats exactly what it is plus it doesnt require as much work. So it all worked out well for me and I got what I wanted. I have nice lawn in the front and decent but resistant and low maintenance lawn in the back. Everyones situation is different and you have to take it all with a grain of salt and decide on your own. I dont know what your lawn looks like now, how much time and money you want to spend and what kind of final quality are you looking for. Either way good luck and I hope it turns out good.

My DD and DSIL gave me Netflix and Roku for Christmas. Roku enables the streaming, although you can do it with BluRay, Playstation, and probably other devices. My understanding is that the basic one-DVD-at-a-time Netflix subscription ($7.99 or $9.99 per month, I forget which) also entitles you to stream online or to your TV. Not all Netflix movies and TV shows are available for streaming, but many are. You can have a regular queue of titles you want to receive by mail, and an Instant Queue of titles you want to stream. In addition, you can go looking (via your TV) for other titles at any time. I was never much of a TV watcher, but I'm enjoying having this available to me. I've been watching some of the shows I was curious about but never got to see on TV. And when my DGD is here we can watch movies together.

The brown cedar shingles are going. The stone will stay. Shutters will be replaced with new shutters because there is no stone behind them. I'm trying to decide how many colors to use. I like the Monterrey taupe and think this would be the main color. Should the trim and gutters contrast or blend? I think the lighter color (cobblestone) would look nice as trim around the windows and maybe add the darker color as contrasting shutters? Thanks so much for your help! to look at colors use this link. http://jameshardie.com/gallery/main.html

We had a false start Saturday, but 3/4 done right now and super happy! So glad ABB is almost a memory. I will post a shot without grout when they leave and another in a few days with the grout. Going with mapai white still and will use the keracaulk as advised. Thank you again. Anyone who is considering this tile - we have no regrets. It would go well with greens, grays, whites, blacks, and tans. It wouldn't interfere with a busy countertop (IMHO) and has enough variation to give some interest to our essentially solid black counter and white cabinets. A small number of tiles have imperfections, but they are the ones being cut for ends and corners, so not really wasted much.