Don't give up, my advice is to step back and realize there are other great choices and once you have selected one you'll forget the other one. I say that because in my master bath I fell in love with a beautiful European wallpaper, because I tend to dream up what I want in my head, look for it and find it. So, I asked for a pale blue background with large white flowers--much like yours, and looked everywhere myself. No luck. Then I asked a designer to find it for me. He did--the extremely expensive European wallpaper. For a bathroom. We figured the rolls and just did not want to spend that kind of money on a wallpaper, so I went back to looking. Couldn't find anything. My teenage daughter picked up one of the many books and flipped through and happened to look at the back page of one--one I missed, and the colorway was a pale blue background with white flowers. Perfect. I still love that wallpaper almost nine years later. I can't quite remember the other because it was so similar, and it was more delicate--no coating on it. We sometimes tend to get tunnel vision when working so hard to find just the perfect materials and decor for our homes. Most of my wallpapers are Thibault as they have a lot of designs that appeal to me, and I LOVE LOVE the one that Voila posted, from Colfax and Fowler, do the colors work for you in that one? It is stunning. Good luck, you have lots of great help here and good resources, would love to see what you eventually select. This post was edited by demifloyd on Sat, May 3, 14 at 9:45

My thanks to all of you who posted comments, both good and bad. I can't begin to tell you how feedback about my florals opened my eyes, so I was able to change things for my next set of photos. I'd never think that removable "props" would turn someone off. I also have to say that you're taking it well and seem to appreciate the feedback. Those of us selling can now see our house through strangers eyes and what a potential buyer might think when seeing our house online. How the photos look will dictate whether they take the time to actually walk our houses. The last time our house was for sale we did not get any feedback, so I'm very thankful for this forum and hope that the feedback you got helps you. I noticed that the wallpaper in my home got some of the most frequent and critical remarks and it's left me wondering about something. Is wallpaper no longer in vogue in new or remodeled homes or is it that my particular wallpaper is not to the liking of most of you? I've walked a lot of new communities with model homes and can say that here they are still using wallpaper but not in all of the rooms. You might pick the nicest rooms to keep the wallpaper. I love the foyer wallpaper but not with the door color and not with the flooring. You might think to leave some of it up and paint other walls, using it as an accent. Back entrance wallpaper - I would take it down. Half bath - I like the wallpaper but not with the light fixture. Study - I've seen similar paper used in homes I've walked. Utility - dislike the walls - would sheet rock & paint 1st floor master - would paint 1st floor master bath - I like the paper but not for a room like this. I would paint and think about putting up beadboard 2nd floor master - while I like the top paper, I think it would look better painted. The wood on the door is much too dark. I'd also think about putting up a scarf on the windows, then opening the blinds for the photo. While I like pink, others do not :( Second floor vanity/dressing area - this paper you could get away with leaving. Bath 2, second floor - I would try to lighten this room up or leave the picture out. Living Room - I would paint this I also realize that the paneled family room is dated but my thoughts on that is to either paint the paneling a neutral color or rip off the paneling, put up sheetrock and then paint. I also want to install engineered wood flooring in that room and perhaps extend it in to the foyer where, I admit, the tile color is also dated. Another area of critical comments was due to my home having so much carpeting. Has carpeting also gone out of style or do I just have too many rooms with carpet? We just did this in the master bedroom. I would sheet rock. The carpet wouldn't bother me here. I'm one of the weird ones that actually likes carpet, especially for my bad back. Walking on wood floors kills me. BTW, the Saint Bernard that appeared in at least one photo and brought about a comment or two that some people wouldn't even consider buying a home where a dog had been passed away on June 10 much to my hurt. I'm in the process of cleaning up all traces of his presence here. That is, everywhere but in my heart! Very sorry for your loss. After 22 years, I still miss our German Shepherd.

I certainly don't blame you for feeling hurt and offended. I could MAYBE see not inviting only some kids in a family if, say, it weren't a close relative; say, former next door neighbors, whose two older kids grew up with the groom, but the steps came along after the families moved apart -- something like that. Or a family where the parents are invited as a couple, and only the child who is friends with the bride. In that case, I would sort of look at it like the parents being invited as a couple, and the kids who are invited being sort of invited on their own. Whole families don't always have to be invited to everything. But here we are talking about a very close relative. Unless this is a VERY small wedding -- like, if the ONLY first cousins invited are your stepsons -- I really think they should have invited all your kids (at least, all those over any age cutoff they have). So first I would ask: is that the case? Are all the other "blood" first cousins invited? Is there any other wild card factor, like the bride's family having made some "rule" about inviting steps, perhaps due to some weirdness in HER family? But let's say it's not -- it's just an exclusion of your kids. I'm back to my first statement: I can sure understand how you'd feel hurt, rejected, and offended, and they were wrong not to invite them. Still ... I think it would be a mistake to boycott the wedding. Yep, they were wrong. But ask yourself if you wouldn't feel better about yourselves if you take the high road and attend anyway. If you don't go, it will put a cloud over the wedding. Think of your gracious attendance as an additional gift to the bride and groom (who may have WANTED to invite all the boys, by the way) and also a gift to your husband -- helping him not to create a rift between him and his family (if his parents and other siblings are alive, think how upset and torn they will be if this becomes a drama). It doesn't make you a chump or disloyal to your boys. It makes you the bigger person, a lady who acts with grace and dignity even when others do not. Try not to ask about their decision or to communicate your feelings about it, to them or to anyone that might repeat it to them. As right as you are, their wedding means more to them than to anyone else, including you, and even though they behaved badly, you will seem petty and self-centered. I know this isn't easy to do. But I think you will never regret it.

Thanks for that, Jasdip! I somehow figured that out right around the time I posted here last nite. I posted it over on my usual RMG forum so the folks over there can reclaim their "real" names too! But I also agree with Brandon about the graphics! And without the “subject” at the top of each reply, it’s difficult, at best, to quickly scroll down a thread and see the “individual” replies—they all just kind of “blend together!” (And in the past I used to sometimes have several threads open at the same time in different windows, and now, without the subject by each reply, the only way for me to figure out which thread I’m looking at is to scroll all the way up to the top of the window to look at the subject.) And ditto on the fact that you can no longer tell which threads you’ve already read! The “subject” used to “change color” after you had clicked on a thread, so you could easily “check in” and see if there had been any NEW posts since the last time you looked! Now you need to either click on the top thread and actually take the time to look at the last reply, or, I guess, you need to try to remember which thread was on top and “how many hours ago” the most recent post was! Say what? There’s no way I’m gonna remember “how many hours ago” the last post was—and, in any event, that CHANGES! It used to give the actual time (EST) when someone posted or replied, and that I could remember. More importantly, it gave the “number of replies” by each post, and that was fairly easy to remember for the most recent post, but since the “subject” changed color, you really didn’t even need to try to remember that—unless you had deleted your cookies! I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s just a lot harder to work with now—and takes a lot longer to try to see what you want to see. That, and a lot of other things, especially the fact that some old, long posts, that had a LOT of good info, are suddenly truncated, and all that good (and it took people a lot of time and effort to post it) info is now just GONE! I have a lot of good friends on GW, and I REALLY want it to go on—forever, but the more difficult and time consuming it becomes to use, I suspect more and more people will slowly disappear. That would be sad! Skybird