Holleygarden, that is exactly what I was thinking about seeing them when they aren't blooming. Especially for new gardens, not established. I frequent the Antique forum (thanks to Ashdown, I was bit! :-)). I must have missed Juliets tale. My Dad is very sweet, so sweet I have given him a bunch of rose plants! Kinda like when I was doing Persian cat rescue, my parents ended up with a few. :-) He's glad I am into roses now... Trish, you better get a production line going! lol Are you up to 400 roses now? Whew! How awesome is it that your roses are a chick magnet! My boy is the same age (I believe) I am going to have to subliminally program him..... I am so happy for you! Right now my son is looking at my canes and leaves and finding leaves that don't look "well" and pointing them out like I am doing something wrong!! Niiice. As an aside, "Old Gray Cemetery Noisette" and La Marne(poly tea), both from Ashdown, have a couple blooms. The blooms and fragrance are AWESOME!!! The blooms on both last forever, on plant. I have NEVER smelled roses like this, just heaven. (I don't have the different rose smells down what so ever so I can't tell you what they are like, darn it.) Allison

Hi Plllog! "That is, I know it's possible, but might not be in your budget." See, there's the crux of it. This little beverage center idea of mine was not in the original budget. (Nor, alas, were new drywall in the livingroom and halls, the gorgeous walnut top on my used cabinet island, the matching gorgeous top that will soon be on the new media cabinet and the near full gut of the bathroom.) And we're still determined to get through remodeling our ugly duckling without taking out a loan or dipping into savings. Conventional wisdom says: Wait until the coffers are full again but that's so hard to do. First off, I'm a cheapskate. Even if the goose who laid the golden egg waddled up onto my deck and built a nest, I'm not sure I would willingly pay someone to mess up the walls I just paid to fix. Second, I'm not quite cheap enough. My new kitchen is starting to look pretty good but, gosh, it would look so much better if the microwave and coffee maker didn't take up so much room on that one counter. I'm willing to spend a little bit more to change that, especially since I'm going to have a piece of countertop leftover that should be just the right size. Still, it's nice to know that it's possible. Maybe when the coffers ARE full again I'll put a tile counter outside on my deck to shade the golden goose should she happen to wander by ;) Thanks for your help!

lovetodream, I picked the cabinet color first. Originally, I wanted Martha Stewart Fortune Cookie (from HD) for the cabinets; however, there was a very unappealing pink-y undertone to that yellow in our space. So I went to my pile of fan decks and picked the One True Yellow. Then I learned that what looks like the OTY on the chip will not look like that on an entire bank of cabinets. You need a color that looks nothing like your OTY. Then I happened to be in HD the day they were installing their new countertops display and I saw the Corian Witch Hazel. They were having a sale and I just happened to have my Kitchen Book with me with all my measurements, samples, etc. so I pulled the trigger and ordered it. I knew I wanted brass faucets and I knew I had to blend in my sort of orange-y oak floors. I saw the Florida flower in the late summer but the source I found was $65/sq ft. Not doable (even though my husband said it was fine and to order it). I knew I needed that yellow onyx to tie all my tones together, so I searched endlessly. Then, one day, it came up in a search with an eBay seller (for $19.99 sq. ft.)! Sold! And, because I needed so much, I got free shipping. Yay! I did buy extra because onyx is fragile and I knew there would be a lot of cutting, but the tile handled it like a champ so I have every single bit of overage left over. Our whole first floor is sort of traditional in a non traditional palette. We have a lot of original art and we wanted a very fresh, uncluttered cottage vibe on the first floor. I think we pulled it off. I am so thrilled with the first floor, I can hardly stand it. The only thing left to do is to pick some wall paper for the powder room and get that room done. My husband and I are both from Virginia and came to Little Rock after a five year run in New Orleans. We really love Arkansas. It's such a pretty state and we love our neighborhood. It's been a good move for us.

I am not sure if it would be much cheaper to rip things out and put new ones in, but it will sure be a lot faster. Refinishing takes a long time to do properly. When it comes to dismantling a kitchen, you have to be very careful not to damage things you'll want to use again. I don't think you need a designer, unless you feel you'd like to hire one. It depends on what you are budgeting and how happy you are with the current layout. I am not sure if any of the designers who post here do consulting work via email, but that might be an option for you to consider too... It may be worth your while to hire a contractor, as was suggested above. There are some costly errors that can occur if you have not done this before. Some KD's may also handle the tasks usually performed by the GC's. If you want to do everything yourselves, take your time, plan each step and determine what has to happen when. After you have completed each task look and think about how the rest of your planned additions are going to work with what you have done. ie: is there room to open a door ? Can the electrical circuits handle the loads you are planning for them ? Is the floor solid enough to handle ceramics ? There are a lot of really knowledgeable people here in the forum, and they are a warm and encouraging group, so if you spend time here reading and asking lots of questions you may be fine on your own. It seems that they are always more than willing to share their expertise. Good Luck !