Good Morning, Everyone! Smoke, thank you for the photos and info on those peppers. I hope you don't think I was trying to discourage anyone from trying them, I just felt bad that I couldn't give them any information on them. Wouldn't it be neat if we could name one of the peppers Smoke's Mystery Pepper, or Smoke's Russian Roulette Pepper? You would be famous : ) BTW, do you grow your own Mexican Oregano, or buy the dried leaves somewhere. I have a perennial herb bed, and grow lots of annual herbs in pots, but haven't tried to grow that one yet. I do know that my dried herbs taste waaaay fresher than what you can buy at the grocery store. My husband bought a smoker a year or two ago, but I hadn't really given any thought to making my own dry rubs before. He can't tolerate much heat, but maybe I can come up with a blend that incorporates some milder peppers as well. Thank you for the inspiration!!! Thank you, Tanya and Randy, for the kind words! Even though the swap has been kind of time consuming, I have learned so much from all of you pepper enthusiasts, and have been able to try a few new varieties, so I think it has totally been worth it. I hope you guys will feel that way too, when you get your packages back. Tanya - The Naga Morich is gone, but I've added the following to your package: Bhut Jolokia Cascabella A Smokemaster mystery pepper Randy - The Volcano is gone, but I've added the following to your package: Black Pearl Quadrato Rosso D'Asti PI 260250 PI 438638 I'll check back later today. I've got to run to the post office to drop off the first batch of packages. Bonnie

Thank you Faron for writing right back. I respect your knowledge and professionalism. Thank you for caring and helping me. The painter and his helper used actual sandpaper sheets/sponges and I am sure they did not wash the grit off. I am unhappy and I feel you are right that his ego was at state. He had gone to college and was painting in college for extra money and then when he graduated he found out he liked painting better than the other jobs so continued being a painter. I am fair to him. When he gives me a price, I pay it and copy my checks twice for a receipt for him and me since he never gives me a bill. I write on the check what he did. I have been buying the paint and when he has no helper, I have been helping him a little bit with getting tools for him, etc. and buying him lunch so he will stay here to work and so he will not be hungry as he works. I just expect a professional job and to listen to me since I am the one paying him and it is my home and I want a good job done. I even helped him on my own time finding stuff on the computer for him. Hence, I do not like his attitude today. He keeps complaining poverty but he sure has money for vacations and fun so he just has different priorities than me. I want my home to look nice and that is where my money is going. I am in an upset mood today since I was hoping the job would be done and done right. I do research and I try to learn all I can. It is my house that I bought myself with no help and I wanted a good job done since I want my home to look pretty like the homes in my neighborhood and I want to be proud of my home when people visit. This is my Master Bathroom that is a very pretty room and one of the reasons I fell in love with this townhouse and I want it to look nice. I wish he would have told me he had no time instead of calling a few times to tell me he had time to do the job now before his vacation and if not, he could not paint for me for few weeks. I had told him I was too busy for interruptions before 2-1-07 but then I caved in and let him paint. The painter (who painted in February and only paint one wall in each room downstairs and never came back since I was last on his list while he was first on mine when I did all this amnesty work for him in the past) who owed me money has come back and I could have just had him paint but I liked how this new painter did the rest of the house (and that he showed up for the job until it was done... he was slow at that time and I provided him with work) with my insisting on the priming first, so I wanted him to paint for me. The job in my bathroom does not look professional to me and I am upset. Also he should get the rust out of my sink in my laundry room before he goes on vacation. I have been very nice to him and I work very hard to pay for my home and nice things and I do not have time like him to go on vacation so often. In fact I have not been on a vacation in 8 years and I need one badly. I plan to have a friend visit me from Canada after tax season and take some time off. He can at least respect others belongings. Any other homeowner would have charged for the two broken lamps and not paid him for this last job until they found out the price of the broken phone and the sink, but I am nice and paid him. The lamps were fixed by the client who referred the painter. The phone still is not working. The sink he tried to get the rust out of but has not accomplished this task. I have no idea what a new sink cost. Thank goodness I stopped him from continuing to clean his brushes and put tools in my other sinks. I like the guy and as a person I think he is nice but now I am upset that he could care less about the job he did for me. That is all I wanted was a good job done and for him to care. But I guess now that he has other jobs lined up, I am not so important? If I like someone's work, I give a lot of referrals. If I am unhappy, people will know. I know when I loved Gateway, most of my clients bought Gateway computers. When I was unhappy with them, I was sure to let my clients know and they bought Dell Computers and other competitors.

blondelle: I want to thank you so much for all your hard work on these mockups! I do like the warmer mock up and I do think that the warmer travertine gives a French country feel. I actually did pick up some 3 x 6 tumbled marble from Turkey, which is beautiful. It blends in with the paint color that I currently have on the backsplash area. I'm going to have to be careful, though, because things can get too busy, but I agree that too much white in the backsplash can have a washed out appearance. palimpsest: I am going to investigate a quieter option for the countertop, too. Very early on, our local IKEA had a Corian that looked like sand on the beach. Also, I'm attracted to some of the engineered stones, even those stones that have a little sparkle in them. Part of me likes bling! jeanteach: I'm sort of going back and forth between a porcelain tile and natural stone. The beveled brick with the crackle is beautiful. I like the low maintenance of the porcelain tile because we do a lot of cooking in this household. I don't want it to be too washed out, though. gracesantacruz: Who did you use for your countertop fabrication? Would you recommend them? southernstitcher: thanks for chiming in, too :-) OMG will someone shoot me to put me out of my misery? I guess it is good to have options, though. Good news: Lowes refunded all my money for the granite countertop since I was so unhappy with Duracite, so at least I'm off the hook with them now, which is a relief. I went out with a girlfriend today for a short lunch break and we looked at some more options. I came up with an idea of going with a sand-like engineered stone it is called astro pearl by zodiac and then I saw some mini black pebbles that might be nice in a diamond shape, or perhaps some black glass? I'm still torn, I'm afraid and I think it's best for me to step back and take a break for a short while cuz it's a little too hot in the kitchen right now! I guess this how the design process goes and there are so many sides to me, so I'm conflicted arrgh...

Rugged Suede is the color on the peaked wall that divides the rooms? That's a very warm grey or a beige with grey and you are trying to pair it with cool greys -- onces with more blue. The warm undertones and cool undertones are going to accentuate each other when you put the two together. I'm not sure I understand what look you are after -- lighter/darker contrast or beiger/greyer contrast. If you are happy with the Rugged Suede, have you considered just using that color at a ligher value? You can have the paint mixed at a percentage of the formula for a gallon of Rugged Suede. If you try to mix it yourself with white, you could have trouble matching the color if you need more. Lowe's here has Sherwin WIlliams colors -- if you want a different color rather than a lighter shade of the same color, try looking at something like Requisite Gray or Wordly Gray. On my monitor, they look good with the Rugged Suede photo. If they aren't right, maybe they will give you an idea of the direction to look. You could also look at Anew Gray and Mega Greige -- Agreeable Grey if you want something lighter. If that doesn't help, give us a better idea of the look you are after. Grey means different things to different people and in different contexts.