If it's still in the pot, it's probably root bound, Also probably needs a nice shot of balanced fertilizer. Looks fairly good to me. elaine

Well, a little qualifier to that - 1) If you have a neighbor that's closer to the forest (deers' home), then talk them into planting some Knock Outs. They'll hit his yard before yours. ;-) 2) Be creative - Deer do not like unstable footing, neither do they like unusual lights. I placed a number of reflective balls in one of my gardens and laid some store-bought trellis pieces around the roses. The idea is that the reflections from the balls un-nerve them and the trellis wood on the ground gives them the heebie-geebies with their footing. Those things seem to have worked with me.

Well I'm a magpie too :) So I have both a mosaic (behind the range) and a subway tile, but I do have to compliment the fact that you went with a blue. I like it with the granite. A neutral would have been safer, and oh so boring :) By the way, we need to use the term DS...oh wait that's taken....(Dear Spouse dear son might get confusing) Or I like "SU" (spousal unit). My DH or SU as the case may be :) was told early in the design process that "I don't know" has a three day window to be turned into "I don't care" if he can't figure out what he wants :) Since I'm the designer...that's a challenge for him heh heh But he's one opinionated SU so normally he comes up with something :) He had definate influance on the backsplash. I was HORRIFIED with the cost, and he decided that it was the "only" one that worked LOL so my inner magpie won LOL

You are brave, I could never let someone tile anything, unless I was able to check the layout daily! I hate the look of 1/3 offset, so I prefer to go with stacked when there is no other choice. I find the repeating stair-step pattern busy and prefer the straight simpler lines of the stacked pattern. You need someone to do a scale drawing of the layout to get a feel for how the patterns will work. Next best thing is if the tile installer will prop some tiles up in the different patterns and take some photos for you. Match the grout to each tile color. Good luck!