Thanks for the complements. Honey11 - The main level is 4050 sq ft. The upstairs is about 800 ft living (future) and 400 sq ft attic over the 4 car garage. We demo'd in Dec and started the build in Jan. We could be done sooner than later but we are dragging it out. We love the trees and that's the reason we bought the property. We had the house placed between the trees so we only had to lose 2 (one was diseased and the other wasn't a stable tree). Totallyblessed - yes, we're in FL. What gave it away? Lanai? More pics to come after drywall when rooms feel like rooms.

Hey, thanks for the ideas and nice cabinet comments, guys. All good. I'll check that rainforest brown, too. Um, it's not really grabbing me like the green does but good thought, thanks CIC! Romy: I loved the hardware until the first screw stripped out and then a handle snapped off the first time I pulled on it. Oh well, that's what you get for buying cheap crap hardware from overseas. I needed something with a flat projection and that seemed to fit the bill. They are sending replacements, no questions asked, though. Now Fori, you are on to something with that embedded tile thought..... I'll have a wine tonight ;) and mull over that idea, but I like it! Maybe we could cut the tile so it was more rectangular and inset one into the center of the oak? Oh! I have so many tile samples of all sorts that might work for this... have to drag out my box and look through it. (what does one DO what all the samples when the remodeling is done, anyway? There's a thread to start....)

tracyjohnson1, thanks for the compliment. It's been amazing how relaxing it has been in the pool. We swim every evening and watch the sun go down. We have enjoyed our cleaner we named Bob. The PB set him up to clean for 3 hours a day. He really does a great job. I have to use the brush to sweep off the baja shelf and the benches, but he comes along and vacuums it up off the floor of the pool. The first few days the little bag was very full of PebbleTec pebbles and rock chips from construction. Be sure and empty it every day. It is gross, but the other day we unzipped the bag and there was a dead frog in it. BLAH!! Good luck with your pool. Can't wait to see pics.

Hi les, thank you (again) for the comments. Hope you are still out there. I'm looking at either a greeny tan for the walls or a greeny blue (I know you can't tell in the pics but there is a nice bit of greeny blue in the chairs. the tile on the fireplace is going to be changed soon so I don't want to decorate around it. Funny how somethings that look good IRL look hideous in the pics and some things that look hideous IRL look good in the pics (take my word for it, the tiles are hideous). We tried doing the sofa facing the fireplace last night and found that it is just too long to do this. Also the coffee table is so long that the chairs had to be way out on the sides of the fireplace rather than pulled up close. A small round coffee table would fix this but I love our coffee table (and it was one of the few fairly expensive things we've bought for the space). I totally agree that dying the slipcover would make all the difference. I actually tried to dye it a couple of weeks ago and it was a bit of a disaster. I tried using rit dye in Tan and it came out really pinky tan instead of golden tan. The dye remover wouldn't work and I had to bleach it and I think it came out whiter than before. I then tried dying one cushion with tea, but it didn't seem to change the colour at all (probably not strong enough sol'n) and at that point I was so sick of it, I gave up. Next time it gets dirty, I'll try the teastain again. Awhile ago you suggest doing darker pillows on the sofa to connect the chairs to the sofa. I found pillows in the same brown as in the chairs and made some out of a contemporary stripe in the green, red and tan (but don't show up well in the pic). You were absolutely right, they look great. Like most everyone else, we've been hit by the economic crisis and there is a possiblity the school my dh works for will have to close. So we won't be spending anymore money on the room (or anything else for that matter) until we find out if they can weather this storm. I'm going to try ttodd's trick and scour the basement. I've got at least 10 cans of paint in the basement and I'm thinking I'm just going to mix away until I get a colour I like (don't laugh now, this is how I got the perfect colour for the kichen walls and living room ceiling). I bought the prints already, but may look for cheap frames at the craft store or do what I used to do in my college days and just hang them from a wire with clothes pegs :-) Truth be told, I love decorating on the cheap. In the photo below you can kind of see the trio of modern black vases. I saw the trio for $130, but didn't want to pay that. I found a collection of different coloured vases in shapes I liked and spray painted them all black (total cost $30).