Hello there! We are in the early phases of construction and are pretty much sold on the Nichiha shake siding product. Like persnicketydesign and others, we would be the guinea pigs in our area for "macadamia" if we go that way (deciding between that and "maple"). Houses we've visited in person look soooo different than in the photos (and even in the samples), it scares us a little. For example, from the photos and samples we were convinced that we would go with "caramel" to achieve a nice natural cedar look. When we saw a whole house in caramel, we were disappointed... it had a pronounced plasticky sheen and it just looked like a big orange house. Then we saw a house done in "maple" - which we didn't like in the samples - and it looked much more natural. So maybe just a few questions to help us interpret the photos, if you would be so kind! Do you get much of a sheen with the macadamia color? Was it lighter or darker than you expected? The samples have a little bit of a pinkish hue... does that show on the house or does it dissipate over a large surface? Do you see some variation in texture or does it end up more of a flat beige or tan? That's pretty much it, thanks so much in advance for any insight you can provide. Your house is beautiful... really tasteful detail, less is more. Nicely done :-) Stephan (sr@vm1.com)

I've read that beiges will have an undertone of either pink/peach or green. Macadamia probably tends more toward green, but not as much as some beiges. In the SW fan deck, for the most part the shades on strip numbers lower than the Whole Wheat one tend toward pink/peach (with the Nomadic Desert being the least of those-ND looks like caramel to me). Those strip numbers higher than and including Whole Wheat tend to have the green undertones. Peachy beiges are tricky. I used Sand Dollar in my foyer which got very little natural light and it looked like a nice, neutral beige. I decided to use it in my kitchen which has large west facing windows, and it looked like refried beans - no lie. One thought with a basement space is to bring the "outdoors" in by using a creamy yellow (sun), blue (sky) or green (foliage). But the shades of each have to be right. Muted shades sometimes just look gray in a darker space. Do you have color corrected light bulbs? That will make a difference as well. Use them now while you are testing out paint samples.

Greetings, we're looking to establish a few pistachio and macadamia trees. If you have any seed for trade or know of anyone who has them for trade or sale, please contact: tyler@earthsociety.org cheers, TJ

g'day popi, depends if it is a seedling or a grafted tree? we have grafted trees here and one has now flowered and has set nuts after around 4+ years in the ground and is about 2.5 meters high. seedlings could take up to 10 or even 14 years to produce. len mail len lens garden page