You're quite welcome. There is always a solution - or at least a way to make it better - with color. Especially exterior. Funcolors I went back to SW store. I compared the Creamy SW 7012 and the Dover White SW 6385 to the brick. As you suggested the Site White does nothing to bring balance. Whereas the creamy and dover you picked make it all come together. How did you know that? I know Site White well. It's a pale gray - it's not white and a pale gray wouldn't relate to the brick in any way. It relates to the roof but we want to make choices that creates visual bridges and enhances color relationships with the brick, not the roof. You have a cool, neutral color tolerance/preference and those are the colors you gravitate toward. Site White is a similar kind of color choice as the roof color that started the whole thing. Dover and Creamy are very close, I think you see color on broader terms now and can make the call as to which one, Creamy or Dover, relates to the brick the best. Dover is a great ext. trim color. Funcolors above you touched on putting a faux finish on the textured aluminum garage door. What product would you suggest to accomplish it. I would like to explore that possibility. That would be up to the pro finisher you hire to do the work. I honestly don't know because I don't do finishes. It's also similar to regular paint product choices. I don't ever tell a painter what products to use exterior. As long as it's a top brand and best grade I make color work on their product terms. Because the pro painter is the one who has to work with the product and guarantee the job. Not me. You recommended I need an orange color to make things work. Please see the attached link for a sample of the walnut color. What is your advice regarding the best color to work with. If I were there to do it for you, I'd have the SW guys mix a custom stain. Their instruction would be to mix up something that looked as if it were comprised of 50% Walnut and 50% Cherrywood. Something that looked like their SW Wood Classics Warm Chestnut or Cinnamon. But you're on you're own and Walnut is a perfectly fine choice. It does have the right undertone - might be a little too dark brown. . . but I'm being picky and a perfectionist.

I love the texture (we went with Pebble Sheen) I do not think I would like Pebble Tec..I have pretty sensitive feet and push off the walls a lot. I thought we would have to wear pool shoes but my kids who really walk a lot more in the pool than I do (I swim laps mostly) have had no problem. I actually like the gray look..we live on a farm and to me it looks more like natural stone color....I had wanted to go with the Irish Mist, but they told me it may be too farmy for my liking..too green :) The cat licking the step was as it was filling up...hope these help!

Yay, can't wait to see your pool filling with H2O! I will sound like a broken record and say you will love the Aqua Blue PS! Glad you get to see the PS going in...cool process. Ours did have a tiny green tint until the chemicals were added and equip. turned on. After that, the great blue color came through and it was like, WoW !! After your pool is full, call CCP and tell them and they will send out the "start up" guy from NW Pools. He will turn on equipment, get your chemicals in and do some basic stuff with you......he will also bring you a lot of goodies, be ready to brush the PS a lot! Then 3-5 days later you will have Pool School. You have to call and schedule it for a time that is best for you. The start up guy will give you a letter with names and numbers on it so you know who to call. It was a great 2 hours spent with "scott" from NW Pools. He was very imformative about everything. He answered all our questions about everything from balancing chemicals to sealing our travertine! He will bring you a packet of information as a guide to go by. Be ready to take a lot of notes....he will give you some names of chemicals to use and not to use and good places to buy things and when you need to buy name brand and when you can get by with a "generic" type. So for the first month, someone from NW Pools will take care of your pool, come out weekly and balance chemicals and then after 3 weeks, they will come back out to add all the salt. You do not have to buy any of the start up chemicals for the first month or the salt....they provide it. After that, I believe it's all yours!!!! We still have to wait about 1.5 weeks before we get our salt added....we are ready for it....I'm tired of the chlorine smell already! ALSO: Make sure you ask lots of questions to the Pool School guy. We forgot to ask him about 10 things we now are curious about. He said to call him anytime, so we will be doing that next week. I dont know if this is true for all PB's, but since we are using the same PB, I can help you out Wingosh.....not sure about other's. Thanks for the names of your carpenter. I may give them a call later this fall and get a bid. How big of a patio are you doing? We just need the structure, not the concrete. Hope this helps you!!!! Janet

Well I'm NOT a blue person. Indoors I have NO blue. My husband doesn't understand this. I have no idea why I feel this way. Outdoors things are different! I have a blue/yellow/white garden bed which I love. Yes, delphineums, catananche, campanulas, baptisia and more, are mixed with trollius, coreopsis moonbeam, peony Claire de Lune and low growing white clematis and aquilegia. It is a big mix and wouldn't be any fun at all without the blue! There are loads of clematis that are purple or blue/purple, but also some very nice blues I think. You do get into the question of "what is blue?" My husband and I think this could well be a male/female issue! Also, by saying a flower is blue, perhaps a catalogue gains more sales? * Posted by: coolbeans (My Page) on Sat, Feb 2, 02 at 13:12 This is my VERY favorite thread, and I totally agree with all those who feel that there is just "something" about blue flowers; they ARE magical, they ARE very special; and they make me happier than any other color flower. Don't know why...I just started a flat full of Bluebird delphinium seeds I saved from my one lonely plant last year. A bunch of them germinated, so now I can't wait to have a huge stand of them! Maybe they won't bloom this year, but maybe they will. And also "true blue" penstemons, I'm trying for the first time. I can't get enough of this precious color. * Posted by: Anne_Marie_Alb (My Page) on Tue, Feb 5, 02 at 17:47 WOW....... Did anyone realize that this thread started almost 5 years ago... on Feb. 15, 1997!!!!! I am amazed it has survived that long. Probably, the oldest thread still on the top page! I wonder if "Clare B" (who started the thread) is still an active member of the Garden Web!!! I personally love blue flowers (I mean blue, and not purple, which I also like). I can't believe how many blue flowers I am starting from seeds this year... and that was just a pure coincidence! I also love RED flowers.. Maybe, I should start a "red flower" thread! I will first check the archives! * Posted by: Clare (My Page) on Thu, Feb 7, 02 at 20:34 Yes, Ann_Marie, I am still here! I will be a bit sad to see this thread fade away when it hits the 100 posts mark. After that, the threads are closed. I don't think I have any true blue flowers still. "Victoria Blue" Salvia is the closest thing. I use it a lot. It is such a heavy, long bloomer, and about one in twenty of them will survive winter here. Just wish I could predict which would survive so that I could save seed from those alone and perhaps work up a more hardy strain. By the way, the Hydrangeas in Memphis, Tennessee are incredible. Some are so saturated blue that I'd have to call them navy. * Posted by: Dswan (My Page) on Sat, Feb 9, 02 at 22:37 I'm going to add to this extremely long thread only because there really is something to true blue. I grow from seed a very difficult plant to propagate called Penstemon cyananthus or Wasatch Penstemon. I cold stratify and plant these every year in hopes of gettting one or two in my garden every year. Absolutely gorgeous. * Posted by: Rosa (My Page) on Mon, Mar 11, 02 at 10:24 Did no one mention Gentians-now those are blue! (along with my favorite penstemson of course-some are indeed blue). * Posted by: pineshade7b ) on Mon, Apr 15, 02 at 11:02 i agree with gloria mc coy. i love blue and green , they are my favorite colors in anything. just look in my house and closets. blue..ocean, blue jeans, my own eyes are blue and my husband's are green. many reasons to answer -why blue. although i do not "hyperventilate" , if i should go into a nursery and ask for a blue -flowering plant and the staff looks down their nose at me, i'll know now that they are only doing it because they think I'M a snob. until i adopted gardening as a serious hobby i had no idea that blue was a "snob" color. i just naturally began to look into flowers in the colors i liked personally. you learn something new everyday. i would have been hurt and confused to walk into a nursery and be looked at like a pariah, what did i say? now i know, thanks clare. * Posted by: DesertGardner (My Page) on Fri, Apr 19, 02 at 12:38 Wow - I never knew there was such a controversy over the color blue in the garden. After reading all the posts, I now understand why some gardeners prefer the color. And I have to say that I've never met any gardeners whom I would consider snobbish. Most of them are really quite down to earth! (if you pardon the expression...) I recently tried planting a red, white and blue flower bed, with 'Victoria Blue' Salvia being my blue color. It's a little too purple and doesn't look right as a "patriotic" design. I will probably tear out the red and white and keep the "blue" (purple) since it seems to like this desert heat. Someone mentioned black flowers, and I remembered seeing black pansies in the most recent Burpee catalog. They're a beautiful velvety black with a spot of yellow in the center. I think I'll plant some this winter, and start an obsession with black flowers! (just kidding Clare...) -Kara [* Posted by: yeona_sky (My Page) on Mon, Jun 24, 02 at 0:37 I just bought a blue poppy and am nervously watching its progress. My success with blues has been an up hill battle, but that hasn't changed my desire to spotlight it in my garden. Why blue?, again it's a passion with me. Clare, I hope you get the last word on this thread, and I hope you understand Why blue, a little better. * Posted by: Duster (My Page) on Wed, Jun 26, 02 at 23:56 I agree with the many others about getting annoyed when purple is referred to as blue. Maybe that's why I take up the cause of truly blue flowers! 99% of my Delphiniums are the true electric blue ones. I'd love one of the Himalayan Poppies but just not right for my little yard. I like the blue flowers, rather than the blue foliage plants. And no, blue is NOT my favorite color - I have nothing blue in my home decor. I just like the uniqueness of the TRUE blue and my stubbornness to get people to stop calling it purple!!!!