I'd advise against guessing how much sunlight you have available and suggest you do a sun/shade survey, which will take a total of c. 1/2 hour for spaces for c. 6 rosebushes, or fuschias if your space lacks enough light for roses. How to do a sunlight survey for roses. Sun light which is strong enough to cast a dark shadow from ones' hand when hand is held 3 feet above the ground, counts as "full sunlight". Survey: put a stick where ever you wish to plant a rosebush, and on a piece of paper draw where the sticks are placed,in you garden, and mark on the page, each with A, or B, or C, and so on. Then at each hour from 8 am through 4 pm, when sunlight is strongest: bring the page to the garden and see if your hand will cast a shadow onto the ground when held 3' above the ground. If it does cast a shadow onto the ground, that hour counts as "full sun". if it does not cast a shadow, that hour does not count as a sunlight hour for roses. mark zero sun for that hour. you don't need to do this in all the same day, but within the same week is good, or month, at least. Total up the hours of full sunlight for each stick: Example 8 am. full sun 9 am full sun 10 am full sun 11 am full sun noon full sun 1 pm full sun 2 pm full sun 3 pm full sun 4 pm faint shadow ( one hour counts as 1/2 hour) 8-3 pm = full sun or 7 hours total plus 1/2 hour of filtered sunlight= 7 and 1/2. In your latitude this is enough sunlight to grow Mme Alfred Carriere Crepescule Cornelia Lavender Dream (Hybrid Musk) Darlows Enigma Catos Cluster (and many other bush Noisettes) if you have c. 6 and 1/2 hours of full sunlight, I'd suggest the two Tea-Noisettes, because they will still bloom well enough for a garden display, but may decrease floriferousness and/or bloom more at the top of the bushes where sunlight is stronger. Less than 6 and 1/2 hours at your latitude, and I'd grow Alba and other once a year bloomers, such as 'Albertine' and fuschias. Good luck and best wishes for a lovely garden, Luxrosa

We-l-l-l, lemme see if I can give this a shot...done a couple of rock things in the past. Here's how I would describe it: The pro mosaicists who do walls are doing the same thing we are with slight modifications. They use thinset with additives for outdoor strength, both for adhering the pieces and for the grouting. The best substrate to use would be a solid concrete piece; the lowest would be a wood structure with foam board (like Wedi) attached to it, then covered with a heavy wire mesh called lath. The lath is then covered in stucco which squeezes thru the openings in the wire mesh, effectively encasing them and becoming a strong substrate which will not expand and contract like the underlying wood will. There are two ways to build a rock wall: wet set and dry stacking. Dry dtacking is just what the names says....no mortar, etc. to hold the rocks together. Wet setting rocks means the use of some sort of mortar to stick them together. Any gaps remaining between one row and the next are "pointed" that is to say filled with mortar for stability and appearance. Cement-type materials cannot be wiped off natural rocks like we wipe it off tile, china, etc. So a pastry bag type thing is used to squeeze the mortar into those gaps. Tesserae for outdoor use should be carefully chosen. Glass, natural stone, high fired tile and pottery are all possibilities, but I don't know how to determine what is high fired and what is not. Personally I have used regular tile on stepping stones and they have been outside for many years; however, snowfall is rare and below freezing temps are infrequent here. How'd I do, NT???? Not trying to be a trouble-maker, just a shot at being an interpreter. HTH, Pat

Blue is not a great choice for a north-facing room, since it's a cool color. What about something in the yellow family? Maybe an off-white, like BM Linen White. I have that in a north/east room and it really warms up the room without being overly yellow.

Is your home difficult to locate as you return from your beach/water activities -- -- do you kayak or surf or otherwise move a good distance from your home? Are there a lot of similar homes in the area?. If so, that would be a good reason for making it unique among the homes. If you want the home colorful, you might choose your personal favorite color and then use two shades of it -- one for the siding and the other for the trim ... with a coordinating color for the door(s). Another idea (my personal preference IF you are not trying to minimize/match the look of the block pillars), would be to paint the home white -- which reflects heat well. If there are a lot of white homes in the area, you could add an exterior wall metal sculpture decoration between the windows to easily identify the home from a distance. https://www.google.com/search?q=large+exterior+wall+pressed+metal+wall+sculpture+sunshine&client=firefox-b-1-d&sxsrf=ALeKk039SeAJ-JxBbEYYisVjCf7vjRqirg:1617048028927&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwju_uSqpdbvAhVsh-AKHSPYA7wQ_AUoAnoECAEQBA&biw=1366&bih=626