Ditto on the big mudroom. Some place for sports equipment (balls, shoes, helmets, pads...) I only have two kids but they're multi-sport, especially DS, so we have shoes for multiple sports, plus baseball bats, football pads and helmet (which get stinky) and myriad other stuff that ends up by the backdoor (in the mudroom.) (DS is 14 but already 6'4" so storing all those shoes is no small thing, pun intended.) Extra space in the garage for joggers and strollers when they're little, and for bikes and maybe golf clubs when they're bigger. Also a handy storage space (basement or garage) for holiday decorations. Seems like a small thing but at least in my neighborhood everyone has Christmas/ winter holiday lights; lots of Halloween decorations (kids love those); stuff for Easter, etc. (And room for yard work stuff like a lawn mower, hose reels, shovels, etc.) If you don't have one yet, you may end up with a pet so space for bowls, food, etc. (probably in the mudroom) will help. Ditto the idea of a powder room near the backdoor / family entrance. You don't want kids tromping through your house to use the restroom, and if you're like me you DO want to have lots of kids at your house so you know what they're up to. (I have teens.) If you like to have people over, it's nice to have easy access from the kitchen to the outside for grilling, outdoor happy hours, etc. Homework space is interesting, at least in my house. We have a 'home work room' with a printer and a desk for each kid. But DD prefers to do her homework at the kitchen counter which makes me a bit nuts because I'm constantly clearing away papers. She's in high school and they have a TON of books and papers. We have a finished basement, which is great for when one of the kids wants to hang out with friends or when they were younger and had sleep overs. It's also where I store craft stuff which we don't use so much anymore but did a ton when they were little. Somewhere on this board was a thread of 'what would you do differently' that might help with ideas. And for whatever it's worth... we use our warming drawer in the kitchen all the time. As the kids get older their schedules can be all over the place, especially if they're in sports. We try to always have a family dinner, but sometimes end up with DS's plate in the warming drawer if he has a long/late practice. We also use if for pizza nights, happy hours, holiday dinners, etc., so I don't consider it an 'extra' - I use mine often.

I'm kind of lukewarm on mine. If I just have a few things to hand wash (like my Wusthof knives which aren't supposed to go in the DW), I feel like I have to fill it up more than necessary just to get the water above the grid. (So I wait until I have a pot or something to hand wash.) I also find that I'm cleaning the bottom of the sink less often. I like the flat grid better than the one with sides (I have a double bowl), because the flat one I can put in the DW. For the one with sides, the DW has to be fairly empty on the bottom rack for it to fit. And the bottom of my SS sink is scratched despite having the protection of the grid, so it's not one of my favorite things. On the plus side, I do like that plates and cutting boards can stand on their sides for rinsing.

Hey, Alana. Thank you for the update! I was actually thinking of you and your rose the other day as I walked through the neighborhood. You must be psychic because I have been planning to unearth this post from the forum history. (I use the word "unearth" to imply laborious digging. I am at a loss as to how to search for old threads and need to figure out the new system.) I want to offer a bit of my experience with the two HMs, Nur Mahal and Sky Rocket. I have never seen either one hit that true dark red note that your rose hits. In my experience, they don't deepen to that color. They tend to have more crimson-pink undertones. I would swear up and down that your rose is Dr. Huey except for the pink "sport" in an earlier photo (which really stumped me) and, now, the suspected remontancy. I also wanted to share something really odd that I spotted last summer in Portland. A number of neighbors are growing what I believe is Dr. Huey. The circumstances are right for Huey--neglected or abandoned garden or a cluster of contemporary cultivars that seem to be sending out shoots of rootstock or plants in formerly neglected gardens which are now tended by new homeowners. Last summer, I could have sworn I saw later blooms on some of those plants that I believe to be Huey. If my year hadn't been so crazy, I would have stopped to photograph the blooms/plants. This year, I'm hoping that I'll have time to keep my eyes open for the impossible, and if I see it, I'll swing the car to the side of the road and pull out my phone camera. Can anyone speak to this phenomenon? Does Huey carry the possibility of minor remontancy when growing under some set of unusual circumstances? I hesitate to even mention it for fear of sounding like I've lost my mind, but last year rhododendrons and camellias rebloomed, as did my Magnolia soulingeana. Carol

Have to agree with the above - it looks on my monitor that all of the backsplash tiles read green/blue and the countertop reads grey/brown and none of them seem to work together. The fireclay tiles posted by eam44 would look to be a much better match. I disagree above that you need some kind of focal point. I think it's a smallish kitchen and has lovely pendants, and windows and island and a bold backsplash is just competing with that. Keep it simple! In fact, i was the above writer who earlier said they pretty much always dislike the inset backsplash and i think your current BS is a perfect example of how those insets rarely look good. Even when the underlying colors are similar, as yours are, there's just something "off" about them. I think the only exception is when they are using almost the same tile (like, carerra subway tile BS with a carerra herringbone pattern inset). I still think this is busier than i like, but isn't an eyesore as so many other insets are. I think this inset mistake is actually a good opportunity to replace the whole thing!