I have been doing that. My problem is I have so many paint chips that I can't seem to choose colors. I have been leaning toward Woodstock Tan and Huntington Beige for my living/family rooms (they open to each other). Or else a Tyler Taupe and Lenox Tan. I love Texas Leather but I think it might be too dark. But berkshire beige and Coastal Fog might be too light. For my center hallway, I was thinking of Wheeling Neutral or Powell Buff. I just don't know if I should be looking at these colors for my living/family room instead of entry way. I have distinct rooms so I can use multiple colors. I want everything to flow but still have their own feeling. I definitely don't want anything in the yellow tones. I also just spent a lot of money ripping out a full wall brick fireplace and dark paneling. The space seems so much bigger now that it is sheetrocked, I want to keep that feeling. Any thoughts.

Hi Bernard, I hope I don't repeat something because I only got about halfway through this thread before I got sick of reading and decided to go ahead and post. #1. I don't know where the idea come from that calloused roots are good. Callouses can't absorb water. It's dry scar tissue that keeps in/out moisture, thereby protecting broken stems and so on. When a plant's roots are partially exposed by wildlife digging, etc., the exposed portion callouses to keep the plant from dehydrating, but that calloused portion will never absorb water again. We don't want roots to callous (except maybe Bonsai growers who like to expose some roots over a rock or something). Putting a root system into dry mix is never good for it. I challenge anyone to prove how dehydrating or callousing a root system can possibly be good for it. The previous poster who said the dry mix will dehydrate the plant is correct. Always use damp mix for re-potting a healthy root system. If the roots are dead, it might be a different story. #2. As you've already learned, it's easy to under-water gritty mix. Since it's pretty close to impossible to over-water grit, I'm with the posters who say to soak it deeply and often. If you're paranoid, soak it daily, or even twice daily, but then give the pot a quick, little down-up motion to dislodge any perched water. That way it'll always be just barely moist. If it were mine, and planted in grit, I'd just water every day or two until the roots are well-established. As one who has killed off whole, healthy root systems by under-watering grit (once weekly), I feel confident in telling you that you're extremely unlikely to drown a plant in grit. I'm watering my succulents daily right now, and some are STILL too dry. BTW, Danny, I think mentioned he prefers soil for jades. I don't disagree with him. The one I have in soil has grown much better than the ones I have in grit. Furthermore, the Aeonium I had in a 1:1 soil:pumice mix has a huge, beautiful, healthy root system. The big one in grit has puny roots. These aren't experiments with standardized variables, so something else might be going on, but for now, I'm also not certain that grit is always a better medium.

My daughter and I were out today and bought the original print fabric to make one large pillow for the sofa. She also picked out a solid color fabric in the darker green that's in the print for another slightly smaller pillow. I liked a stripe that coordinated well, but she says she wants to keep things simple. She has also decided to use the rug from IKEA. Haven't purchased it yet, tho. End tables, coffee table and lamps will be the next choices to make.

I was working on the plan idea below before I read that you were okay giving up nook seating. Thought I'd post it anyway. Plan A does not move any walls but it does add a wall to the pantry, creating a pantry and a mudroom closet and eliminating the walk-thru. I guessed at the pantry measurements, assuming it's 48" interior with standard thickness walls (4.5"). You should have about the same amount of pantry storage as your current walk-thru pantry provides. I wasn't quite sure how the width was measured but I assumed it was from exterior wall to end of current fridge wall. My measurements reflect that. I kept the aisles generous since the outside of the island is a major traffic path through your home. I wouldn't want to go deeper than 60" for an island anyway; deeper than that and it becomes difficult to clean the center of it. I moved the fridge towards the nook and added a prep sink to the island, creating a cooking zone. From what you've written, I'm assuming that you'll prefer to prep on the island, facing your family and friends. Most of our time making a meal is spent in prep, not at the range or cook top (studies est we spend 70% of our time prepping). I moved the clean-up sink and DW to the current fridge wall. I added a MW drawer to this area. I'd rather have it closer to the fridge but I opted not to give up drawer space in the island since you'll need that for pots, pans and prep items. I also assumed that your fridge is standard depth, not counter depth so I kept the aisle between island and range counter run generous enough so that you should have about 45" between counter and fridge door, 43" between counter and fridge handles. I created a banquette seating area in the nook with a bench filling the wall, making it easy for people to slide on and off the bench. You can seat 4 easily; in a pinch, you could seat 6. I added cabs on the half wall between nook and LR. You can use this area as a breakfast/beverage bar, Command Central, buffet counter... lots of possibilities. The island is large enough to seat 5. Add in nook seating, you can seat 9 in your kitchen. As your family and friends advance in years, they will prefer table seating over counter seating. The above plan does not affect walls but it does affect plumbing. It looks like you have a finished basement so changing plumbing will require tearing into the basement ceiling to move pipes and repairing the ceiling. This is not an expense you can avoid since you wish to change the shape of the island, which will mean moving the existing sink's plumbing. That said, a fellow GWer did share their method of moving plumbing without tearing into their concrete slab floors. I'll see if I can find that for you (they posted pics) in case it's a solution for you. Here's a slight modification to the above plan that requires changing the pantry walls. I eliminated the corner pantry in favor of a rectangular pantry with a pocket door. I shifted the back wall into the mudroom closet, making it smaller but keeping pantry storage roughly the same as it is in Plan A. Here's a pic showing you how this type of pantry would look: Changing the pantry shape means you get more counter on each side of the range. It will also make that corner seem larger. We got rid of a corner sink when we remodeled and I can't believe how much larger my kitchen feels without that angled cab cutting across the corner. I'm working on another idea but I won't have time to post it until later.