I hate to waste peoples' time while I'm learning. You can test your attempts by using the "Preview Message" function. You can preview your attempt, and then don't post the final message. I'd like to learn to quote people too. This is also done with angle brackets -- these things . Here's how. 1. Highlight the part of the text you'd like to quote. 2. Right click. 3. Click on "copy". 4. Then type two italic commands, like this: [i][/i] -- EXCEPT that instead of square brackets, use angle brackets. You'll notice that the two commands are the same, except that the second command has a slash. The first command starts the italic, then second command ends it. 5. Place your cursor between the two italic commands. 6. Right click. 7. Click on "Paste". This will paste your text between the italic commands. The command will look like this: [i]I'd like to learn to quote people too.[/i] EXCEPT that you will have angle brackets, not square brackets. 8. Click on "Preview Message". 9. You will now see your italics, like this: I'd like to learn to quote people too. This system also works with underscore commands (use a "u") and boldface commands (use a "b") and strikeout commands (use a "s").

Just good sense, Hollysprings. Jeep, are you sure you wouldn't be interested in going at least light-er, bounce more of that heat right back into the sky instead of soaking it in? Real comfort and energy bill issues are involved here. Traditionally, a lot of roofs here in the South were even white, including your area, for obvious reasons. I wanted to throw back to that sensible tradition when we custom built 5 years ago, but, to my amazement, the excitingly in-style colors of black, charcoal and dark brown (!,!, and !) were being put on tract developments everywhere at the time and there wasn't a white shingle to be found in the entire South. The best we could do was a pale gray. We also painted our porch floor a light blue instead of the dark woodland green I would have liked, and because of that I can walk out there barefoot these afternoons instead of hotfooting fast back inside, ouch, ouch, ouch-style. FWIW, "Burnished Slate" does go nicely with the woods, echoing the tree trunks, especially when they're wet.

Here's a pic showing our faux rafter tails. Not the best pic, but you get the idea. I remember now why closed soffits are required in some areas- fire prevention. Almost all of the outside materials on our house are fire-resistant, offering some small comfort living in the woods during an extreme drought.

When a poster asks about interior or exterior finishes it's always a help to know and understand all of the other finish choices, since they all have to be harmonious with each other. We still don't know what your exterior wall material and finish will be, and that will have a major effect on the color of gutters and downspouts. If your exterior siding and finish will be some sort of "natural" color, then I think the suggestion above to paint both gutters and downspouts a copper color is a good solution. Ron's suggestion of one color for the gutter, matching the natural stain finish, and a second color for the downspouts, matching the siding finish, is also a good possibility. Good luck on your project.