Cindee has been soooo kind to let us use her chatroom if the forum idea doesn't work... We'll have to each download a free program if we don't have it on our computers. It'll be much faster Cindee's way. Will play around with it before Saturday. This will be soooo much fun no matter how we do it. Thanks for letting me experiment with the idea. I've wanted to do this for quite some time! I love my Garden Junking friends! Bear Hugs! Kirk

A lot of windows shown on the elevation drawings are not shown on the floorplans. Be sure your architect makes all the drawings show the same things...otherwise there could be confusion down the road. So sorry to hear about your RA. Planning for an elevator is a smart move! But may I ask why you've decided you want/need two staircases going up to the second floor? Building staircases isn't cheap and your house really isn't all that big. If it were me, I'd skip making the staircase behind the garage go up to the second floor and put the savings from that into going ahead and having the elevator installed now. (I assume the elevator would go where the 2nd floor linen closet is.) If your father is in good health at 82, he could easily live with you another 10 years...maybe even 15. And, the last thing you need to be dealing while suffering from RA and assisting an aging parent is the mess of a home renovation. I'd do the elevator now if at all possible and cut back on things like maybe granite countertops instead. Getting rid of the second staircase up would also allow you to make your 2nd floor laundry larger and more user friendly. Right now it is basically three skinny hallways. UGH! I'm sorry but that is a horrible design. (Speaking of which, I don't really see any need for a second doorway into the guestroom/bonus room. and having that second door just forces you to have a second hallway.) I'd get rid of the staircase, move the laundry room door up near the master closet and then incorporate that back hallway that currently lead down to the second door to the guest room into a nice large closet for the guest room...or maybe some linen storage to take the place of the linen room that is going to become the elevator shaft. Also, by cutting out the second staircase up, you can enlarge your first floor mudroom and make it more user friendly as well. So, unless you have strong feelings about keeping both staircases, you might want to consider cutting one out. As for having the piano upstairs, my only question is how are you going to get it up there? I've never owned a baby grand so have no idea how hard it would be to get one up a flight of stairs. You might want take the house plans by a piano moving company and get their input before you sign off on the plans. Also, while I see no need for two doors opening into the guest/bonus room from different sides, if you are going to have the piano up on the second floor in that "piano room" alcove, have you thought about possible putting a set of double pocket doors between the piano room and the guestroom/bonus room? With double 36" or 42" wide pocket doors, you would have the option of leaving them open and turning the guest/bonus room into a listening space where people could sit and enjoy a piano recital played on the piano in the alcove. Plus, imagine how pretty that nice large bonusroom/piano space could look with the doors pushed all the way open. And, when you do have guests, closing the pocket doors would still give them plenty of privacy since there is likely to be little reason for someone to wander down to play the piano when guests are staying in the bonus room. As for the kitchen, so run your plan by the gurus on the kitchen forum. Right off the bat it strikes me that while the fridge is in a reasonably good location for access by folks in the breakfast nook, it is not in a very good spot for use by the cook who will have to walk around the island to reach stuff like butter/milk while in the midst of prepping dinner. Also, a prep sink on the back counter is not likely to get much use because it is "around the island" from the stove. I suspect you will find that you wind up using the main sink all the time because all you have to do to reach it from the stove is pivot around. Just my thoughts. Hope some of it proves helpful.

I do like your fixture selections too. If that is the bronze you were looking at, it is not as dark as what I was picturing. My island fixture was called bronze but looking at it, you would think it was black. If you look close enough you can find a few golden highlights. Yours has some of the warmth I was looking to wood to pick up without being harsh. There is still a softness that ties in with your silver and blue-grey. It will also tie in with your floors and island. It also looks like it would be great with that mosaic tile. I do think you can mix your metals if you pay careful attention the lines and style. I have stainless appliances, pewter hardware on my white cabinets and black on my cherry island. Since your island will be a very different finish, you can use a different pull on those cabinets and bring in a finish similar to your lighting. Look at pewter for your white cabinet pulls, or especially if you want them all to be the same. Pewter finishes and the things done with them tend to look older and softer while your nickel can go more modern and slick. With your color palette and seeing those fixtures, I think I'd like the older, slightly more rustic feel of the pewter. The kind of comfortable you get with a favorite pair of jeans. Know what I mean? I see what you were thinking with the tile, but it just doesn't work for me. I tend to like glossy finishes and white or lighter colors for a splash. I want them to reflect light rather than suck it up and let it die under my upper cabinets. I have seen a few dark splashes I like, but they tend to be rich color, the same as the counters and/or pretty contemporary from what I can remember. If you look at a white or light color ceramic or glass, you could use a liner in the other colors you are using or even a metallic liner so you have a bit of color and detail without doing a lot. That's similar to what I did. As for that pony wall, make it the height you want it or need it to be for function and visual balance in the room. Don't worry too much about the tile size. The tile setter can figure out how to fade a cut tile into the top or bottom row and give it all a finished look.

Nik, I do think it's too soon to tell much about such an immature plant; especially without any close-up photos of leaves, buds, thorns, etc. I did suggest 'Rose Edouard', but I meant that to be a starting place for exploration, certainly not as a definitive ID. I wondered if the rose 'Palmyre' might be called that because at one point that was a scion that didn't survive. 'Rose Edouard' and 'Céline' are two popular Bourbon rootstocks that often survived the roses grafted onto them, and early descriptions of 'RE' and 'Céline' both seem like good candidates. The HMF photos for both roses seem to me to not match up too well with the early references, but others may disagree. 'Céline', incidentally, was described early on as both a Hybrid Bourbon and a Hybrid China. I believe that William Paul started out calling her a Bourbon or Hybrid Bourbon, but then began calling her a Hybrid Chinese. Virginia