I bought and planted a crepe myrtle from a central Louisiana nursery, and bought it when it was in bloom. It was dark bright pink, and for several years after it bloomed as such. I have had it for about 15-20 years. I live in deep south Texas on the coast. For the past few years it has had a mix of bright pink and light pink-whiter blooms at the same time. It is only one trunk which branches at about 3 feet off the ground, and the blooms are evenly distributed, so I think it is something lacking in our soil. usually it tests at about neutral, where La. soil is usually acidic,or else I am bleaching the blooms with gray water. Which is what we use to water our yard freq.

Lavender, WOW... your plan looks amazing! I am still deciding on what to put into the kitchen. I have always been drawn to clean lines but with warmth - I want the space to have some rusticity to it as well. I am hoping when we gut it that we will find the brick in good enough condition to keep it exposed. Another GW posted this picture and I just LOVE these floors. I had not considered porcelein/ceramic/stone floors because I really like the idea of something bullet proof (such as vinyl), but I dragged home a lot of samples for DH to look at and he is not thrilled about the idea of putting so much into the kitchen and then using vinyl on the floors. He loves this inspiration pic of the floors too so this is our new direction: This is what I am considering for the main kitchen for cabinetry - It would be a cove inset where the frame is 5/4 and the doors are 4/4 so the doors/drawers are recessed in - I will have the cabinets combined wherever possible so that there won't be any seams. I will also eliminate the rails between doors and drawers so that I can have extra space inside the cabinets - in other words, there will be a frame on the outside of the doors and drawers but no frame between them. The wood is called cerused oak, also known as limed oak... I saw a sample of it and fell for it (DH did too). It has sort of a worn old french look to it but also what I would consider an understated elegance. For the butler's pantry, I am thinking of something painted that will pick up on what happens in the kitchen. If I have any glass door cabinets in the kitchen, I will have the interiors of the cabinets painted with the same color as the butler's pantry cabinets. Ignore, the doorstyle, but I like this color that the cabinet company offers - it is called farm fresh: I want the butler's pantry to be a transition from the kitchen to the rest of the house. So the butler's pantry will be just a little bit more dressy than the kitchen. The kitchen will have what I would consider a "pro style" look to it but warm, homey, clean lines. I think what will tie the two spaces together will be doorstyle, flooring, and countertops. The floors in the rest of the house are a honey oak (which is not my favorite so I don't want to bring that in at all -- this is why I think painted cabinets in the butler's pantry will ease the transition of the honey oak floors in the rest of the house and the cerused oak cabinets in the kitchen). For the peninsula I am considering frameless cabinetry in a different doorstyle and having panels on the side and back of the cabinet that match this doorstyle but in the same cerused oak finish as on the other cabinet. Here is the doorstyle: I LOVE the arctic pear light fixture by Ochre but I highly doubt I can afford it, but I would like something decorative along these lines somewhere in either the kitchen, over the peninsula, over the sink in the butler's pantry or over the dining room table. It comes in several different sizes - obviously i wouldn't need anything as big as this but either way not sure it will make a difference as it is likely out of the budget My dining room looks like this... it is just on the other side of the butler's pantry and I am working toward having a cohesion between all the rooms - I like a lot of color - just love my orange chairs (they are from the 1940's and I recently had them reupholstered). I will paint the upper part of the dining room walls but will wait until after the kitchen is done so that I can tie in colors, etc. I am sure I have totally bored you by now, but thanks for looking!!

I have Dovedale. Sorry no pics. After one year it is holding up really well. My dad spilled a turmeric sauce all over the counters. I did not notice he missed a few drops here and there till three weeks later. It took quite of bit of elbow grease but I got it all out. First day after the counters were put in my uncle made sangria and let wine and lemon dry on the counters. Cleaned up right away. Have made marinara sauce from scratch a dozen or so times. As you can probably tell by now we are a messy clan but it cleaned up right away. When looking through pics I chose Torquay because it was the most realistic looking Carrera marble quartz. I really like the 12x12" sample. Then I went to the Cambria distribution center to see a full slab and hated it. Too busy and gray. I like the Dovedale because from five feet away it looks white but then up close looks like a white stone with perfectly placed caramel colored vintage hardwater stains/veins. Like the romantic pictures I have in my head of a public building in Rome. Not how most of those stones would look in real life. But maybe the most beautiful three foot section. Just reproduced over and over in my entire kitchen. Some people want sections of pure white while most quartz, including Dovedale, have speckles of grey. This hides dust. Pure white or pure black is going to show every bit of dust and debris. I would not want one of the pure colors. I don't have a domestic staff to clean morning, noon, and evening so it looks good.

I am no expert but since no one else has replied, I'll comment. I am pretty sure Rococo and Minuet have different undertones. And they are too similar in pattern to combine, I'd choose one or the other. Only one counter should have a pattern, the other counter should be a solid that combines well with your patterned counter.