Mary, Wanted to let you know that I received your email, but could not respond to it via email, as it did not transmit your email address, but came in through GW only. The blooms on Brother's Grimm last for an average length of time, but they do fade qucikly from bright orange to various hues of orange-pink in the heat. The various stages and shads of bloom make for a very beautiful sight when in full bloom. The best part though is that it is a very hardy rose as well and has been disease free as well. If you want a smaller plant with rather large orange blooms that holds its blooms for a long time, then Orange Flower Circus is a very good one.

Hard water? Definitely avoid darker counters. Also dark sinks and ORB faucets. I won't even have chrome, too many water spots. You are right to avoid shiny granite, the hard water will leave dull wipe marks. Solid surface does come in a lot of nice colors, we considered it, but since we wanted darker counters, rejected it because it scratches fairly easily and we were told the scratches would show up as white. If you want a light color, I think its a good choice.(The light color won't show the wipe marks too much) We chose premium laminate, not a popular choice here on GW but we liked the low maintainence of it. Our last laminate counter wore like iron, 28 yrs and 3 kids later, with barely a scratch, so we decided to go with laminate again. I'm not sorry, I do love my new counters. Will it matter for resale? Possibly, but I doubt it would be a deal breaker. Yes I do have a top mounted sink, which I am fine with but I believe you can get undermount sinks with laminate too. (By the way, you should look into a better water softener, hard water can do some damage to your pipes, maybe a new softener can handle the extreme hardness of your water)

I am about to install Atroguard Southern Trail in my entire downstairs. I had a water leak which damaged all of my engineered hardwoods, which I hated. I've looked at other engineered hardwood, Coretec, luxury vinyl, and now the water-resistant laminate. The water-resistant laminate looks and feels so much more like real hardwood. I brought a piece of hardwood home and actually liked the look and feel of the laminate much better than the vinyl, Coretec, or engineered hardwood. It is 7.7" wide and about as thick as real hardwood. I certainly hope I don't have any of the problems described above.

I have looked at another store that also had Coretec and several other brands and did find one other that I might consider but somehow the red river hickory is still sitting well with me. At this point, DH really likes it and I am inclined to go with it. I am getting close to ordering. I am going to have them come out and give me an idea of how much product and what the install will actually cost. We will need some removal and I want a finished product ( quarter round, etc) and I don't really have a good idea of what it's going to cost. I usually really shop around but I am really hesitant to have someone install the flooring and then have the manufacturer say it was faulty. We shall see. The Arbor is very nice, but colors like that just look dead in my space.