Thanks for the kind words. My heart is typically drawn to one allover exterior, but am now fearing a brick entry would be overkill. Curious as to what a shingle/siding entry might look like as we are doing shingle siding on the dormers. I tried to repost with a different title but it may have gotten deleted. I have always love the cottage cedar shake look but was fearful of using in oklahoma. No one does it here unless you are in a historical district(like soonermagic) I wasn't crazy about doing a brick home with rock entry which everyone does here. I just couldn't fit the rock in with what I had in my mind. I guess I am still trying to find a cottage/beach house/hampton vibe in there somewhere....

Oh my gosh, I just talked to this guy today. You should call him. He totally gets color!!! His name is Michael Kornell, VP Sales & Marketing of Eco-Wares, 866-874-8070 Â Toll Free, 703-425-0439 Â Direct Line. Eco-Wares offers Trojan Masonry Sealer that leaves no trace, but they also have a TINTED one called Color Sealer. He's sending me the color chart of 36 colors. Yes, 36 colors! According to Michael, TCS dramatically changes the color of your brick without making it shiny, it's matte, it is permanent, and waterbased. It's a green product ta boot. Coolest stuff I've come across in a long time. Really excited about it. If you call him, get info, or use it, definitely post back. I don't have the color chart, so I can't make a guess at what might work to bring some harmony to your exterior, but honestly it doesn't sound like it would be that difficult to pull together a good exterior color combo. Here is a link that might be useful: CHANGE THE COLOR OF YOUR BRICK!

Yes, they had to sand it lightly and then carefully remove all dust and residue. I don’t get why you are buying this flooring to begin with though. I would never have bought it if I had known how poor the finish was and that the company didn’t care or stand behind their product. In the end, we spent much more than we would have if we had just bought a better product. There are quality wood and engineered floors out there. Why don’t you give them your business? I posted my experinece so that people could learn from my mistakes, not repeat them. 🙁

Thanks for all of the comments, minus a few they have been very helpful! No, it is not a custom built home, but they are quite excited, certainly not the end of the world, lol. It is bigger than it looks from the outside and has some nice views from the back and is well located next to schools, a rec center, bike paths and parks. They looked for an existing home in their price range, but they are flying off the market so fast in this area that every house they bid on was gone quickly. This house is on the smaller side in this neighborhood and yes they were not happy with the quality of some of the interior finishing touches offered so will probably be changing them quickly. Happily they sold their first home in one day, received multiple offers and nearly doubled their money. It was a small fixer upper that they rehabbed. The shame of this is that I would guess the model did not look like this and with the options they chose this was how the builder finished it off. I am sure it was in a picture and they missed this detail. Why any professional would think this was acceptable is beyond me. They could easily sell and get their money back and more if it bothers them too much. Housing stock is very limited here. Some of the ideas that have been suggested are not that expensive of a fix if they choose to do them. Thanks again for all of the productive comments. I have been passing them on along with all of the renderings. Special thanks to Pal!!! You have been so helpful, I am sure they will be ecstatic with all of the smart suggestions, many which they can do affordably!