HELLO! everybody THanks so much for all that input. I am still digesting it all! I have been taking notes from your suggestions; meanwhile taking loads of garage/ household/yard junk to the landfill sprucing up our place; we're in the midst of remodeling while we watch the real estate market slowing down here...sigh. I realize you can not have perfection anywhere on this earth; I just know the few things we really seek should we move. (Also my husband wants to retire sometime but if we stay here he'll be working till he's 90!) LOL. He's convinced we could live cheaper somewhere in the southeast, I could have my dream house with a lap swimming pool and my daughter could get a better education and not be so isolated from friends. There are pluses to living here-being at our unique microclimate higher elevation on the slopes of a mountain, we have nice cold/cool nights in winter, no cockroaches or other creepy crawlies like the lower elevations. We live up where the Maui onions and protea grow and I will miss this but NOT the weeds which are a monstrous problem. People tend to assume Hawaii is Paradise and why the heck would we leave-having lived here on and off since the '70's it has it's good and bad points. THE BEST things are--relatively LOW property taxes and no snakes,trade winds most of the time, 80's most of the year though summer can be hell. We have NO bears (that horrid recent bear attack in TENN has got me a bit scared about moving to the mountain areas there now!)Matter of fact, we have no really dangerous critters which is something I don't take lightly. Cockroaches are jokingly referred to as the Hawaii state bird, however (yuck!) and there are scorpions, cane spiders and centipedes at lower elevations near pineapple and cane fields, i.e. where most people live here. We do have black widow spiders up here, just killed one at my daughter's school cafeteria the other day! I never had a fear of flesh eating bacteria until recently as more cases seem to occur--it's a fact of life in tropical climates where bacteria thrives. I also used to surf for many years, but there has been a definite increase in shark attacks so I am sticking to the local YMCA pool these days as most of my favorite surfing spots are also inhabited by sea turtles which is a shark's delight! We do get hurricanes here, and historically there have been some nasty tsunamis but not too frequent. No snow; but rain for weeks in winter that can be a bit too much. Many of our friends are selling their homes here mainly to get away from obscenely high gas prices-now approx $3.50 gallon; high medical/dental expenses and really not the best in medical care either; food and other products also very high priced--also cars,homes-- you name it, we pay through the nose for it here. PLus really poor public schools. This is a tourism based economy. Lots of rich mainland folks buying real estate here for vacation and rental homes and snowbirds buying vacation homes has made the market formidable for regular folks.) So when you live in paradise you tend to be too busy to get to the beach and play tourist! Anyway I have to book our trip to scope out all those areas and will give you an update in the future!

Hello, colonel_kernel. Several years ago, I was able to buy a small-leafed 1.5-2' high tea plant locally at a nursery called Calloway's (called Cornelius in Houston). The plant did not make it through the summer-fall season though. If you plant one, I would add extra care and effort to monitor soil moisture levels. And additional hand watering on the first years may be needed until it becomes established. I planted two different camellias in the same general protected area that year and the tea plant was the one that did not make it. The other one was a large leaf japonica. The japonica was planted in early Spring whereas the tea plant was planted in the summer months. Very disappointing. That may have been the year when I decided not to plant anything whatsoever during the hot season.Hee hee hee. So, go for it! I would recommend an extra effort monitoring it in Year 1's summer and if possible, planting it very early so it can handle our hot temps asap. I have not looked for them online. Maybe a Texas-based nursery might carry it or just drive to East Texas and see if anyone carries it. When Sudden Oak Death (AKA, Ramorum blight) became a well known issue in California, Texas instituted restrictions in the importation of camellias & other selected plants from "the outside". When buying sinensis, you may want to order more than one shrub so as to have an adequate supply of leaves, especially if you drink a lot of tea or the plant is small to begin with. You should be fine in Z9 as long as it is exposed to afternoon shade by 11am-12pm-ish and protected from our summer drying winds. It may do better in environment where you water with a sprinkler as opposed to drip irrigation since drip will not moisten the top's tiny roots. Luis This post was edited by luis_pr on Sat, Jun 28, 14 at 3:25

Rather than just starting to pick a color out of the blue, so to speak, start with an inspiration piece...it can be a design seed as dilly-ny suggested, or it can be anything around which you can build your color scheme...window treatment fabrics, a throw pillow, a piece of art work, colors in your dishes, or an image from on line or in a magazine of a room whose colors you like. Perhaps look at some rooms on houzz.com for inspiration. Here for example is a room with pale gray walls with blue and orange accents. [Transitional Living Room[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/transitional-living-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_718~s_2112) by Minneapolis Interior Designers & Decorators Martha O'Hara Interiors

Here are vintage drapes and fabrics that, could possibly, work in your room. I'd pick one with a minimum tone with a little richer movement, then release some solids in other area that are similar to the drapes. https://www.etsy.com/listing/930946219/modern-vintage-floral-pattern-washed?gpla=1&gao=1&&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping_us_ps-a-home_and_living-curtains_and_window_treatments-curtains&utm_custom1=k_Cj0KCQjwteOaBhDuARIsADBqRejQMKlk0cHXM9Mw9BXKdot2U9oFMQgUW5V6PJkKEzvL6N5ABGejHnwaAv1nEALw_wcB_k&utm_content=go_12567673668_122422053791_507203914935_aud-459688891635:pla-304504407523_c__930946219_103150882&utm_custom2=12567673668&gclid=Cj0KCQjwteOaBhDuARIsADBqRejQMKlk0cHXM9Mw9BXKdot2U9oFMQgUW5V6PJkKEzvL6N5ABGejHnwaAv1nEALw_wcB