Lack of control is my middle name according to DH. I'm always removing a bit of this or that to see what is under something. It drives him nuts BUT for me it helps me plan my mode of attack on a project. The last one I did that I got scolded for was to peel back the wall paper on the stair well. Mind you I have two rooms already in the midst of wallpaper removal plus a rental house that I'm ripping the bathroom out of to the studs. I just wanted to see if maybe someone had left a nice surprise behind the wall paper like maybe a mural. Instead all I got was a few lousy Roman numbers and a few arrows telling the wallpaper pro where to start. At least I did find out the paper in the stair well and upstairs hallway was all done by a pro so removing it should not be a major problem like the music room was. BTW I find my best finds when I'm not looking for them. There's a beam up in the attic that I passed nearly every day for a year. I was arranging the attic storing stuff from the move ect. I never in all that time noticed the writing on that beam till one afternoon I had gone up to check on the roofers work. I happened to shine a flashlight just right and noticed pencil writing on the beam. It was the name, address and ages of the PO's kids playmates from back in the 60's. Keep trying eventually the house will give up a few secretes. In the mean time you could add a few of your own for the next owner to find. I never do a repair or alteration with out leaving a date behind or some clue as to why it was done. Every wallpapered room that I've de-papered I save a piece of the paper for the houses history book. I figure when the next person takes over they'll have a better idea on just how loved this house was and what kind of things it went thru.

Color is tricky. Monitor Color, in person color, color under daylight versus bulb, color under the influence of other fixtures in the room. The RH color on looking at the card - I passed. The larger color card I had of P&L Wynham was dark. In my experience with BM swatch card colors, the final result was all over the map to the true paint. Some brighter, some darker. Just laid a coat of the Wyndham. Let's see how she dries but the color is a very beautiful Grey. As a matter of fact, I may just skip the Silken Pine for the main room and go with the Grey. More BM testing to follow

Realism, actually the more I look at granite, I prefer the laminate. With some of the laminates and the new effects, I actually had to go over and knock on them to determine if they were real or not. We're going with bull-nosed edging on the laminate so I don't think it'll look cheap when it's finished. Hemera, ha, yeah I asked the builder about the floor…he was polite but basically said "yeah, you can't afford it…" ;) Ppbenn, yay! :) 35ftcabo, I LOVE your kitchen! Do you know the style/name of the handles you chose? That's what I'm looking for and haven't quite found yet. And in your first pic, what is the cabinet behind the peninsula? It almost looks like a hutch…was that a custom piece? It's gorgeous! Phoebesmom, do you have any photos of your finished kitchen? I'd love to see it "in action" rather than just the sample piece I've got. I really love the color, too!

Fsal, when you posted this last pic of your awesome tile I told myself I wasn't going to harp on this again, but yesterday I finally gave in and used soft scrub with bleach in my stupid (honed) marble shower. Even that isn't enough to get the grout back to a semblance of its original (light) color. would kill to turn back the clock and get dark grout. No traffic bathroom floor area Post scrubbing shower floor same grout: Just gross and disheartening. The higher areas on the wall aren't bad but anything below waist high gets pink too: eye level:Post scrub knee high