What can I say--I feel you pain. My MIL has been with us for a little over a year now. I have recently quit my job of 9 years to stay home with her. She is 85 and her mobility is not good, confused on a daily basis, short term memory is bad and right now trying to keep her dressed seems to be the new thing with her. All in all she is a joy--pleasant and loveable but a real handfull sometimes. She stayed alone while my DH and I worked for nearly a year. I lived in fear that she would fall or get hurt while we were gone. We came home and found the house full of smoke and we knew we were really pushing our luck with this. She (for some reason) filled a skillet full of oil, placed it on the stove, turned it on and walked into the other room and forgot it. She didn't even see the smoke. She apparently fell asleep cause she said a loud noise woke her up--smoke alarms. And she still didn't notice the smoke. We came in just in the nick of time. I didn't go back to work. The first week I was home with her I was amazed at how good she was at "hiding" her confusion. Somedays she shines like a little star but others not so good and we are having a lot more not so good right now. I'm really suprised she didn't get hurt--we were so lucky. I REALLY miss going to dinner and running to the store or just going somewhere. It seems like my life revolves around how she is today. I miss doing things with just my husband or daughter. We sort of do shifts--one of us stays with her so the other can get out for a while. Like you we couldn't get any straight answers about the legalitys of leaving her home alone--and still can't . I guess we just have to go with our judgment with this. I keep telling myself how wonderful she's been to me through the years and how I"ll be in that shape one day. It's not easy.

I love the pattern you've chosen. The white does look a bit creamy, but being outside, most white becomes off white (or off white/pewter) eventually, even with regular cleaning so they might work. It's hard to tell with the photos if it will blend or not. I like the idea of a white coping, simply because it will frame your design better and better delineate the edge of the area. If the slightly creamy white blends, I'd go for it. If it looks "dirty" compared to your white/pewter you may be best going with more white/pewter for coping.

Our pool has been taking forever (won't go into the story now) but travertine 6x12 pavers were delivered along with some that were wrapped. I assumed it was the coping. Well, PB came by today to discuss with paver guys what design I'm doing (herringbone) and I found out that the regular 6x12 pavers are being used for coping. I asked about that as I thought that coping was meant to have a rounded edge. he said, "coping is just the way its installed". So, I didn't get a choice on coping and am concerned about a regular paver being rough and snagging bathing suits. This pool should have been done already and now I am freaking out. Why didn't they give me a choice on coping? I didn't know until this afternoon. We live in the Tampa Bay area and got our travertine from stone-mart. We had to upgrade to Travertine when Flagstone made an inventory error on our concrete pavers and was told it was going to be 4+ weeks. Please tell me that we won't have any problems using regular 6x12 tumbled travertine for our coping? I mean, this stuff has holes in it, edges not necessarily even... I'm just sick! (FYI we purchased the Silver Select Travertine)

Run it perpendicular to the joists. Keep the foyer moving in the same direction. If you MUST have it running in a different direction, make sure you pay the installer EXTRA for creating a beautiful border to create a "reason" for change of direction. This border will cost more and will use more wood....but it is one of the only ways to get a sudden change of direction to look "good". Get his opinion as to how to go about creating a special look for this...and see what the upcharge is going to be. You might decide that a single direction is a much better idea.