IMO, oriental poppies are not an ideal choice for a window box :-) They get rather tall, especially when in bloom (even the dwarf 'Allegro' can be expected to reach around 24"), they often become floppy when grown in enriched soils, they have taproots that make them somewhat difficult to tranplant and the foliage goes dormant after bloom season, resulting in a hole in the composition....or a bare windox box. I'd opt for an inground planting first :-) Or consider Papaver nudicaule, Icelandic poppies, as an alternative.

It had a Klehm's tag in it, and I see they are $36 on their site and $22 to ship one plant (3 day delivery). The place where I got it was Winton's Iris Hill. They have over 1000 irises, and over 1500 Daylilies, and over 400 Hostas. The daylilies were probably at their peak here, but I wasn't that interested. Doris, (owner/operator) drove me around a bit on the property for a quick view as we were going from point A to point B. My other great finds there were Double Delight (pink) Coneflower-$6-Gorgeous! 'Conca d' Or' Oriental Lily-$3 Golden Stargazer Lily $3 Montezuma Lily $3 Honeycomb (yellow) Butterfly Bush $5 Dianthus Ruby's Tuesday $4 Lilac Evangeline $5 I just couldn't get interested in the daylilies when there were so many other cool perennials to be had at great prices, that one could only find on line otherwise. There were other things I needed, but will be going back sometime fairly soon. I'm getting her some Corn Gluten Meal and 4 bags of Milorganite. She has an hours drive for the Milorganite and there is no place that she knows of in her neck of the woods to get the Corn Meal. She says she uses the Milorganite on everything she pots up, as it fertilizes, but never burns. I'm getting 2 bags for myself while I'm getting it. I've been perusing her Iris price list, and will be ordering several. I've checked her prices, and hers are usually 1/2 or less than the prices listed for the on line vendors....plus I will save shipping by picking them up. I'm concentrating on getting a number of rebloomers. She only lists them as rebloomers, if they reliable rebloom for her, which makes it nice. Hey, count me among the cheap ones too. I like to stretch my plant buying dollars. Blueberry Breakfast is pretty, and that is a good deal that you get a clump of them on the spot.

Hi Dutty--glad you had a great time on vacation! I won't have access to the program I use until later today. I'll see what I can work up for you when I have access again. On the stairs into the laundry with no access at all from the hall---I would maybe think long & hard about it some more. It is your house & everyone has their own ideas on design and what they like & don't like. With that being said, I think with that layout you describe, the back stairs will only be used to deposit dirty clothes in the laundry/deliver clean clothes from the laundry & in the mornings on the way out the door--but only if the person leaving is doing so from upstairs. If everyone is finished upstairs and gathers in the kitchen for breakfast then heads out the door I really don't think they'll be used. When looking at the traffic flow of your house, it is far easier for everyone to use the front stairs at the foyer to go just about anywhere in the house other than the laundry room. If the stairs will get so little use, then it is a waste of money (again IMHO) to build them when those funds could be used somewhere else. If you're worried about seeing the stairs from the family room, odds are you won't really as you have a wall directly in front of that part of the staircase if you don't do that last 90 degree turn. You could also do a pretty railing that curves out at the bottom banister that would be stunning as you look down your grand hall from one end to the other. Another thing to consider is that with kids, those stairs will not be known only to the family--their friends will know about them. So now you may have non-family members traipsing through your laundry room! Eeeek! You may have to keep your laundry room spic and span all the time! :-O Just some things to think about... I'll post new drawings for you as soon as I can get them done & uploaded :-)

The oval tile is on both the Ann Sacks site and the Heath Ceramics site. On the Ann Sacks site, it's listed under "Heath". so I guess Ann Sacks sells it for them, as they do other designers. With that being said, maybe it would be "slightly cheaper" to go to the source itself, although that's not going to make much of a difference as these are much more $$ than I ever expected to spend. If it winds up being THE tile, it might be worth it. basianov - the pantry cabs are actually a light grey and that tile on the right does pick up some of that color. I'm just not sure I want to do marble. I did also see the other day a 1/2"X2" calcutta marble mosaic that was stunning, so that's an option as well, but I just wonder if marble will take the kitchen in a different direction than I was planning. Here is a link that might be useful: Ann Sacks