House

Reply to: I"m in the US but looks like Jeld-Wen has product in Canada as does Marvin. Re: Marvin, they have a line called Integrity which is stock sizes and less expensive than the Marvin line. I have Integrity casements all through my house and love them. Heat, not cold is the issue in North Carolina and even on the hottest days, the glass is cool to the touch. I have a 12' Jeld-Wen slider that is great. Sorry, my laptop won't let me past links for some reason but.

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Reply to: Paint colors don't inherently have undertones. The way most people use the term undertone is to describe their own, personal, subjective perception of a color in their own unique context and lighting conditions. Again, has nothing to do with a color's actual, inherent attributes. Which is exactly why you found so much, often inconsistent, information about gray paint colors on blogs and Pinterest. They're all guessing about what they think they see under their own random light sources; their individual, personal description of a color using the word undertone isn't a fact. Light French Gray belongs to the Yellow hue family. That's a fact. We can measure Light French Gray and get color data values that tells us - based on actual wavelengths - that Light French Gray belongs to the yellow hue family. All colors belong to a hue family including colors of white and near neutrals like Light French Gray. Nothing is hidden or under anything. Hue/hue family is incredibly straight forward and simple. After buying into the convoluted theories involving undertones, most people can't believe that identifying a color's core hue attribute is as easy as looking it up on easyrgb dot com or measuring it with a Color Muse, NIX or Color Reader. But it is that simple. It's so simple many color "experts" and designers don't want you know how easy it is because so many of them rely on marketing the ability to see undertones that all the poor slobs with "untrained eyes" can't see. Claiming a special ability to see color "undertones" is THE ultimate Emperor has no clothes scam. Every single color typically categorized as "gray" found in all commercial paint brands belongs to a hue family - none of them are "true" neutrals. And you can find grayed down colors from every single hue family in the visible spectrum - not just blue, green and purple. As proven with Light French Gray that belongs to the yellow hue family. And that fact also explains why it could be perceived as having no perceivable hue bias. Colors of gray in the range from Yellow to Green on the color wheel you see up there are typically perceived as being the most neutral in appearance. The only true, achromatic gray paint colors are made by GTI. They're spectrally balanced formulas to match Munsell N8, N7, and N5.

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Reply to: Ok I see what happened Lucy. They changed it up a bit so now it's harder to find. Here is what you see when you click on Architectrunnerguy's profile. It just took me a bit to figure it out myself and I've been here for years. On it I circled the place you now need to click on in red and show it with an arrow. So click on where it says Activity. It will then pull up this screen:And now you can see where to message Architectrunnerguy. I'm imagining if you want to message me, you have to do the same thing?

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Reply to: Your lighting will have a huge impact on how color looks in your space. Get LED bulbs called daylight or sometging in the 3500- 5000K range.

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Reply to: Trim and doors are BM cloud white. This is what decides what whites are options for the walls. Here's why you can't have a crisp, clean white wall color. Cloud White has a lot of Chroma. A crisp, clean white wall color is going to make Cloud White trim look yellow or dingy or both. Look on this infographic and compare Cloud White to the other whites - it's one of the whites with the most Chroma. The only "trick" to getting white color schemes (wall/trim) right is the trim that you want to be perceived as white and clean must have less Chroma than the wall color. Or look at it the other way, the wall color has to have MORE chroma than the white trim. A good rule of thumb is the wall color needs to have at least 0.20 more Chroma than the trim. The difference in Chroma can be less but honestly that's a range best navigated by an experienced designer. That's it. That's all there is to it. People make white way harder than it actually is. Not understanding Chroma and how important it is with regard to colors of white is why/how people end up buying a gajillion sample pots of white. Usually people are attracted to the same *kind* of white and the collection of samples they end up with all have a similar pitch of Chroma. Which is how/why people end up with a dozen samples of whites that all look "dirty".

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Reply to: no, not the whole door,,just one of those panels. they slide out. should be 4-5 panels that make up that door. as for the color, what do YOU want to do? do you like it? I always thought the samples you picked were too green/gray. that's why I picked out this gray. no green tone in it. actually, has more of pink/purple undertone, which is why it looks so good w/the raisin color. ditto the Midnight Oil. has those blue/red undertones. that's why they all match so well.

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Reply to: i really like the last color combo Irene posted. the raisin for the trim, Graystone for siding, and that dark oil color for those posts. after seeing the darker trim, It looks so much better than the white. the dark trim works around the windows really gives a little punch. and that Raisin Torte will look great w/the brick and enhance the red/brown tones of the door. sorry, but I think doing the entire thing in those grays you picked and white really doesn't do much for your house. the gray can be very blah,,,but adding the redder trim tones and other darker gray to it, just gives it more of a dramatic finish. bring in some reddish foliage, and others w/warm hues, and the house will be a stand-out on the block! grab some samples and just do a small portion of all three like RL did. and of course a new door is mandatory. check on Craigslist, sometimes you can find some great deals.

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Reply to: I like the bottom one, but im not fond of that door @grover lol.

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Reply to: I would paint all the siding the same, including the horizontal trim. Gutters and fascia a shade lighter than the roof. Here's a more sage-y green: IMO that olive is kinda blech, sort of baby poop green.

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Reply to: Remove it all; install these, please.

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Reply to: richfield,,those are nice. you know, a basalt subway stone tile would look very nice against those. these are in a picket style, but floor and decor has the subways. if you did it was a creamy white grout, like here, it would look nice w/all your wood.

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Reply to: You are getting an idea of the look of a contrasting grout in how it looks before grouting. Wood cabinets have movement because of the grain, and that can look a little busy with contrasting grout. Also consider how many items you keep on your countertop as that will add to the visual business. There is such a thing as grout paint, and that might work after the cabinets are refaced if you want the gray grout. I thought about contrasting, but in the end went with white - which is a mild contrast since my tile is cream. https://www.houzz.com/photos/my-pics-work-in-progress-phvw-vp~110720042 https://www.houzz.com/photos/my-pics-work-in-progress-phvw-vp~57088087 My countertop has both white and cream in it - that doesn't show well in pics. One more thing - you should either take down the microwave and tile behind it and then put it back up or reserve tile to tile the area should you ever change out to a hood. I think a stainless hood - looks like you are changing over to stainless - would look pretty. These seems to have a very mild contrast:

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Reply to: It doesn't take a crystal ball, just some forethought. If I pick out something and all you have to do is order it, how much does it cost? What sites can you use your discount (yes, build.com will consider a designer a building professional)? How much will it cost if I ask you to pick something for my approval? How much does it cost each time you make a site visit? If a designer is prickly about answering those questions, she's not the designer you want. Understand that just like lawyers, designers sell their time and their smarts and they have costs and overhead, too. And about Sophie, don't dismiss everything she says out of hand, because she brings up some really good points, too. Unfortunately, you have to get through her "cheap chinese crapola" attitude to get there. I would say that she's used to working with people who understand and accept they way she charges and are happy to pay for her services, but she doesn't do budget work. BTW, hiring a contractor who doesn't speak English is not smart, either.

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Reply to: You may want to read through this helpful discussion: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/choosing-a-great-sofa-manufacturer-with-a-good-price-point-dsvw-vd~281623?n=412

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Reply to: Life Lessons the hard way... I used to sell tile. All kinds. And if you're looking for fault, it is with both the tile choice (you), AND the installer. For both were not paying attention to the details. This is a perfect example of how, and why, not just anyone can install every tile. There are hundreds of installers who are just average installers in every city. This seems to be what you have ended up with. There are only a handful of expert tile installers, sometimes less. To find an expert tile installer for specialty tile, such as yours, one should visit the tile showrooms who ONLY sell tile. They can give you a list of names. While they may not be allowed to recommend one installer over another, they can give you a list of names and tell you which installers they know for a fact (because they regularly sell the types of tile to those installers) have installed uneven tiles, or better yet- ask who has installed natural slate tiles more than one time! It only takes one time of installing natural slate tile for an average installer to learn his lesson! (The practise of recommending certain installers can, and usually does, end up with the installers paying off the sales people, which is a bad practise.) So getting names of experienced tile setters is crucial. You can even go to more than one tile showroom and get a list from them too. Compare the list from several showrooms and the better setters will become evident. The cream always rises to the top. And in the world of tile, this rule of thumb definitely applies. The next step for the homeowners is to at least get photographic proof of jobs these installers have done. The recommendations are of utmost importance. The only installers that can install this type of tile you have, will have past jobs which they are MORE than happy to show you the results. They may even be able to let you see it in person. These expert installers will be VERY, VERY expensive. This is because they are worth every penny when they do a job such as yours and there are no complaints at the end of the job. Had you employed an expert from the beginning, these installers would have told you the grout joints would NEED to be wider than what you have because there has to be some room to "fudge" the tile into the space. The tiles are not uniform. The tiles are not at fault. The wall has probably not changed. But if the wall HAD changed, this would again, show the inexperience of the installer. The expert installer should be able to asses a wall, enough to know if there needs to be a certain special kind of underlayement applied before the tile goes up. An underlayement which will keep a wall dry, or make it even and plum, etc. There are many reasons for underlayments, but that's a whole other bucket of worms, and with the information you've given, that doesn't seem to be the issue. Back to the uneven tiles and the installers... Another example of tiles that are uneven are natural slate tiles. The real slate from the earth, not manufactured by humans. They are not exactly cut from a rock, but are sort of peeled off in sheets, then cut into squares etc. But the thickness of each natural slate tile are not uniform. This is a feature people like. Unless of coarse it is installed incorrectly. Imagine you are walking barefoot on this slate, and you stub your toe because one tile is sticking up more than half an inch, just on one side of the tile. Not good. And not installed correctly. But these are issues that even a semi-beginning installer would see as a problem right away. The tile setters should know their limitations. They should tell the customer that they will NOT be able to install that tile in a smooth fashion. No tile setter WANTS to re-do a job. Which brings us to the experts. The ONLY people that can install slate tiles are extremely experienced tile setters. With natural slate, and your tile too, the uneven edges need to be worked in a special way. The first mistake I see with this job is the tiny grout lines. I can only assume the installer is following your instructions on your grout line size preference. Only because that is usually up to the homeowner. However, with THIS tile, there should not be an option. An experienced tile setter would know this right away upon inspection of the tile. Large grout lines are the ONLY way to install this tile for perfection. Well, large grout lines and a very experienced installer. Again, information the installer SHOULD HAVE KNOWN. The fact that the installer either decided on small joints or was following your choice of small grout lines shows the installer does not have enough experience to install this tile. Also - IF you purchased this from a "tile house" showroom the sales person SHOULD HAVE told you this tile requires large grout lines. And by large grout lines I simply mean a minimum of one quarter inch, maybe even larger. I would not want to guess the proper size of the grout lines from the information given, except to say that less is NOT good. But then, you already know that, now. By the way - there is no actual "requirement" on grout line size. The lines simply need to be fashioned to do what is best for the tile. Then, after all that is decided, the TYPE of grout is decided, either sanded or unsanded, etc. This is what the tile showroom sales people are good for, as well as discussing it with the installer. If however, you purchased this from a big box store, well... your loss on expert sales information is now showing on your wall. So, who is really at fault? The lack of sufficient and expert information is the fault here. Which is a shame. This tile could look beautiful in the correct setting, with the correct grout size, and most of all - the correct installer. What to do now? Learn to like what you have? Like the others said - install lighting in such a way that it compliments the tile instead of detracts from it. OR If you cannot stand to look at it the way it is, AND you have extra money in your budget... 1.) Fire the installer you have now. Tell him/her you are done with their services and don't forget to tell them you are not anywhere near happy with the result. This doesn't have to be done in an ugly way. What's the point? Well, how will he/she know what your feeling if you don't tell them outright. How will this installer learn from his/her mistakes? Just tell them - What's done is done. You're moving on. Besides, chances are you cannot prove he/she did wrong, as he/she was simply "following your instructions". That is what he/she will most likely say in court anyway. Besides, taking them to court (which is probably your only chance of getting any money back) will only eat up your budget anyway, and you probably will not win. Chalk it up to a very expensive life lesson. Next - 2.) Pay someone to un-install that tile. Or YOU do that yourself! You COULD work out a whole lot of aggression doing that job yourself! Just be aware that no matter who takes that tile down, new drywall will most likely need to be put up afterward. The current tile you have now will probably not be savable either. But it sounds like you don't like it anymore anyway. 3.) Find a reputable tile place (or more than one) that has been in business a long time. Someplace that sells natural stone, as well as tile, most good places sell both. Talk to the sales staff, ask A LOT of questions. If that sales person doesn't have answers, go somewhere else. Don't try to cut corners. You don't want to do this all over a third time. 4.) Choose a new tile. 5.) Have the new, more experienced, and therefore more expensive tile setter, put up the new tile. You should also be aware that it is normal practise for the better setters to have a waiting list. So you will be waiting a few weeks, or more... 6.) Finally, after your new tile is up and gleaming in just the right way - smile and walk away. Don't hold any grudges. It isn't worth it!

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