Are you allowed to paint? We rented a housein Belize that had bright white walls with blood red trim. We painted the trim bright, clean, fresh white then painted each room. The living room was a soft beige (the color of sand), the kitchen a soft yellowish-gold (the color of morning sunshine), our bedroom was the soft blue of the morning sky, the office/2nd bedroom was watery green (like the ocean) and the bathroom was midnight blue (like th enight sky). It had old harvest gold fixtures, so this color detracted your eyes from them. You can do basically the same thing. Use the colors that are in the tile, but use different shades of them. Go lighter or darker depending on th eroom and the amount of natural light it receives. I wish you all the best!

Good that the heat/air system is over the door and doesn't interfere with your decor too much. It appears the ceiling fixture to the right of the FP might indicate that the dining space is there. Put a sofa in front of the FP and two small accent chairs with it, facing each other over a round glass coffee table. Can you wall mount the TV left of the FP? I think the room is too narrow to put the TV above the FP - you'll strain your neck. If you mount it opposite the FP, a sofa and two chairs could work but will need to be small scale - try apartment-sized seating. The sofa could face the window with the chairs opposite it. You could turn to see the fire or to watch TV. Swivel chairs come in handy in such tight space.

Beautiful clean modern kitchen! You have a great opportunity to put your personal stamp on the space with a unique backsplash. As you've heard already there are some different approaches. I'd probably place the backsplash up to the wall cabinets and up to the base of the hood. Then continue the backsplash at the same height (18"?) behind the sink. Then place an inspiring colorful picture above the sink to break up the wall. Here's a picture with pendants that aren't too obtrusive. Having multiple levels of lighting at different lumens makes a more inviting feel to the space. I couldn't decipher your flooring, but you may also want to consider adding some nature elements like a type of wood flooring, wood stools, etc. Good luck! If you need software to plan out materials check out our Home Designer software: http://www.homedesignersoftware.com/

I won't bother with lattice, barrels are partially obscured from the street by fencing and if I put it up I would have to work around the lattice in order to turn the valves for water. If I can just make better use of collected water I'll be happy. We are at the end of our growing season so I should be cleaning up the garden and putting it to bed for the winter, just can't seem to get motivated. We had our first frost last week. Usually, our average early frost date is 1 November. I got almost no produce from garden this year, but there is always next year. Chookchook2 I've seen some of those decorative metal panels and they are gorgeous, sure hope your budget will allow you to get some before too long. Most of our state has been on fire for a good part of the summer. The closest is across the river from us and they have been battling it for almost a month. Some friends have had to evacuate repeatedly. We've only been concerned once, a small grass fire on our side of the river on a day we had wind gusts up to 65mph. Fortunately, it was put out quickly. Australia and New Zealand have both sent firefighters to help with the blazes. I can't begin to tell you how appreciative we are. The closest fire was fought for almost a week by local volunteers only as there were no other resources available. They were all on other fires. The Army National Guard (reserve troops) were called out to help with support duties and for the first time ever the federal Department of Natural Resources (DNR) asked for civilian volunteers to help with non firefighting tasks, cutting fire breaks, moving supplies etc.