Thanks for all your replies. To those who live close by, how often does the train run? The townhomes I'm looking at are on Rusk and St. Charles so the rail nosie shouldn't be too much of a problem, the horn on the other hand.... Regarding the Blue finish, the sales agent who showed us around said that they themseleves were not impressed with the Blue and aren't going to use it again. The outside of the house is not a main concern of mine so I didn't really ask what they would be doing instead.