Thanks for the additional mouse plant information. I'll be sure to mark it somehow so I don't dig it up (or at least reduce the likelihood of me digging it up) during its summer dormancy. Amy, you're as likely, or unlikely, to get fruit from your seedling as from most grafted, named varieties, so I'd say test-drive you new seedling and see what you think. Otherwise you'll be spending prime money for a grafted named variety that probably won't bear fruit anyway in this climate. My old one has become a very, very attractive little tree. As gardengal mentioned, they really can't be expected to bear fruit in the Pacific Northwest unless you can give them additional protection. My old one does flower reliably, so that's a start, but in this climate they're basically fun foliage plants. The raintree catalog mentions that clearly, and I hope the sales person did when you talked with them. I still may plant one in this current garden as a foliage plant. Let us know what you do with yours, and how it works out. Take care, Grant

Acountryfarm--I love the pictures I saw on another thread of your beadboard. I absolutely LOVE your chair rail--it is exactly what our old house needs--not the super-skinny, rounded kind they have at Lowe's. Did you ever find out what the name of it is? We don't have a lot of choices in lumberyards here in Albany, NY--we have Curtis Lumber and Stock Building Supplies...I can't even think of any others off the top of my head. Lowe's had a decent selection of neat historic chair rails--but I couldn't figure out how to make them work with the beadboard. How did you just "set" it on top of the beadboard? I guess I'm confused (I've never done this before, so I'm having a hard time envisioning it.) Did the top of the beadboard have to be EXACTLY flat that way? Or did the chair rail overlap a little? I guess that's where I don't get it--many have said you have to router out the chair rail if you don't pick the ubiquitous "wainscoting cap" (that I'm trying to avoid). Thanks for your help!! Sarah

The "better warranty" they are referring to that you are paying more for by using the plumber's/GC's vendor has to do with coverage on more than just the fixture itself should it fail. When you buy online/at a non-preferred store, the only thing the plumber/GC will warrant is the install. When you use their supplier, they warrant the fixture, the install & any damage that may occur to surrounding flooring, cabinetry, etc. So let's say you buy your bathroom sink faucets online, they are defective and fail within the first year of install flooding the vanity cabinetry, warped the custom tub deck, and soaked the carpeting in the adjoining bedroom and closet & destroying the bathroom floor. You call the GC/plumber & they say the install was not to blame, it was the fixture itself. You are now on the hook to contact the manufacturer, handle the warranty replacement hassle yourself + the cost of removal & re-installation of the fixture + repairing all the collateral damage that occurred at your own expense. Now if you had bought the same fixture through the GC's/plumber's supplier, they would immediately replace the fixture & take care of the warranty paperwork hassle for you with no waiting, they would re-install at no cost & cover the costs of repairing all the collateral damage. So the next question is, how often do fixtures fail within the first year? I can't say for sure. What I can tell you is that my DM & DD bought all of their fixtures for their5 bd/3.5ba home online & none have failed. We bought most of ours through our GC/plumber's supplier + 2 fixtures online & only 1 has failed --the handshower (supplied by the plumber's supplier) started leaking out the sides of the twist control. It was promptly replaced within a week (it was special order to start with so we felt a week was reasonable). That leaves the final question of what level of risk are you willing to take / is the 20-30% higher price worth the peace of mind of knowing you're covered in the event that the worst happens? Only you can answer that one. You may want to do a search on the 'Bathrooms' forum on this topic--there are plenty of threads on there discussing this very topic. To answer your actual question of where we bought our fixtures--the ones we bought ourselves were purchased from www.irawoods.com. Hope this helps! This post was edited by mydreamhome on Wed, Jun 5, 13 at 23:35

we've done a few butcher block tables and kitchen islands now. For anyone looking to build their own get a set of these clamps from Shopsmith. They really make the panels flatten out nicely and it helps to reduce the amount of finish planing you have to do at the end. They are relatively easy to set up as well. Make sure you use at least 3 clamps for a decent sized table. This is an edge grain butcher block table we are currently building. https://www.etsy.com/shop/RedDogsCrafts