For those of you who can't make out what it is, it's a blue bird. The pock marks in the rock were situated so that it looked like a bird sleeping with its neck bent backwards by its wing. The back of the rock looked alot like a duck's tail. Unfortunately ... for picture taking anyway ... I used metallic acrylic paints so the flash reflects on it. I will see if I can remember to take it outside tomorrow and take a picture without the flash. I plan to put it in one of my planters on the patio. Maybe the one with the garlic in it that could use some color! Thanks so much for the nice compliments!

Lsudude, About your counter top, sink dilemma: It seems a shame to give up "His and Her" sinks on a counter top so long. Have you thought about adding an outlet behind the knee hole- Possibly with access from the drawer in the vanity to keep your iron and hairdryer? There are pictures on this forum showing that. Alternatively, add an outlet on the wall behind the kneehole- Plug your appliances into the outlet and attach hooks on the sidewall of the vanity (kneehole wall) and hang your appliances. This second way is what we did- as the first wasnÂt feasible. The existing wall outlet can be used when needed- recharging a toothbrush or shaver- since relocating the outlet to the medicine cabinet wasnÂt feasible either. About the sinks- everyone has their own preference. I like the look of "Under-counter" sinks on a counter of that length. Vessel sinks would be very dramatic as well. The smooth lines of the under counter sinks in the granite appealed to me. My granite fabricator included cutting the holes for the sinks, drilling the holes for the faucets and mounting the sinks in his cost. ( No plumbing) Pam

Hi - I'm in New Hope, probably not too far from you. I'll give a few ideas here, but I'll also refer you to my website. I'm an energy consultant and have worked with quite a few people this year making the exact decisions that you're trying to make now. As noted, the oil prices are super low now, so the equations have shifted considerably. For a place like yours, a high-end, properly sized heat pump, at PECO's discounted electric rates, cost about 1/2 the cost to operate than did the oil system, even at $2/gallon oil. At $4/gallon, it was a no-brainer. The critical considerations for effective heat pump operation in our climate: - I would only consider a high efficiency, two-stage heat pump, with variable speed air handler. This is a top-of-the-line system, but there are good reasons to go this route in our climate. - Make sure your house is well insulated and properly air sealed. The tighter the house, the more effective and comfortable the heat pump will be. - Make sure that the heat pump is sized properly for the heating load. Most HVAC companies size for the cooling load. In our climate, this vastly undersizes the heating system and it will switch to expensive electric backup heat. With a two-stage heat pump, the first stage will be used to satisfy the summer cooling needs properly, the second stage will come on below 40 and, if sized properly, will allow the heat pump to satisfy all the heating needs down to below freezing. I can't overstate how important this is! There are some subtlties to this too. I worked with one client who had huge electric bills even though he had a top of the line heat pump. It turned out that when they installed it, they didn't configure it properly, so, even though the heat pump was capable of supplying heat down below freezing, they had it set to run backup heat below 40F! In our climate, 80% of the heating hours are above 35F-40F. If you can run the heat pump down to 30F, then you satisfy 91% of the season's heating. The improves to 95% if you can get it down to 25F. This might not seem significant, but if your electric heat comes on for an extra 10% of the season, it will drive up operational costs much more than 10%. You also asked about single vs. multiple units. Since you've already got two zones, I'd keep it that way. Especially with heat pumps, the delivery temperature is relatively low, so they're much more sensitive to duct losses. It will cost you more to have two systems installed, but doing a properly zoned system, tying the two zones together, will cost you a few thousand $, so I don't think it's worth the savings to end up with a compromised system. An option, if you don't switch to heat pumps, is to get an Energy Kinetics System 2000 oil boiler with hot water coils in your air handlers. You could use a single boiler and run water lines to each air handler. It would also supply your hot water for domestic use. I don't like recommending oil systems these days, but this is an option, and if you stick with oil, it may be a very good option. Unfortunately, the terms of service of this group don't allow me to mention my website because they consider that advertising. So I'm not sure how I can let you contact me directly for more personal recommendations. I'll do what I can via the forums. You can find me by googling "Ted energy audit bucks county, pa" but I don't think I can say more than that without getting thrown off the forum. I'm not looking for more business. It's just that sometimes people's needs are best met with some direct face-time so that I can tell you about the best contractors etc. in the area. Best regards, Ted

Squirt, thanks! The umbrellas are quite sturdy, I just leave them out all the time even when we have storms come through (although I do keep them folded and tied unless we're outside). The poles are wood and flex which seems to help in high winds. We did end up putting a heavy base under the one that is through the table because in really high winds it would blow the whole table over! Since adding the base it's been fine. They are Key Largos, link is below. They were 90 bucks for two and shipping was only 6 bucks. Zoo, thanks so much, I appreciate it! We still love the Polywood, it's great to have the look of wood but with no maintenance at all! Now that we're into triple-digit temps here I can say that the dark blue does heat up more than the yellow and white, but it's not uncomfortable to sit on even when the sun is straight up. Quote: "The way I understand it, is the chlorinated water from the pool recirculates (?) thru the pump so the water over the rocks will help eliminate stuff. " That's correct, when the waterfall is running it's just diverting water that would be going through the pool returns and instead sending it over the rocks and into the pool. It's already gone through the filter and chlorinator or SWG at that point, so it's freshly chlorinated water. Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.patioumbrellas.com