Dave, I've been around just more sporadic mixing in work, a heavy off-season softball workout regiment and projects outside have been eating up a lot of my time. That and I feel like I've swamped the boards occasionally with photos and I don't want to become an irritant to some. That grape vine does look marvelous. Highly glossy leaves, great shape and very full. Now my arbor there is in part shade(gets morning and evening sun) and I have two climbing roses and two clematis set to climb it. I'm a bit skeptical about the roses but we'll see. Does that grape vine you have grow with some mixed shade? How long did it take to get it THAT full? Finally, does it have a fall color? I'd be all over it for sure if it did. Spring's on hold again here, a handful of days near freezing and some ice pellets to boot. March can't come soon enough. -Will

I'm near Grand Rapids and now would be risky. But Wall O Waters would help and a small number could be covered. I'll probably put a few out within the next week. But I'll hold back the varieties I can't replace if I loose the gamble with the weather. I saw several varieties I'm growing at local nurseries so I figure I could buy replacements if needed. However, some of the nursery plants looked like they were hit with herbicide drift or something. I wonder if the nearby lawn was treated recently. If I need replacements, they won't come from that seller!

hollysprings, we run the machine about 3 times each day, which is one medium to large, one medium and one medium to small. Those 3 loads are for about 6 bath towels, two of those thicker plus other assorted laundry, usually always 'warm' and 'Cottons' 'Medium'. This is the same way we always used these GE top-load washers. MRB, perhaps the machine is doing that again : On the first machine water came out I was told because a seal on the vertical shaft got worn out, or during failure the machine tried to spin when still in the agitation cycle, or vice versa. On the replacement machine water seems to come out when there is a little too much water above the clothing, usually when we selected large, as I mentioned there are also very large and super load levels which we never use. We are not perfect, and when we judge the clothing level to be higher than it actually is and select the load accordingly too high then it might splash. Again on past machines we never had to worry about that. See it this way, both of us are college educated, I am an engineer, We should be fully qualified to operate this machine. I should not be required to study rocket science for that. None of the concerns is mentioned in the user's manual. I should be able to throw the clothing and detergent in, select what is approximately correct per the users manual, push start, and that machine does its job for 6 years without a problem. In case I pay too little for the machine, it should perhaps do a poor job washing, aka clothes staying dirty, but should not break down every month! Bernd

Not in the same ballpark as a kitchen, but I tore down a half-wall between my family room and an old wet bar and was all set to move a full wall back about a foot. My significant other walked in and said "Why are you putting the wall there? Why wouldn't you put it here?" I thought about it overnight, agreed he was right, and changed the location of the wall. Exactly what live_wire_oak said. If a new layout will be a significant improvement, look into it. Call your GC and ask him to hold off briefly while you reconsider. If your new plan will be better and save you money and you'll end up spending a little money on restocking fees, sounds like you'll be off better in the end.