Aloha Jim! Sounds like you need to come back! You'll be glad to know the rules for quarantining animals has changed, it's much less time now (one week I think!) We moved here from the Pacific NW too, 14 years ago, and it was a great move!! The last move! Lol, I'm not moving all our stuff back across the ocean, Lol!! Maybe you'll be back, huh? Aloha, Christine

You are wrong about "no ants ". In most instances, they are benign and probably beneficial. It does depend on the type of ant and the population. I never recommend the broadcasting of DE as an appropriate control of ants or anything else. As a matter of fact, you may very well end up with more ants than you started with. Indiscriminate use of DE can harm the natural populations of predator arthropods and other beneficial creatures that inhabit the soil. That's the last thing you want to do. Is your product a horticultural/food grade or something sold for pool filtering? Pool filter stuff is useless for controlling pests and can be dangerous to broadcast in your garden. I am curious, where did you get the idea that no ants should be allowed in the yard? Ants may take advantage of honeydew-producing insects, but few species move them around or increase their numbers. They are attracted to the sugary excrement, but so what? If you seem to have an abundance of ants, I suggest that you concentrate on pest control (aphid, whitefly) by strongish sprays of water, insecticidal soap. If you have a problem with fire ants, there are organic bait products available. Trying to eliminate every ant will almost certainly result in an imbalance in the garden....to the advantage of pests.

I really don't like granite. It's too speckeldy, too pretentious, too cold, too ostentatious, too expensive. And maybe it's just me, but doesn't most of it just look like rust stains? I also researched all the other countertop choices. Throughout our homebuilding we've tried to remain focused on our twin goals, Durable and Low Maintenance. And so we've come back to granite. What I found out is that granite showrooms only have a tiny selection of slabs onsite for you to look at. And most of those are ugly speckled rust stains. BUT, when you've found a company you want to work with, they'll hook you up with the huge granite yards where you go to pick out a slab and they send it to the installer. In our case it's a two hour drive to a huge city where there are a half dozen granite yards and acres of slabs of granite to choose from. You walk around for a couple of hours dragging your husband (who really doesn't want to be there and doesn't like anything unless it's cobalt blue) and your kids (who are fighting over a piece of gravel they picked up in the parking lot) and suddenly you turn a corner and find The Perfect Slab. And you hear a heavenly chorus that swells to drown out the sound of the kids squabbling and the perky salesperson who doesn't have a clue what you're really looking for (you couldn't tell her because you weren't really sure either.) And tears of relief and joy spring to your eyes, your husband drops to his knees in shock when he hears the price, and then you're done. Then you get to choose a backsplash!

It's what you feel is a good deal that counts when buying. Selling is a different issue, and it takes time. We sold vintage for years, and Ebay was the WORST resource EVER for uninformed buyers and sellers. What seems like a minor difference can be a major one when it comes to price (well, it looks *almost* like mine). Additionally, it seems that people assume everyone else listing the widget knows what they're doing, when they might just be flying blind too. The only good comparisions on Ebay are exactly the same as your item with BIDS-buy it nows and listings with 0 bids mean ziltch. And archived listings from more than even a few months ago might or might not be a good resource, as certain items ebb and flow like the tide (for a while, you couldn't touch a Duaflex camera, they were HOT for TTV photography, I think that's died down now-we don't sell vintage anymore-no space-so I haven't kept up on the trends). Then you've got sellers that inheritated something they were always told was "worth a lot of money". Well, maybe it was, once. And now...you can give it away, maybe (like those console radio/record players or sets of china, except certain patterns). Also, it depends on your location. We live in NYS. Where we live, I could sell something...say...an old wooden crate for $10, whereas it might sell for $30 in NYC. Vintage prices here are WAYY lower than there.