Deanne, loved your halloween vignette. You find the neatest containers and I love finials in any form and material. Michelle. I am amazed that your copper boiler has lasted that long. Who knew, copper would be so long lasting in the garden? Norma...enjoyed both your whiskey barrel pics and the pic of you waterinjg it. I have two whiskey barrels, but I have been growing peas up a trellis in them. String beans in the summer. I keep trying to plant something pretty around the edge, but nothing has looked good yet. Ei...great watercan collection! My fav is the purple. Also found the birdbath with succulents so eye catching with the alliums which are huge! I am a big fan of wire racks and mossed containers. I have one hay rack to fill this spring and I am going to need help figuring out how to moss it. Denise...I love your trio of wire baskets with succulents. Are they heavy? What did you use to hang them? I also love your bird cage idea with the candles in it. Marian...Your Achimines is so unusual. It reminds me of a streptocarpus, one of my favorites. Eden, the dish drainer is amazing! lol I would have never thought to put the dishes in it..and it fits just perfect! I have often wanted to catch a few yard sales to find some unusual containers to try to repurpose like this, but I seem to garden away most weekends in prime yard sale season. I did buy a couple of wire wastebaskets with the intention of mossing and filling, but I never did get around to it. There's always this year...hope springs eternal. Okay, who pray tell, is Angela? [g] pm2

dadoes: :( didn't realize that. Though in all honesty, that trap was groddy with I think *blush* screws that had been caught in there forever and rusted and fused to the insides. Ew ick. I probably needed to replace it all. It's been through two sets of diapered kids and many, many years since then (they're 13 and 16 now so you do the math) -- it could stand some new innards. I didn't know about that trap until it started throwing error codes and shutting down; it was not fun -- this is chronicled elsewhere in GW somewhere. That caused me to learn about the machine so it was years and years when I didn't clean that trap out. whooo-wee. nasty. Nevertheless, if I had been able to change out just the pump it would (a) have been easier and (b) cheaper, presumably. The whole housing, with tax, came to something like $120 There was an elderly gentleman in service repair uniform ("Oleg") in the store who asked who was doing my repair and what was I doing in there buying such a part. Hmmmm. I said "me". He said "no". I looked at the salesman, who I'd been speaking with on the phone earlier so he knew I was, um, me. I said "me?" He positively ejaculated "No!!! No I don't believe you are doing this. Most men [I swear he said this] wouldn't even know how to do this, but a female"?? He also inserted a snort and hands-on-stomach-doubled-over guffaw. It was impressive. It's not actually particularly difficult to do this.... And I'm sure in his line of work he doesn't, necessarily, see many doing this themselves. There's plenty that's easy to do I don't do, it's just that as has been explained to me many times here, washing machines are pretty simply devices. I fixed the error codes by soldering the mother board and that was harder to do, not because of the soldering, but because of the *plastic*. Getting all those stupid clips to let go without flying away is not easy!! Anyway -- Gwarstong -- thanks, tons, for responding immediately. Had you not, I would not have had the courage to just haul the seemingly-perfect-looking motor over to the store and shell out $100+ with no evidence. I appreciate it. And dadoes - thanks for the information about the part. It's probably just as well I didn't know about it, but I will know now to suggest the salesman search for a replacement when it's tough to find. That was an "asko" and the full assembly that he sold me was too. He probably just didn't even know about the Samsung, but perhaps he would have if he hadn't found the other. I'll know to ask next time. Thanks!

And yet there are those who swear that their machine is at fault. Well, sometimes it's pretty clear. I currently have the bottom of the line frigidaire top loader and the agitator comes down to about 3/8 in above the floor of the tub, so anything with strings gets caught and wrapped around and around and around the agitator. Also, soft fabrics get caught in there and pinched and sometimes even get little burn spots from the friction. It was put in by the owner when I was renting and I would have done the same thing in his situation. I endure it for now because I'm debating whether to keep the same laundry setup, which is a small hallway between dining room and powder room with washer on one side and drier on the other, or put a pantry on one side and go to stacked FLs. Hesitating because I prefer a TL to an FL, and the pantry would make working with the laundry tough because of the limited floor space.

Cannot speak to longevity as it varies so much it doesn't seem to matter which brand anyone buys. The one thing I will say is: if you are going with a front loader it is dysfunctional to buy one without an internal heater that will give you a true hot wash. I would check the stats on GE and Whirlpool. Bosch, Asko and Elux do have internal heaters. But again, check specs for each machine carefully. Also look for Allergen cycle as this will guarantee a 130F wash. I have owned Miele, Bosch and Asko compact sets. I would stay away from Asko as I don't feel the cost is warranted, the water level is very low and while it was great on very hot washes it was lacking on delicates and the less robust cycles. I need those for exercise clothes with elasticizers and for athleisure garments which are synthetic. I do a lot of "light soil poly" loads. Currently, I have a Bosch 500 set. Very happy with them. I do about 6 loads per week, sometime more. I have the condenser dryer -- also happy with that. They are stacked in a laundry closet. The only caveat is that the door needs to be open while the dryer is running. They are very quiet. Others are happy with Electrolux. Miele is a heavy duty machine and wonderful but there is definitely a premium in terms of cost. One strategy is to go with Miele, pay the price and figure on many years. The other strategy is to go with something like Elux and then if you need to replace in even 8 years the two sets are still less than the single Miele set. I would have gone with Elux but I needed a washer than plugged into the dryer due to the set up I had so Bosch it was. Loved my Miele but, practically speaking, Bosch does the job.