Thanks Jen, German is the one who is looking for it. I spoke with Val Balcar, she said she bought her cutting from Paula Furtwangler, so I called to see if I could get one. She said she never sold any cuttings from her plant..She has two full grown trees. German has really gone out of his way for me, and I wanted to return the favor. Valaries plant is very small, and she said it is a slow grower. I tired calling Eulas Stafford, but his number has been disconnected. I am still waiting for the email from Brads. Barbra

Hi FoodJaunts, No, my cooktop is not the matching GE, it is a KitchenAid that I got from a scratch and dent dealer new, in a badly beat up box, but the cooktop did not have a scratch on it. It's MSRP was $2800 and we got it for $1200. Like you were planning, our blower motor is in the basement, so there is no need for a bigger base cabinet. So you are not flipping this house, you are buying it to live in, from a flipper, and because he has not yet done the work, he is willing to install the appliances of your choice if you pay the difference, right? If flickering gas was the only problem with downdrafts, I would say that getting an induction cooktop with a wok burner would be a good idea (they do make burners shaped like a bowl to accommodate a real round-bottomed wok). HOWEVER, my set-up does not pull grease and steam from the front burners. It gets most of the steam from something cooking on the back burner, however. I would not expect my set-up to work for stir frying. DH agrees, saying, "not unless it was a really short wok and really close to the downdraft!" Anyway, here is an inexpensive portable countertop induction wok burner: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004UI882A/ref=asc_df_B004UI882A2252470?smid=A294BYNQDK07T&tag=nextagusmp0355811-20&linkCode=asn&creative=395105&creativeASIN=B004UI882A and a discussion about that burner and about cooking with woks using gas, electric, and induction that I found very interesting. http://www.cheftalk.com/t/68139/adcraft-wok-induction-burner I also found this expensive built-in separate wok burner: http://www.katom.com/084-MWDG1800.html?CID=Nextag&utm_source=Nextag&utm_medium=CSE&utm_campaign=CSE&zmam=29342707&zmas=1&zmac=3&zmap=084-MWDG1800 But look what Dacor is now making - a 15" high downdraft pop-up with up to 1000 CFM external remote blower. They show it on a serious gas range and talk about "capturing smoke and steam from all of the burners:" http://www.us-appliance.com/erv3615.html And Miele has one that rises 14": http://www.us-appliance.com/da64901000.html You can always look into getting the 48" downdraft with your gas cooktop, then put the induction wok burner beside the cooktop, right under the downdraft. The chef in the discussion likes the induction with the round wok bottom better than residential gas burners and a wok. So things are looking better in the downdraft department. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor to find the right system to work for your family. Here is a link that might be useful: Built-in induction wok cooker

Thank you idrive65 for your reply. I just pulled up the carpet with a client who has begun a friend and we put a thin catalogue under the wood to be the floating material and it appears that there is only 1/8th difference in height of the two floors so I may need two T-Moldings and not one unless a reducer can be used there which is what I would prefer. I will call right now to see if I can order the 2 T-Moldings and the extra reducer and return them if I do not need them. I guess I need to know the length of the T-Molding. I will never order without a confirmed installer that I trust working with me again. Thank you CCoombs for letting me know that a good installer can work with me if I only order 7%. Now I am wondering if I should have more. I just stopped by my neighbor's home and she has reducers but her floors heights seem to be 1/4th inch difference. A few days ago her floors felt so hard to me since they were glued down. But today I took off my shoes and walked around barefeet on my tiles as I was measuring so when I was in socks on her floor, it no longer felt so hard and now I wonder if my idea of floating instead of gluing to be safe when my concrete floor was told to be dry, is a mistake and I should glue the floor? I don't want to seal the floor since it will add up the cost and time to get all the furniture out of all the rooms.

First, there is no St Augustine seed, so you can't do that. Second, once the sprinkler system goes, you have to buy a hose or two and a sprinkler. I recommend the turbo style oscillator sprinklers because they apply the most even pattern and coverage along with a very slow application so the water can sink in. I have a house now where I turned off the automatic system and use only oscillator hoses. They cover the area much better than the center-throw pop-up heads. St Augustine is pretty easy to grow once you figure out how to water it. Like every other grass out there, it needs to be watered deeply and infrequently. Deeply means 1 full inch every time you water. If it rains 1/2 inch, then you need to add another 1/2 inch. Infrequently means no more than once per week in the hottest heat of summer and less often when the weather is cooler. With temps in the 80s, you should go up to 2 weeks between deep watering. Most people in Florida seem to want to water a few minutes every day. That process develops grass with very short roots. Short roots are intolerant of drought, so if you miss a couple days of watering, or if one of your sprinklers clogs or breaks and you don't notice it, you could lose a lot of your lawn. But if you are deep watering on an infrequent basis, the roots will develop deeper down into the soil/sand and be much more tolerant of head and drought. Also weed seeds practically rely on daily watering to germinate. When you deny the water from the weed seeds, they will not germinate and develop into plants. So you can almost eliminate new weeds without any preemergent or other herbicides simply by controlling your watering. Mowing Always mow St Augustine at your mower's highest setting. There is never any reason to lower the deck. Tall St Aug provides shade to other plants, grasses, and weeds that might be trying to grow. Dense St Augustine will be the dominant plant in your yard. Fertilizing With your sand I strongly urge you to use nothing but organic fertilizers on the lawn. These will build the organic matter in your soil rather than deplete it like chemical fertilizers. Organic fertilizers feed real food to the microbes living in the ground. Those are the organic matter that matter. My preference for organic fertilizer is either alfalfa pellets (Rabbit Chow) or ground corn meal. Corn is very inexpensive this year...at least in my neighborhood. Corn is also relatively low in protein, so I tend to use it fairly heavy at 20 to 25 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Alfalfa pellets can be used at 20 pounds per 1,000. Call your local feed store to get prices for a 50-pound bag. Be sure they understand you want alfalfa pellets and not bales of alfalfa hay. And be sure they know you want corn meal and not corn GLUTEN meal and not deer corn. I start fertilizing with organics about now then repeat on Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. If you do those three things, and note that you were going to mow and water anyway, the only cost is for the fertilizer. You should have minimal weeds. Now...how do you get St Augustine reestablished in the yard. Since you don't have money then you must have patience. If you can afford to buy a few pieces of sod, you can reestablish the lawn in a couple of seasons. Most recently I've used Floratam, but you have to use what you can get locally. I like Floratam because it seems to grow faster than disease spreads. It is a dense turf that loves full sun. Prepare the ground by clearing out anything that's growing and place the sod down. Start watering it lightly at breakfast, lunch, and dinner time every day for 2-3 weeks until the roots have grown down into the soil underneath. Once that happens you can start to water longer and less often. You're trying to develop those deeper roots. You don't have to water the weeds at all, so a hose and hand sprayer is fine for now. When the temps are between 65 and 85, St Augustine spreads and spreads. In my neighborhood that happens in the spring and again in the fall. I get about 5 feet of runners each time for a total of 10 feet of spreading per season. Your mileage will vary. Back on the topic of mowing, I have a house where I mow it with a string trimmer down to 12 inches high. When it gets up to 16 inches or so I cut it back down. If I had a push or riding mower that would mow that high I would keep it at 12 inches. That's not great for playing in but it looks perfectly manicured, uses almost no water, and seems to need much less fertilizer to stay dark green. Also, since it's so tall and never gets anything but rainwater, there are no weeds or disease. I'm not necessarily suggesting that for you, but I am suggesting that if you were going to neglect something, neglect mowing and let the grass get much taller.