Lermer is correct about your choice of reflective material, foils actually do quite a poor job. You can spring for mylar, though if you do I would recommend avoiding actual "Mylar" because it is a Dupont patent and is artificially expensive. You can get something called metalized polyester film that is exactly the same at about 1/3 the price. In honesty though, for small spaces such as yours, paints work nearly just as well. Normal white house paint is fine as long as it is flat, but I would recommend something called elastomeric paint. It is used for roofing, its almost like a liquid rubber and can be purchased in a white color by the gallon. It is an extremely efficient reflector and does a good job of reflecting all forms of radiation. If you haven't found a solution already I would recommend that. Also, there is a way of getting more light energy from long florescent tubes where you want it. Get foil tape (2" wide for T12 floros, 1" wide for T8s and make sure it has a clear adhesive) and very carefully stick it on the back side of your florescent tube which faces away from your plants and towards your reflector, directly on the bulb, be sure to avoid folds bubbles and wrinkles. Make sure the tape falls an inch or two short of the end caps as the bulb is hottest here and you definitely don't want the metal tape to create a short between the usually metal caps. If you got the tape on there nice and straight with a minimum of imperfections they will be noticeably brighter on the side facing your plants. This works by reflecting the photons directly back out the front side of the bulb instead of them coming out of the backside, hitting whatever reflector you have and then making their way back down to the plants. The trick to a successful florescent grow is to keep the distance that the light has to travel as short as possible and this technique minimizes that distance by several inches. I hope this helps and happy gardening!

do a search on this site for wolf grill and open versus sealed burners. there are a host of posts on these two subjects.

Molly, lucky you with the easy apart windows. Mine have tenons secured with dowels, but the dowels have never been easy to remove. This post got me going and I put a final exterior coat on my window yesterday. It's a second story window so I try to do as much on the ground as I can. I'm in a race against age, mine more than the house. I may try drilling a dowel out of a rescued sash to see if I can get it apart. We are making wooden storms with tenons and dowels and repair pieces can't be much more difficult to fabricate. Can you hear my husband moaning? I think it is going to become more and more difficult to purchase anything oil based. Do you think linseed oil will also "evaporate" from the market? I know I'm starting to sound old, but I just can't completely accept the latex is better theory. Will oil based glazing compound also be banned? I think there are water based glazing compounds that do not require any wait time to skin over. I use UGL compound and it sometimes takes 10 days before I feel comfortable enough to prime over it. I'm usually ready to have an excuse for a break at that point. If you know of a better compound, please let me know. I'm sure the original poster is well on his way to complete his painting project, but I thought this site had a decent sequence of repair for a variety of old house projects. I'm sure many of us can identify with the "before" examples. It would also be nice to have input from the forum experts on the methods used on the site. Has anyone used the Multi Wood Primer mentioned on it? I think I'll order a can and try some if no one here has negative reports. I'll bet someone on the Old House Journal forum has an FPL formula for you. I can't imagine having to repaint our barn with latex paint on the next go round. I get a mental image of us crossing some border and smuggling the banned ingedients and paints back into the country. I hope people will chime in on the site I've included. If it has been discussed in the past, someone just needs to yell at me and direct me to the thread. I'm up early to finish prepping the the parting bead and stops and am praying that I have enough sash cord to finish this. Here is a link that might be useful: repair and paint old siding, etc

With multiple dogs, I don't think a raccoon entering is going to be a problem. I had no less than 2 dogs when I lived in 'raccoon country' and they never entered the dog door. If you're going to keep the cat and dogs limited to the laundry room, be sure to supply kitty with a bed out of the dogs reach. Will the cat and dogs actually share a small room? I think you'll find most dogs prefer the indoors unless there's something 'really' interesting going on outside, so don't be surprised if you find the laundry room gets used a good bit! ;)