Oh, I am so sorry, you have my sympathy. It must have been the week for water damage. After a summer of 100 plus degree temps and no rain, Monday night a wind storm took off the roof of our office building, and then the rain came. Tuesday on my way to a dr appt I get a call that the office has been flooded. This is our second floor in a month, mind you. The property restoration people showed up not long after I got there, with their fans and dehumidifers. It looked like a mess, but that we would survive. It rained Tuesday night. Office flooded again. More carpet sucking, then carpet removal, more dehumidifiers and fans, Thursday it rained again, TWICE. By now it was way past funny and on the threshold of disaster. Fortunately the computers and files were fine, just everything else was soggy and/or destroyed. Clients of ours gave us some temp space until they can rehab our entire office. It rained again last night, I ran up to check today. They had supposedly temporarily fixed the leak, but I didn't trust it, but lo and behold, the floor was dry and a massive blower with super hot air was blowing through the office. Monday we have to tackle inventorying what was destroyed and trying to decide how to store what didn't die.

Hmm, I was kind of attracted to Wretched Mess just for the adventure of seeing what it would produce. Not that I have room for another brug! Sorry to hear yours is behaving badly. With our unusual and violent weather I've had a time getting flowers, however, both Cherub and Heloise are budding now, and I expect Santa Rosa to produce another flush in the coming month. Peach Versicolor is doing absolutely nothing!! Of course it's anyone's guess as to how much longer they can stay outside. I could get a cold snap anytime now and have to drag them all in. Which is why, having seen some whitefly yesterday, I will give them all a dose of systemic insecticide to prevent bringing the nasties in with them. I am quite impressed with my deep pink mandevilla and lavender lady passionflower right now tho. They're going crazy blooming. Diane Oh yes, the tomatoes are finally hitting their stride too! Time to make another tomato tart.

Hi Kim. Nothing at all against using "biosolids", the preferred term these days, as part of a mix. Most typically, the biosolids are used as an ingredient in making compost, the other ingredient typically being ground up yardwaste. I was on a team looking into doing just this in my community a few years back. But my point is this: It's not the biosolids that give such a potting mix extra disease suppression, but rather, the compost itself, whether biosolids were used to produce it or not. Specifically, composts in which cellulosic materials (woodchips, etc) are a significant component. In the curing stage, these composts are colonized by actinomycetes and a few other microbes that do indeed show a disease suppression capability. I've been a composter forever and I'm all for the use of these "waste" materials. Did a bunch of looking at Van Pelts Blue, etc. Any of you guys know a good source for that variety? I suppose ideally that I'd like ten or fewer. Heritage turns out to be deciduous only. Looks like a good firm though. +oM

I'd paint every bit of that 90's fake oak baseboards and everything around the windows, a bright white. actually, for the baseboards I would remove what's there and replace w/simple 4.5" white mdf baseboards. you can replace all of the door trim too if you don't like it and don't want to bother with paint. rent a small table saw and learn how to do it yourself. it's easy and cheap that way. the next thing I'd do is take down the wall w/the arches. if you want an enclosed dining area, then enclose it and take it to the ceiling. that 1990 half wall look, w/Spanish style arches, is just horrid. get rid of the track lighting in the kitchen and have decent recessed lights installed. replace that dining light. (also easy to do yourself. learn how to do it and save yourself ($150 per light) . in the living room, please replace that fan w/more of modern type, that corner stone fireplace,,what do you want to do with that? does it work? you can remove those stones without too much of an issue. even replacing it with simple tile, ship lap, or dry wall would be an improvement. again,,not that difficult. study on how to do it. here are some beachy decor ideas to get you going do you see that 90's wood trim/baseboards anywhere? no. start w/whites, charcoal gray, soft blue grays, aqua or navy, and go from there.