=====Rootbound or Compacted Roots Do Cause Bonsai======= Oxmyx, I'm so glad you asked that, I had to check another article out to have that cleared up. http://www.mellobonsai.com/care/Bonsai_Care_Repotting.aspx Yes, It is also a part of the bonsai'ing process. In the effort to balance upper plant growth with roots. It will cause stunting/dwarfism/bonsai'ing and you will get symptoms of it being 'too long rootbound' because of a lack of water and food deficiencies which will make the plant wilt and ill. It'll wilt very easily or constantly because there aren't enough roots to feed the growing plant the water into it's system to help it cool down (transpiration) and stay 'pumped up'. Also, other signs of deficiencies are, the leaves will start growing smaller and there will be shorter internodes between new branch buds - unfortunately this is what new growth on a normal growing plant looks like, but time will tell more, especially prolonged or easy wilting. Compacted roots will also give signs of chlorosis, yellowing leaves with green veins remaining. Our winter here is (6 months Nov-Apr15-21 in pocket zone 6/5) I keep mine potted in 2 ltr carbonated pop bottles all winter, but maybe not this year as I won't be pinching my branches. =================================================== They also could of had them in bigger pots and then removed them, flushed most of the dirt, kept at least one fat root and stuck the remaining smaller mass into the 3" smaller pots. Maybe hydro grown. Maybe they really kept them in the 3" pot and forced the available roots to get fat through the leaves and a great light system. \=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\= And my CG did way better with 2 nice flushes, than the overwintered bonsai'ed cuttings (no flowers on 2 and a few flowers on the Frosty, twice) of which I had 10 times more of a rootball that same spring, but none of my 3 cuttings developed a single thick root before spring such as was with the CG spring bought brug. My lighting is not so great so I'll probably be cutting off over\-winter growth come spring anyway, once the new spring shoots come out and prove to me that they will grow faster. I still need the branches and leaves from the over\-winter growth until the new branches have some good leaves on them anyway. And I'll have a much healthier and fatter stalk/stem to grow them from complete with a more thatn sufficient root system. Old school taught that most plants don't need repotting until it is at least 3 times bigger than the dirt ball is high. These days they have all sorts of signs to look for but I hardly think 1 or 2 roots curling around the bottom and coming out is a sign of a rootbound pot \- that's more like a sign to check. I'm sticking with old school but I'll stretch it to as much as 4x's but not much more because of how narrow my pots are. I'll look for symptoms. \- Sandy

I lived in two 1830s apartments. In the first I stripped or burned off all the paint except on the jib doors and the entry door which I sent out for stripping, I did not strip one piece of millwork that was a profile so common here that it is still produced and available at Home Depot ( a 3/4" ogee moulding). I replaced that. I got lead poisoning which eventually cleared. (I wore a respirator but I was very careless about wearing gloves when burning off the paint and ended up with peripheral numbness and elevated blood levels). Anyway, when I sold that apartment and moved into another, I looked at the casing, which was a unique profile and found someone to make a knife for me and reproduce it, I replaced most of the other millwork which was buildups of still-available profiles. I stripped the entry door and paneling, and the shutters did not need to be stripped in this apartment. It was much more cost effective to reproduce than it was to strip and repair, including some custom radius work. In my apartment the millwork was always painted. In a building of your era in NYC, I would expect that it was mostly meant to be painted, particularly with the Classical Revival/Colonial Revival interior feel that I am getting. I could be wrong. I believe the other issue you may have in NYC is disposal of the hazardous waste if you use any kind of chemical stripper, which then becomes lead-laden hazardous waste.

I got tired of staining my cedar decks every couple of years so I had the 2x6 cedar flooring boards covered with cement board (used thinset and nailed) and then taped all of the seams of the cement board, installed a waterproofing compound, and then had porcelian tile laid....no more maintenance :)

Hi all, thanks for your comments! I apologize for the delay in getting back here (last week was a crazy one at work). brickeyee, thanks for those words about bidding to unknowns and that anecdote about the Virginia job. It's a good illustration. It also helped me put myself in the bidder's shoes, and think of course, I'd overestimate the size of the unknown, just to cover my bases. Renovator8, thank you for that "alternate" term. That's good advice about using them wisely! I think in my case, I am making it too complicated. juliekcmo, I think you hit the nail on the head about my anxiety about covering all contingencies. So thanks for your pragmatic comments, they made me feel a lot better about not trying too hard. :-) My real life job demands me to be detail-oriented (well, downright picky), and I'm consciously trying not to let my habits at work creep into this project and potentially drive away good workers. All of your comments helped me see that most of these "what ifs" are things that are probably out of both my and the GC's control and unknown until they happen. I was thinking of them as "change orders", but really, they'd come external to either of us. I mean, whether the inspector says something has to be done--that's up to the inspector. So, it does sound like the best would be as juliekcmo wrote, bid the known scope and have my contingency fund in reserve. Thanks for bringing clarity to that!