Brugmansias in hanging baskets. Portulacas. Yuccas. And green spray paint. That's my landscaping plan for next year. (Joking - I think.) I feel your pain. Spent from 4:30 to 9:30 last night running in and out to turn the soaker hoses on and off. This was after watering plants all day for a living. And it was hot as heck too. But the soakers are a whole lot better than standing there with a water wand being eaten by mosquitos and flies. I found an extra soaker in the basement that you can flip over and turn into a sprinkler hose. I ran it through the shade border where the ferns and hydrangeas were gasping. It is supposed to blend in with the bed - how dayglow green with yellow stripes blends in is beyond me. But it made a nice misty shower effect that I think the plants enjoyed. Going on vacation this coming week - will have a tangle of soaker hoses on timers running every few days. And the outdoor deck and porch pots will have little wicky devices that help keep them watered. Of course, if I do that, it will pour rain the whole time.

I had a problem with a day care dog turning over the water bucket. Everyday they'd go all afternoon without water cause he'd turned it over. Me, being smarter than a Lab wired the bucket handle to the faucet. Tada! Came home, the backyard is flooding, the faucet is on full blast. How fun was that jerking that bucket around AND turning on the faucet? Ok yes, it was a blonde moment.

when i'm ready to re-do a room or design a new home what works for me is to find a pic ( pics) of a room I love from magazines. I post the pic up on my refrig or another place I'm sure to see the pic all day long. I keep looking at the pic until I say yeah or nay I can live with that. Than I copy the pic as closely as possible. That includes wall colors, furniture, floor.etc. I'm not saying you buy the exact furniture, but rather use the color schemes and furniture styles you see in the magazine pic and than try and match it up with your own budget.

I think perhaps by definition we TKO are disproportionately fussbudgety. What's it all for anyway? You can't take those perfectly unscratched cabinets with you. Maybe have yourself buried with them like pharaohs? Nah..... Dings Happen. And as for dh's who can't refrain from cutting on granite - well, that's why we just need to teach (or have taught) our children well.... :) And in the absence of that, this is why we have MIL jokes... ;) FWIW -- I drive around in a minivan that has a cracked bumper; you can see its innards, the metal "I-beam"-like thingymabob in there. It is very out of place in LA where so much is just-so. I attract a lot of attention. But it is not worth it to me to spend the money (thousands; more than the car's worth) to fix it. And in all honesty, I don't care, though I recognize it gives many the willies. Thing is, it reminds me of an interlude in French Canada where the ding was inflicted by a snowplow. They have a very different relationship with snowplows, snow removal and those who perform said operations there. The previous winter there had been several individuals killed by errant snowplows. But subsequent inquiries had determined the individuals were simply "in the wrong place at the wrong time" -- like my car and its bumper (parked, on the side of the road with many others just like it). Things happen, and just about all that changes is our reactions to it. Seems a life's lesson I rather value leaving visible on my bumper. But of course that's way too long a story to explain to the guys trolling parking lots looking to "fix" it (not) for a few $$.