Mine used to bloom. Then something traumatic happened to it and the half I kept hasn't bloomed since, other than a couple of odd flowers here and there. I recently put it back into a clay pot with sphag *crosses fingers* I've seen photos of some really nice ones on the UK forum and the OSF but I can't recall any names. Also Rob in Winipeg has built quite a collection, maybe you can drive up there and steal a few from him. :D -MB

We have been having a number of car burglaries and home burglaries in our area. About two months ago, I was babysitting my grandson in my home. It was about 1:30, he was asleep in the closest bedroom to the family room. My dogs were in there and I was in my laundry room off the breakfast area. Amos barked and I came out to "hush" him so that he wouldn't wake Asher but I didn't actually go to see what he was barking at. I returned to the laundry room and about 2 minutes later I heard this very loud knocking on the front door. No doorbell, just loud knocking that went on and on. Of course the dogs both started barking and went to the front door. Asher started crying so I was ticked. I went to the door but didn't open it - I have glass on both sides so I could see out through the sheer curtains. The guy, kinda scruffy looking and in his 20's asked for Michelle. I told him that no one by that name lived here. The dogs were still barking and so he said he would back up - he then glanced at what I think was our house number and then said - I was looking for _______, a part reversal of our house number and asked if there was such a number on our street. I said No very sternly and he turned and walked away. I then noticed that his car was parked in front of our driveway and the driver door was open. I got a good look at the car and just thought something wasn't right about the whole situation. By this time my grandson was not happy and neither was I. A couple hours later I saw a police car going down our street. My grandson and I walked down the street and I could tell that the house three doors down had the front door off the hinges. I told the policewoman what happened at my house and she said I was very lucky that I had gone to the door. My description of events was exactly what the burglars do - they knock loudly so that if someone is home, you will hear them and answer. Then they make up a story and leave. If you don't answer - they kick in the front door - go directly to the bedrooms (which the closest was the one the baby was in), look for purses, money, jewerly, and drugs. They put stuff in your pillowcases and are in and out in just a few minutes. I was able to give a good description of the guy and car. I think he was caught a couple weeks later from what a neighbor saw happening on his way home for lunch one day but I was never asked to ID anyone. Of course we are still having home breakins so I know there is more than one doing this. What is really scary is that I had just been in another one of the bedrooms watching my one soap opera with my dogs and had just left to check on the laundry. I don't think my dogs would have heard him the first time, maybe the loud knocking but I probably wouldn't have with the door closed and TV on. BTW, when he left the neighbors house, he set the door back up so you couldn't tell from the street. He didn't get anything of value - only costume jewerly. The police said that if there is a car parked outside, it doesn't necessarily stop them - if someone doesn't answer the door and barking dogs don't either. They just kick the dogs aside or let them out the door. Scary to think this is happening in mid day and so brazen that it happens more than once in a single neighborhood. I make sure I go check on what the dogs bark at now and I leave my 62" TV on while Asher is sleeping - on mute but still its visible from the front door.

You can do this. It will be all right. But you need to plan, not just let this happen to you. I find lists and folders help. The thing about organizing is that you have to do it, not just wish it (VERY BIG GRIN). That means, somewhere between the health and safety of your children, and the next most important thing you do, you have to make organizing a priority, if you're going to maintain organization. The folders method is great because if you keep up with it, it only takes seconds at a time, and half an hour once in awhile. Making a few seconds to put away a paper a high priority isn't so hard, even with the demands on your attention that you have. Here's one way to deal with the papers: You can start by color coding the world. Find a filing area that's not in the zone where the remodel will take place, but is easily accessible from where you spend most of your days. Get a file box or drawer for kids and family, one for kitchen, one for mudroom/powder room/pantry/laundry room, and one for the upstairs bedroom and bathrooms. If the boxes/drawers don't come in different colors, use big, colored stickers or paint so that you an tell them apart at a quick glance. Oh! And if you need to stack them you really want drawers, whether it's a filing cabinet or drawer style units. If they're going to be horizontal on the floor or a low table or shelf, top opening is usually easier. It helps to get the pendaflex kind that sit on rails or channels. They're easier to take in and out, and to keep from falling over. Invest in both file folders and pocket folders in 10 colors (you can put a pocket folder, or a standard file folder, inside a pendaflex folder in the box/drawer for ease of access). Have a color for each family member. Use the three most distinctive colors for the kitchen, other downstairs, and upstairs, and match them to the boxes. Every time you get a piece of paper put it in the appropriate folder. Like the baby's immunization papers. Just slip them in the baby pink folder, and you'll have them to hand. A few times a year you can go through the folders and reorganize them. Like have a plain color (manila) immunizations folder that all the kids' records get filed into eventually, and your and your husband's last tentanus boosters and flu shots too. Within your kitchen box, make folders for each kind of inspiration: Color, cabinetry, light fixtures, etc., and have a big one for general "I like this kitchen". Go through your computer bookmarks and print the pictures that you want to show your husband and architect and file them appropriately. Make sure the name of the website and/or bookmark is on each page. Stick them in your folders. Make a budget. Do your research and figure out the absolute least each thing will cost you to get what you need and write it down. Find the absolute most you think you'd be willing to spend on the same thing to get the look or whatever that you want. Write it down. Put these numbers on the covers of your folders so that you can just chuck out the pictures of specific things that you know you can't afford, or write "something with this kind of look" across them. This is a big investment of time to get started, and some money as well, but as things get going it'll really really help if you have all this organized. Really. I needed to find a piece of paper from my tile setter last night, and I couldn't find my tile folder. I was starting to panic a little because I knew I took it to the tile store. I knew I brought it back. I knew it wasn't in the car. I kept thinking and thinking about where it could have gone. Finally I remembered the laundry basket full of clean clothes which I'd done at my mother's house, which I'd carried upstairs the day before with birthday presents to wrap in it, etc., and hadn't touched. If I hadn't buried the folder under bags and mail, etc., and put it away when I got home, I would have saved myself half an hour and a lot of worry. The thing is, if you have your folders set up well, you don't really have to organize within them. Highly organized people do, but if you just can get the right paper in the right folder, and keep the blue folder in the blue box, you can find anything you want or need. If you get more than 20-30 pages in a single folder, it's probably time to split it into more specific topics, however. BTW, receipts and invoices should go in their own folder, rather than with their topics. Makes it much easier to figure out how much you're spending and on what. A few more things stand out in your initial post: Your husband works crazy hours, your children (lovely as I'm sure they are) have maxed out the number allowable for one adult to care for in a day care setting, so I'm sure they're a full time handful. So, first off, that overwhelmed feeling is a good thing--it's you telling you that this very large project is pushing you to the limits. But you can manage it. Before you pay large deposits and start tearing open your house, you and your husband should make plans for exactly how much time he can spend working on the house without going crazy. The realistic answer may be five hours a week, tops. Maybe ten. So make a list of the things that can be done in that amount of time--without little helpers--including set-up and clean-up time and see what tasks you can realistically assign to him. Also, well before the remodelling begins, figure out how you're going to handle the children in a construction zone. Start teaching them the rules, like never touch a tool with a cord on it, or we go up to this line and no farther. Find some friends with remodelling going on and see if you can, with several adults supervising, take the kids to see what it's going to be like, hear the loud noises, and start to learn the rules. Budget for a $10,000-$20,000 (minimum) repair that you didn't know you'd need until they open up the walls. If it doesn't happen, you'll have that much more for some of the nicer wishlist things, or that much more to send your kids to college, or whatever. The real budget killers, however, are the things that are only a little more than you've allotted. This tile is prettier, and costs $12.50/sq.ft. instead of $10. That cabinetry is only $1000 more. A glaze is only $600. Etc., etc. All those onlys add up to a huge amount!!! That's why I suggested to label each item with the most you're willing to spend on it, as well as what you really expect to spend. When you're doing trade-offs, as you make your decisions, it's easier to stick to that, than to juggle numbers in your head about how much you're sort of saving here that you can indulge there. As to the rest, it sounds like you have a handle on your budget and a good idea of what you want. That really helps!! A lot of people just want magic. :-) Keep posting here. You'll get lots of good, practical advice on what works and what doesn't, how to improve your layout, and all the little details.

Few things are going on in your pictures, pitting is one of them, it's a series of small pits or craters on the taped surface. The pits are small air bubbles that were not properly filled. Air bubbles are the result of overmixing or undermixing drywall compounds... they also could appear on a wet surface if insufficient pressure is applied when smoothing the drywall compound. The image with the crack is shrinkage... Most likely when they did the 2nd coat, the 1st coat was still damp, when that happens drywall compound could shrink excessively and as the compound dries it shrinks and cracks where the compound is thickest. That said, it's a sloppy taping job, they created more work for themselves. I'm sure they will fix it and they will sand everything out (wet sanding or dust controlled sanding would be the best to eliminate all that dust) and they will touch everything up, so wait until they are done with the 3d coat and see how everything looks before painting. Good luck