Do it now. There is a full moon. I just replanted a bunch of seedlings last nite into larger containers and left them to get the full benefit of the full moon. If you have the room, start a compost pile. When I go to Menards I usually stop by the 25%off torn bags section and buy one or two bags of manure or potting soil. I mix this in with the finished compost bin or in the fall in the bin that is cooking. Mix it well and after adding a small amount of clean sand, I use it for containers. You can use a wheelbarrow or a tarp on the ground and mix what you have with regular dirt from an area of the yard and make a mix that should be ok. If you are container gardening you will be adding some nutrients later anyway.

Oakrunfarm -- We had a lot of problems with our tile installation, and my advise to you is to bring it up with the installers and builders and see what solution they have, after you make it clear - nicely of course -- that these things are not acceptable to you. In one bathroom, where we used white hexagon tile for the floor, the tiler only grouted half of the floor one day, because for whatever reason they didn't get enough of the color they needed. That should have been a red flag to us -- why did we let them get away with grouting only part of the floor at one time? Live and learn. It was a gray color grout. So they came back a week later to do the rest, only the grout didn't match, even though the label on the box said it was the same color! It was noticeably different, like pale gray compared to charcoal gray, and on the same floor! They also used it to grout the entire bath area, which had white subway tile. My husband and I worried about it overnight, fought over it, and finally decided to tell them it was wrong. They came and looked, and the owner agreed with us that it looked noticeably different, and he sent someone down to remove all the grout and redo it. It was a huge dirty job, and time consuming, but they did it. I'm happy. In the same bathroom, they laid the tiles on the ceiling over the tub in a crooked pattern, and it took us a while to notice why there seemed to be something wrong with it. This was 4x4 inch tile, so by the time you got to one end of the run, it was off by a whole tile! Again, we told them, and the owner made the tiler rip out the whole thing. This solution involved the contractor having to redo the framing over the tub, because it turned out the ceiling had been framed incorrectly. Talk about a complicated repair! But they did it, and it looks good and I'm happy. We also had trouble with glass tiles in the niches. They redid them once, and they still looked horrible. We ended up getting a whole new tiler (we told the old one it was fine, but in fact I resolved to do them over myself or hire someone else to redo them, which we did in the end). The new tiler did a fabulous job on the niches, but I will always worry that the waterproofing was compromised because they were redone not once, but twice. I'm just not gonna worry about it now. So yeah, stuff happens, even when you're there. But you'll feel a lot better if you bring the problem to the attention of those doing the work. If you're lucky, they'll fix it.I would always tell our GC, "don't you want to be proud of this job when it's done?'' And to tell the truth, he was responsive to my complaints, and now that it's done, he is proud of this job, as are we. Stick to your guns, and good luck.

Not hiring an interior decorator to help with the finish selections. Even if only to say "no, no, yes, no, darker, no..." How much would that be? $5k? Less? Worth it, imo. I did ok, but I was a little hesitant, and could be talked into things I didn't want. Not doing the landscaping as part of the total package. I'm now paying for "design services" and the bidding rigamarole all over again. Trying to save a little money *at the end.* I was so determined to hit the budget number that I allowed some compromises. Save money at the front, then give yourself a healthy contingency.

I feel your pain about your faux wood floors. Unfortunately, I don't have a choice, I am an apartment dweller. 🫤 When they first put them in, I was thrilled, they seemed so "cool," "modern," and neutral (yep, in that fugly "greige" that's so popular now for some strange reason). Shortly thereafter, I discovered the awful truth: they're cold... in look, feel, and insulating properties (I'm in the Midwest). They're very hard and uncomfortable to walk on without shoes or squishy slippers (did they even put an underlayment down first?), they make me sound like an elephant when I walk on them, they have a weird rough "grit" to them that I can't seem to get rid of (is it because they're new?); there's no shine, they always look dirty (probably because they ARE); and every drop of water leaves a mark. It seems I'm constantly sweeping, Swiffering, wiping, vacuuming...and my apartment always has that weird "new car" smell from either the glue or the plastic itself (yay, health hazards). Not only that, but the installers were very haphazard: there are many areas of the floor that sound literally hollow when I walk over them. I then made the mistake of seeing the type of flooring that my next door neighbor has. Because her apartment is older, she has the "older" style of faux flooring: warm, gorgeous, honey colored, and inviting. It was such a marked difference from what I have, I was shocked...and very jealous. 😭 Even my former apt in another state had darker "wood" floors, but they were fabulous: soft underfoot, didn't show water or stains, easy to clean. But not these. So I'm stuck with these until I happen to move again....and since I just moved in, that will be awhile. Sigh. REAL WOOD RULES!