No they don't :-) There is nothing worse than a nandina that has been unnecessarily pruned or "shaped" into some sort of unnatural form. If it is a cultivar that becomes bare and leggy at the base, you can remove that stem or cane at ground level, which will encourage sprouting of replacement stems and serve to fill out the shrub. Otherwise the top growth needs no pruning other than to remove any damaged portions or to deadhead old flower/seedheads.

Hi Mike, Dont buy the oxypetalum. I am sending you a few pieces of this one. It is true that they grow like crazy. I left this one at my parents house when I moved out because it does take a tremendous amount of space. I got a call from my mom and she told me that she was waiting for the day that that was going to strangle her..LOL. Once you have an established cutting, you can expect some new growths to be a couple feet long. No joke, mine had some growths that were 4 ft long in one summer!! The blooms are great! Just make sure your going to be home to enjoy them! Mine only lasted one night and that was it. As soon as the sun went down, the bud would begin to open. By the time the sun came up, it was closing. Logees describes it as having flowers the size of dinner plates. I had some that were even larger than that!!! Mine is pitifull now compared to when it was in its glory. I wished I would have found a way to care for it here. At one point, that plant was around 10ft long but I have had it for over 10 years. You can control the growth with pruning. Just make sure you do it at the right time or you will end up with no blooms. I will have to read up on my notes on this before I can tell you when to prune it. I can send you 3-4 nice cuttings next week with the others if you want okay? I also have a nice big pink epi. I don't know the name of the variety but it is really pretty. Trust me, neither of them will take a lifetime to get blooms from. My oxy bloomed in 1.5-2 years after I got it. I started a couple for friends and the one I gave to my landlords mom bloomed the same year I rooted it! The pink variety I bought locally and they had rooted cuttings with buds on them. I will say that it may take a couple years for those blooms to reach there potential. Andrew

My uncle says it doesn't look like water penetration, but since it's going to rain tomorrow I'll wait to see before I fix it. Now, he said don't cut through and remove the back of the sheet that's there b/c the vapor barrier is right on the other side? I always thought vapor barrier was over insulation and sheathing. Maybe he was talking about the paper on the drywall being "treated" and not the Tyvek? Do they make special drywall for exterior walls? Also, I never sealed under the windows after the new stool was put in. I pulled out the builder's fiberglas and used low-expansion foam around the windows before we put the finished casing up. I was wondering if I could just fill the hole with the same stuff, since it's toolable (is that a word?) and then either mud over it (don't fill all the way), or tape and mud. The DAP stuff is paintable but it would likely be a different sheen/texture than the surrounding wall so I wouldn't just use that - it would have to be skimmed with mud. But I was thinking it would be easier to apply as a backer material to fill the 1/2" deep hole than the setting compound, and I'm not comfortable with just taping and mudding over the hole with no insulation or backer under (not that the original gypsum is a great insulator, but it's better than air). I'm afraid my patch would sink like the original paper did if I leave a void behind it.

Ok now I think I get it too- you are just showing as a point of reference how the rooms play off of each other, and are thinking that in addition to doing the kitchen, you would also do the fireplace wall and the wall perpendicular to it(facing the kitchen).... I think that sounds good, but being the cautious type, I think maybe have that in mind but first just do the kitchen - I do think that will look great. And, chances are doing it in the family room will be nice as well, but you might just decide that it could be too much... so I would wait and do one step at a time. Of course , that is my bias because I frequently don't see the obvious and need time to "digest". To repeat though, I do think the larger tiles in the latest rendition will be wonderful in your kitchen. (I believe we have a winner!) :)