I did find some cheap rock yesterday. My husband and I were scouting construction sites for the past few days in hopes of finding a place with a lot of rock and someone who would let us dig through it. We stopped in to Pike's over in Lawrenceville for something else and happened to find a great deal on some river rock (which is what I really wanted). I spent $100 and got about 800 lbs of rock. Seemed like a good deal..and I got what I wanted without digging through a ton of clay & mud. Thanks for everyone's tips.

I don't have any good nurseries near me that I know of -- only a Lowe's and Home Depot. I keep checking Lowe's to see if they're marking anything down but it looks like mostly they're just throwing away and not even bothering to discount anything that isn't an annual which I find odd. I remember a few weeks back they had been trying to sell pricey pots full of arranged perennials that had a mix of summer blooming bulbs like glads, etc...in them. Everything was completely bloomed out and dead-looking and instead of marking them down they had a big hand written sign on the rack that said "YES, THESE ARE PERENNIALS AND WILL COME BACK NEXT YEAR", as if that will entice the average customer to drop that kind of money on a plastic pot full of dying foliage. They had the same sign on a stand of potted Bearded Iris that have been there since Spring and are long-done blooming. I don't think they're ever going to sell if they don't mark them down. Everytime I've been there over the last two weeks during the day they had the garden center gates closed up from the outside during what would normally be prime garden center hours. Just too hot to keep employees out there I guess and so dry that most folks aren't buying landscape plants right now so I know they're not doing much garden center buisness. Danielle

I hate to crash the party but I visited the Grayson location (as per Ellen's recommendation) last weekend and wasn't impressed. The one in woodstock might be better. From the sounds of it, it's great but I love going to nurseries and I can honestly say the Buck Jones in Grayson was an unpleasant experience and I found their selection to be in line with or slightly below what you'd find at any big box garden center. I've had the best luck finding practically everything I need at Pike Family nurseries. Each location has a different selection and I could call 100 nurseries looking for something and get nowhere (such as Land Arts who doesn't return phone calls) and then go to pikes and like a ray of sunshine beaming down from the heavens above, I will find exactly what I was looking for in exactly the size and quantity I need. Pike's is the best game in town. As close to perfect as a nursery can get I think. I haven't seen any Torreya taxifolia (aka stinking cedar) at any of the nurseries in the area. It does look like an interesting plant though, endemic to areas along the Apalachicola River. But there's other Yews that youse can use. ;-) Couldn't resist.

I hang around this and a few other forums even though I haven't remodeled my kitchen since 2003. Well, actually, it was 1989/90 when we gutted the house and the "new" kitchen was installed. In 2003 all we did was put in new flooring and countertops...my initial amateur attempt at kitchen design in 1989 actually turned out pretty well. A few mistakes but nothing earthshattering. Maybe I was just lucky. Actually, in our neighborhood we ARE the Joneses. The only other people who have installed fancy new kitchens are the ones who bulldozed the original small house and popped up a larger duplex atop our bigger-than-average city lots. Most long-time homeowners in my area are using original 1930's and 1940's kitchens. With the downturn in the market I don't foresee many remodels taking place here. This is a starter neighborhood; Ikea cabs are considered fancy (which they are, compared to the built-in-place flimsy wood originals most HO have). Because my kitchen is nicely functional, but also 19 yrs old and done on the proverbial shoestring (okay, maybe two shoestrings), it lacks many design and style features I see in photos (both pro and amateur) nowadays. Big kitchens and pro-style appliances weren't around when I was originally running up my credit cards at Home Depot. But I feel lucky; most of my family and friends are suffering with their much more dated, much less functional original kitchens. I have 30' of countertop space, and wonderful Kraftmaid frameless semi-custom cabs, with spice pullouts, roll-out double pantries, EZ reach upper corners, Lazy Susan corner bases - all useful things that are way beyond what even remodeled kitchens have around here, and are only dreams for most of my neighbors. They envy our double-pane picture windows, high ceilings, recessed lights - heck, most of them don't even have an exhaust fan! If I had a spare $50K, or even $35K, I'd update this kitchen into something more photo-worthy. But the layout would remain exactly the same. It would just be "window-dressing". Fun, but not worth doing unless I have nothing better to do with the money (and I do, since we'll need a new roof and furnace in the next 5 yrs, LOL - gotta do those things first!). I love buying kitchen magazines for the same reason I hang around these forums. Because I haven't done a kitchen top-to-bottom in quite a while, I learn a lot about how things have changed, what's new on the market, what to do and what not to do, etc. etc. Since this isn't our 'forever' house (not designed for easy maintenance when elderly), I figure at some point I might be remodeling another kitchen (shudder) someday. I like to keep up on things, and I enjoy looking at other people's kitchens, just for the fun of it. Even if much of it is not to my taste, it is always enjoyable to see what others are doing and congratulate them on a job well-done. Remodeling is hard work, mentally exhausting (and physically so if you're a DIYer) and often demoralizing. It is great to see stories shared here, advice freely given, and generous doses of sympathy when needed, amongst strangers.