I wish I would have found this site earlier. The Wayside Gardens web site is awsome and they have some plants that I can't find at my local nursery or big box stores, however they are a bit pricey. I placed an order (April 2006), received it timely, excellent packaging, There after is where the problem starts! Two of the three plants arrived with the bottom half (and I do mean the whole bottom half) of the plants were covered with some type of leaf blight. The leaves were totally covered in brown spots with dark circles. The tops of the plants were a washed out green covered in some kind of brown fuzz. I called them immediately, and was told it was just some type of fungus plants get due to stress when they are shipped. That all I would have to do is buy some fungicide spray and they will be okay after a week or two. I disagreed with them as the damage was so extensive. They said they try to run very tight quality control, these must have slipped by and they would ship out replacements immediately. In the meantime I ordered some additional bulbs and a couple of more plants using a 15% off coupon they sent. The website said they gave free upgrade shipping, however when I entered the code for the 15% off coupon, the site then added back the additional charge for upgrading the shipping which just happened to cancel out the 15% off. The site would not let me delete or cancel the upgrade . I called again and was promised by the customer rep that he would remove the additional charge and submit the order for processing. The next day I received the replacement plants for the first order. Guess what...... They were in the exact same condition as the plants they were sent to replace. I called again. A different customer gave me the explanation I got the first time and said they could give me an in store credit. I responded that that wouldn't work, but I had another order they could credit. She pulled the order up to apply the credit and surprise, surprise...the first rep did NOT credit the account for the extra shipping charges. I was upset about it all evening and called the next day to cancel the order and get my money back. The third rep once again explained that the horticulturist (???) said the problem was due to wet conditions in the warehouse and shouldn't affect the plants other than they didn't look pretty, I should just spray them. I insisted on cancelling the order, he then said he would try but since it was already into processing he couldn't guarantee the cancellation!! Save your money...... buy somewhere that doesn't play games with their customers.

Hollysprings, you made the following statement "You can't have bathrooms in two different structures share the home's main sewer drain." Can you show any zoning/building laws that agree with your statement? I believe you statement is not true. I just built a detached guest house and the bathroom was tied into the main home's existing sewer drain. All the guest houses and pool houses in this area are hooked up in similar ways to sewers or septic systems. If the structure is part of the main property and not a second home/apt that might be rented out then it is all hooked up together. They actually don't want separate hook ups with different meters because that would make it easy for some homeowners to rent that space out, which the town does not want at all.

I posted before about using tigerfoam. I used in in my addition. My garage ceiling was sheetrocked by my builder, and I'm sure he did the least he could get away with. Part of my bedroom is over the garage. I'm thinking that they didn't used to build living space over garages before. Now we all see why. If someone could figure out how to retrofit insulation onto a sheetrocked garage ceiling, that would be great. For stockrex, you don't have to fill the entire space for the Tigerfoam to be effective. Just a few inches will probably stop the air leaks. Then, you can fill the rest with the same batting that you take out, if it's clean. I think that it's best to figure out where the airleaks are coming from first. My powder room shares a wall with my garage. It was always cold before we renovated, but now it's freezing. When I had a wall mount sink installed, I decided to have an access panel behind it in the garage. Cold air was flowing in through the electric plug. I sealed that. It's better, but the walls are still very cold.

Pipdog - Sorry, I missed your earlier post. That house was the inspiration for one of my neighbor's remodels! Interestingly, they painted everything white BUT the fireplace and put in similar light wood flooring. Their fireplace is on an outer wall, not in the center, so it doesn't really stick out. Palimpsest - LOL on the mullet. I admit, I did have a mullet haircut 5(?) years ago when they were back in style, and DH had the faux-hawk. But hair is temporary by its nature, and I like looking silly. :) I didn't mean to be dismissive of "whatever this is" but I honestly don't know what to call it. I'm a big fan of modernism, and I'm clueless when it comes to transitional decor. I understand modern design principles, but ask me which chair goes with which table in a transitional home and I'm at a loss. And I'm really not a preservationist. We are making significant changes. The siding is definitely not original (I'd argue better than the stucco). We're updating the kitchen and baths, removing walls, etc. And our furniture is definitely not period correct. The house I posted above with the metal sheets is from a Dwell home tour and dubbed the "Hyper Eichler" by the architect. He approached the update by considering what the architects / builder might have done if the materials and building technology of today was available back then. I think it stays true even with the numerous changes from the original finishes, and I try to keep this approach in mind. Marcolo - I don't know that wanting to paint a fireplace or making any non-standard MCM chalterations is necessarily due to a lack of appreciation or trend following. Most of my neighbors truly believe they appreciate the MCM nature of their homes and probably wouldn't know a current trend if it hit them in the face, but they make all kinds of changes that purists would cringe at: granite counters, shaker cabinets, atrium conversion, fireplace removal, wood flooring, etc etc etc. A lot of it is due to tweaking their homes for their lifestyle (fireplace in the way, needed sq footage from atrium), or something I often hear is the emphasis on natural materials (granite counters, wood floors) despite the fact they're replacing formica and VCT.