Hi mom2sld; Reading your list I think you know what you need, but Ill summarize it for you and try to give you prices for what I know, I was just at Home Depot pricing out stuff for this season. Material Description ______ Quantity _ Cost Each _ Total Cost ------------------------------------------------------------- 2"x6"x8 (cut in half) ...... 4 ....... $6 ea. .... $24 1" blind slats (4" long) .... 12 ...... Free ...... 0 Peat Moss ................... 6 cu.ft. ............ $23 Compost, Various ............ 6 cu.ft. .$5-7 ...... $30 Vermiculite ................. ~6 cu.ft. ........... $30 Box 3-3.5" deck screws ...... 24 min. ............. ~$5 ...................................................------ ........................................ TOTAL ....$97 + tax Your prices will vary. Peat Moss  This stuff come in dry compressed bails usually in 2 cu ft ($9 ea), and 4-5 ($14 ea.), so youÂll need a 2cu. ft. bail and a 4cu. ft. bail. The large bail is heavy so get someone to help you with it. Compost ($5/per cubic foot of composted manure 6 bags ($7 for dehydrated 4 bags)- get yourself a nice selection if you can of composts, get some cow manure compost, some compost mixes, and maybe some sheep pooh too. Chicken manure is too strong and should be used judiciously. I also like seafood compost and you can typically get in New England. I recommend buying dehydrated compost manures when available, they cost a little more but you arenÂt paying for water, and you need less of it by 1/3rd I would say. My advice it to get someone nice at the store to help you and answer your questions, HD/Lowes tends to be hectic, so try a nice garden center. Vermiculite ($20 for 4 cu. ft.) - (not Perlite it is different) call ahead and find out what they have, HomeDept here in the Boston area doesnÂt carry it. I checked to see if LoweÂs website says they carry it and they donÂt say. I have to go to Mahoney in Woburn, MA to find it. Try a real garden center or farm stores in your area. Deck screws  buy a box they will be cheaper then buying them individually, and get a few extras. Have you ever looked for a screw in a lawn? Lumber  Douglas Fir sound great. Just avoid pressure treated stuff, you donÂt want it near your food. Have the folks their cut it in half for you, it depends on the place but often the 1st cut is free, each following cut it 50 cents to a buck. Might I suggest you call around to Home Dept, Lowes, or your local home/garden/building center and see what their prices are and find out what they carry. Also once you decide where youÂre going call ahead and see if they will put the order together for you and have it waiting. It will make it easier for you and the toddler. Then you can just pay for it, chat a little and have some nice person that works there bring it out to your car for you. How big is your car anyhow? Will it fit 16 to 18 cubic feet of garden supplies plus 8 x 2x6x4ft in it? I ask because you might need to make a couple of trips. If you end up doing this you can go shopping at different places and get the best price possible. Other nice places to get gardening materials that I know exist in New England is Agway & Blue Seal and they will have the stuff waiting for you and load it for you too. Plus, you should bring a tarp to put all this stuff on if you have anything other than a truck. These bags seem to always leak and having the car/SUV/van smell like manure all summer well youÂve been warned.. I would like to suggest that you just stick to MelÂs methods & formulas for a couple years until you get the hang of it. The SFG method is really designed for you to succeed so donÂt look for formulas other than what he recommends for now. If your garden succeeds you will probably be garden the rest of your life and will be able to make changes in the decades to come. To answer your other questions more directly: "As for the mix, can someone please tell me exactly what to get and about what it will cost?" : See list above. Are there names/brands to look for or avoid? : IMHO not really, itÂs all composted animal pooh. Get dehydrated if you have a choice more volume for the buck. "Will I be able to get everything at Lowes/Home Depot? If not, where?" : You will be able to get almost everything from either. I suggest you let you fingers do the walking, and as I suggested see if they can have the order ready for you when you arrive. Call them the day before to give them some time to put it together. IMHO: you might like to buy from a local business too such as Agway, Blue Seal, a local green house, and hardware/home builder store, this will get you started in being part of your local community. Also when you need advice or help the small places tend to have less turnover in staff, so next year you can talk to Bill the Garden guy because he still works there. The smaller places will put your order together for you and are happy to have your business. To get the Vermiculite you will have to go to a specialty place since I donÂt think HD or Lowes has it. "I haven't started composting yet, so I will have to purchase that too. Is it sold in these stores? " : Yes composted manure is sold at HD & Lowes although their selection is not as broad as a garden center. They usually only have cow and one other compost mixture. "Has anyone not used Mel's mix, but a different mixture with great results?" : as I said earlier stick to MelÂs method for a couple of years before you use something someone else has developed. SFG is designed to help you succeed. More experienced gardeners develop there own formulas for there own reasons, which they donÂt always remember the reasons why. Backyard gardening is more an art form then a science. MelÂs method reduces it to a science that you can learn the art form from. "For the two 4x4 gardens I described above, about how much will it cost to start? $50? More, less?" : It will run you just over 100 bucks, see list above. Since you say you are so busy and canÂt take the time to scrounge materials youÂll have to pay retail. Composting: you seem to express and interest in composting, which will be essential to keep your garden going in the years to come. There is a nice composting forum here at GardenWeb, but I suggest you get a little book that teaches you a method too. Mel does a good job getting you started. Composting is not hard but it CAN take a little trial and error. ItÂs not rocket science, but be careful what you put in your pile. If you are not sure if something belongs in the pile leave it out until you know it is safe. Your local town Parks/Recreational or Trash department might actually have compost bins for sale at a discount. Or a friend of yours might live in a town that can get it for you cheaper. A simple bin cost is $25 ea, better bins about $50 ea. Let me say, "Welcome to the wonderful world of gardening." I hope we can help you succeed at your first attempt. CloneZero PS Sorry the list is not very readable but the forums editor software ripped all my space formatting out.

I am not the Ruud expert, but it appears to be a basic single stage system. Here is your Proposal 6: 2-stage, variable speed Carrier Furnace 59TN6080-14 (same as 5) 2-stage Carrier AC 24ANB736 Carrier evaporator coil CNPV3717 Infinity thermostat Comparing Carrier Proposal 6 vs. the Rudd system 2-stage 60KBTU vs. single stage 75KBTU (75K may be oversized) 2-stage 3 ton condenser vs. single stage 2.5 condenser 17 SEER (need to check) vs. 14.5 SEER Infinity thermostat vs. unknown thermostat The Carrier system is superior. You can get an equivalent Rudd system but it will cost more. I would spend the extra money on a variable speed furnace and a 2-stage condenser.

As someone who is in the process of replacing windows, I feel your pain. I would suggest that you go outside and look at your windows. What kind of style are you looking for? It looks like you have the colonial mullions that possibly go with your farmhouse style? You want the house to have a cohesive look. Right now it probably has the feel of add on's with all the different windows. Personally if it's a farmhouse style, I would probably go with double or single hung. My concern with casements is if they are too big they may eventually sag and not open/close correctly. If you are needing to stain/paint then hire a paint contractor if you don't want to do it yourself. They would be more apt to do it correctly. I have no idea what drop-in's are. Hopefully this isn't where they cut off the flange on the outside. Personally I don't see how you would ever keep the water from infiltrating around the window unless you recaulked/checked every year. And then, it would be very easy to miss a miniscule spot.

New to this so posting the details of my kitchen backsplash quandry choosing here. The first photo is one where I liked the backsplash posted by Me Agirl on another post of Quentins. Does anyone know the specifics so I can get it in Canada? My situation is that we have Cloud white shaker cabinets, statutario quartz counters, tile flooring with white, beige, grey, coppery patterns, buttery yellow wall colour, dark walnut colour birch island. I wanted to steer away from subway tile but I see that it has a lot of versatility. The backsplash will go behind the range (not in the pic) and along this side counter. Is the backsplash in this photo too small? I don’t like busy patterns, like a warm feel. wanting to go for more modern but not trendy. is this kind of backsplash hard to keep clean?