As I said back in the very early stages of this thread: I'm expecting soon to see a post by purplemage telling everyone that the roofing job has been finished to everyone's satisfaction and without purplemage's life being turned upside down. Y'all see. Meanwhile, it's been great fun seeing everyone getting so wound up. Peace!

I just read some of the Strawberry stuff for the first time. Seems to me that there's a dynamic at work there that made for an inevitable impasse (if not over perlite, then something else), and a no-win situation for everyone unfortunate enough to be involved. Nevertheless, I respect the concern/compassion Michael and others have voiced. Quickly reading thru some of the exchanges, I was reminded of Bug-Girl who posted on the Roses Forum for a while. A self-described hoarder, she was a collector of early Barbie dolls (or some such) -- all with their original packaging and tags, which, if present, apparently add greatly to a collectible item's value. She came to these forums obsessed with the idea of searching-out old, abandoned rose bushes and scratching around them to see if she could find the metal name tag. If she located the tag, the plan was to dig the plant, attach the tag and sell each rare find for a bundle on either eBay or Craig's List. That thread went on & on &on with regulars here v-e-r-y patiently attempting to explain why the plan wasn't a great idea. Bug-Girl would have none of it. When things began to devolve into utter frustration with her, then into humor, Bug-Girl concluded that we were a bunch of non-entrepreneurial "trolls" and departed in a state of high dudgeon, never to return. Who knows, perhaps she followed thru on the scheme, hit the jackpot with it, and retired to the south of France where she grows fabulous roses today. If so, I've absolutely no doubt that she remembered to preserve the tags -- every single one of 'em.

What seems peculiar to me is that a virtually anonymous post was made to the effect that someone(s) was making unpleasant posts. People seem to have jumped to conclusions about who was making the post and to whom the post was directed. I don't understand why anyone would feel singled out unless they were worried that they had made unpleasant posts. Many of us moved from posting here because some were displeased with the way the new owners were doing business, ads, etc. There was absolutely no intent of trying to get away from anyone and as many people as possible were told where we had gone. Due to previous restrictions on posting it seemed impossible to post it openly without getting the thread removed. That seems to have changed. This looks to me like a tempest in a teapot. Some of you don't like some of the rest of us or how we post. Okay, but as Lynn pointed out, what's that got to do with gardening in a blast furnace? I'm not a cliquish person at all, though I see how we could look like one because we mostly like each other. Politics, current events, personal preferences about how we live our lives have nothing to do with this. Let's do what we can to get over this and at least pretend that we think other folks are okay. ;-D

What’s worse is that they had disclosed that the home had needed piers for the foundation in the past on the disclosure form and included a letter from the president of the company that makes the piers, saying that the piers had a lifetime warranty that extended to new owners. What they did not say is what we learned from one of the guys digging the 8 ft hole where our living room floor used to be. He remembered being at the house before, when the first six piers went in. He told us that 12-13 piers were recommended by the company, but the homeowner had only agreed for the six that could be installed easily, outside of the house. So, the left side of the living room was supported, while the right side, the foyer, and the garage wall continued to sink. We had cracks in all the doorways that had to be repaired. Our front door and sidelights (one big unit) was removed for the summer of construction and a plywood wall was constructed to separate the construction zone from the occupied house. Each workday, the plywood covering where the front door belonged had to be reinstalled. It was crazy. We had a POD in the driveway, holding the contents of the rooms and garage that were under construction, for six months. It makes me wonder if the foundation company had a responsibility to say that the homeowner had not installed all of the recommended piers in the letter telling us that the warranty extended to us. That letter gave us reassurance that there were no foundation problems with the house.