To be mentioned in the same breath with Dawn and George is immensely flattering. I have met George personally and learned a lot about Dawn from reading her posts. I have some limited experience which I am willing to share, but I have not done 1/10 the research that Dawn and George have done. I am not very adventuresome. I tend to stick with what has worked for me for years til someone shakes me out of my rut. But with the necessity to feed 4 children years ago, and now the opportunity to feed 3 grandchildren we have raised a fairly large garden. But like Dawn, we adopted the bed method years ago, but not so much the square ft gardening. Our system is kinda a hybrid. And we don't like to have to water much so we plant further apart than Bartholomew and Jeavons recommend. But our 16 beds are fifty ft long and four ft wide, separated by one ft pathways. We put two long rows in each bed and don't walk on them. (We tried a more intensive planting years ago, but in the very high humidity of this area had disease problems so spaced stuff back out again.) In the beds that will stay over the summer we lay a soaker hose in a trench between the rows and mulch the whole bed with leaves, grass clippings, compost etc. We throw cabbage and broccoli plants to the chickens, but we put the corn stalks in a long windrow next to the garden fence and then the next spring plant through them. We also have 10 smaller beds, 4X12 feet, and these beds are planted more like the sq ft system with no wasted space, with herbs, small veggies and some flowers for cutting. We also have a small orchard, a few blueberry plants and a fig bush, as well as 8 50 ft rows of asparagus. We use a tiller to prepare the ground, and till in chicken litter, only in the winter when the earth worms are down. During the rest of the year we hand hoe and mulch like crazy. And we raise a lot of food. Enough to supply two married daughters, husbands, children and my parents with most of the veggies we eat during the summer and a lot during the winter. And like Dawn and many others on this forum, I don't understand people who bag up grass clippings and leaves and put them on the curb. Why doesn't every yard with grass and leaves have a compost pile in the back? And a garden? It makes no sense. But the times they are a changing, and more people are going to get with it. At least I hope so.

when they come from a reputable breeder... dyhgarden, this is so very true. I would never purchase an animal from a puppy mill (and believe me, there are a lot in personal homes of "reputable" people - I know one and she makes me sick the way she breeds her little dogs constantly - they are cash flow for her, but everyone thinks she is sooooo nice). I did a lot of research and found a very good breeder who bred her dogs only once every two years and was very selective of the bloodlines of the papa dogs to assure there was no interbreeding. She shows her poodles, has won many awards for toy poodles, and sells only a few; mine was trained to be a show dog, but she didn't make it because she was too much of a dancer and whirler. So I got to purchase her when she was one year old to my great luck. She is an absolute delight. Even people who don't care for dogs warm up to Gracie very quickly. She weighs 6 pounds and, because of that, everyone always views her as a wonderful, cuddly puppy, even when they know she is way past being a puppy. I always have a problem posting pictures on Houzz and have been trying to post a picture of Gracie, but have not been successful.

Some of this is a bit of hypersensitivity on your part. Some. Because once a couple of normal snafus happen, you look all the closer. Nothing is perfect, and looking at a paint job from 1” away will always find something. That hypersensitivity created from those snafus isn’t your fault, but be aware that you could be over reacting on the smaller stuff at this stage. I’d bet $1 that they are used to doing lower quality, less detailed, cheaper dollar figure projects and this higher grade project is a stretch for them as a company. If I lose so my $1 bet, and they weren’t the low budget bid among a few genuine luxury remodelers, they won’t continue with the higher grade projects when handling them like this. It all goes back to the Project Manager in charge of your project, and the Designer you hired to do the drawings and specifications. If they hired him away from building cheap production builds, he may not have the organizational abilities or eye for detail that someone who came through the ranks of a custom builder would. If you hired a Decorator or Home Designer rather than an accredited Interior Designer or Architect, then some of that issue lies there. Theres no way of knowing cause. And the blame game isn’t a good one to play this far along. You’re in the Solution Business now. No matter the source of the issues. You’ve got to rebuild that team spirit that you had at the beginning of the project. Everyone wants a success. Talk to your GC first. Don’t involve the PM or Designer yet. Talk over The List, and ask him who he wants on his team from your end to help it get done. If he diplomatically doesn’t mention the Designer’s input, you may have some small answers there. But, in the end, he knows it’s all on him. His PM isn’t truly performing. Maybe he is over extended. Who cares. It’s the Gc’s ownership in the end. And nothing makes a GC unhappier than an unhappy customer. He wants to make you happy. So, he will do what it takes to make that happen. Based on some of your comments, I’d want pictures of the windows at installation. A properly installed window or door should not allow water intrusion even if siding was not in place. The right flashing should keep that out. I would want the crawl space encapsulation revisited by removing the barrier in the “traffic paths” that will need to be accessed regularly. That will get the most wear and tear, and needs to be 100% debris free. The rest is poor protection of your home that the results can be whittled down. And that’s why I said they are above their usual experience and quality level. Every upscale contractor that I know protects the new work, or the existing that is staying, automatically. Vents blocked off. Ram board. Plastic sheeting dust barriers. Plywood over the tub, or the paint on plastic coating. That’s the cost of doing business at that level rather than Section 8 housing.

Sorry, I can't id this plant, a Cristata form of maybe a Euphorbia. I can help you on the white spots. They are natural. The thorns come out of those places, but not each one makes a thorn. When to water. In the winter you want to keep the water to the minimum, but once the plant starts to show signs of shrivelling or deflating, that is the time to give it a good water. Let water run out the bottom. Wait another 5-10mins and water until water comes out the bottom. if the soil is extra dry the soil has a difficult time absorbing water. The first water preps the soil, while the second watering is when the soil absorbs the water. You don't have to do this unless the soil is bone dry. If it is bone dry, do this method. if the ground is moist don't water!!!. The best way to know if its time to water is to use a bamboo skewer. Insert the bamboo skewer for 20min or more. Then take it out. Look to see if the skewer comes out wet or dry. The longer you leave it in the better your results for the correct answer. I never take mine out. each plant has a skewer. I check the skewers for the plants that look dry. If the skewer is dry then it's time to water. (This works for tropical plants as well, but you don't want the skewer to ever go completely dry for them.)