I haven't noticed any difference between dithiopyr or prodiamine effectiveness as I've used both in alternate years. Both seem to work pretty well. Ymmv. You should get opinions from others on that (post that question on the regular lawn forum or talk to a reputable feed and seed store rep.) I haven't been impressed with granular mesotrione (the AI in Tenacity) It just doesn't work nearly as well as spray application on bare soil (which gets good results), but you can't get the spray into the soil when the turf canopy is in the way. P.S. Looking at your picture. I'd ask the neighbor what they are using as it appears there is a distinct lack of poa in their lawn defined at the property line. or am I mistaken? This post was edited by yardtractor1 on Thu, May 15, 14 at 15:51

I don't understand your lawyer's actions either. I accompanied my mother when she arranged her legal matters with her attorney, so perhaps that made a difference. Anyhow, the attorney gave my mom the originals for her will, financial POA, and health care POA. He also gave her copies. He told her to put the originals in a safe deposit box and keep the copies in a safe but easily accessible place at her home. He's also got copies on file, and I made copies of the copies for myself too. Eventually, we had to provide copies for her doctors, hospital, and bank to keep on file. I always keep a copy of her POA for health care and DNR in my car so I can have them on hand whenever I take her to the doctor or ER. I've never had a problem with using the copies; that's what they're for. When my husband & I did our wills, trusts, POA's, etc., our lawyer signed us up with DocuBank, an electronic storage and access service for healthcare directives. We both carry a DocuBank Emergency Card that makes all of our critical healthcare documents available. Obviously, DocuBank dosn't have originals and isn't the lawyer, but their copies would be counted as originals. In addition, we've both supplied our doctors & hospitals copies of our POA's and I take a copy of my husband's with me when I take him to the doctor. Have you settled the issue of the hospital sending its records to your mom's primary care physician? That is absolutely nothing your mom should have to keep track of. I don't understand why there would be a problem and why the hospital wouldn't willingly, without any prodding,send a copy of its record to her personal doctor. Here is a link that might be useful: DocuBank

You should not rely on a building inspector to correct the errors of your designer or builder; they have no obligation or responsibility to do so. A building inspector might review the drawings and might find an error but the responsibility for building the house to code minimums and good practice is yours alone. You can hire designers and builders to deliver that level of quality but they are responsible only to you and you are still responsible to the city/state and the inspector has no responsibility to you. Designing a house well is not rocket science but it is surprising how many errors are made by builders and building inspectors not that architects are much better. But the advantage that an architect has is the ability to document the work and to therefore allow others to review it. And the use of standard details, schedules and specification adds another level of quality control. I have corrected many errors on a building site after the building inspector has signed off on it. And I use a structural engineer who always finds a problem everyone has missed. Everyone should be able to understand the structural drawings but in the field things can get complicated so you want the engineer of record making the final inspection not the building inspector. So, if the project is not well documented when it reaches the building inspector and you do not have independent construction quality control, what you saved in services won't go very far if there is a serious problem later.

On the other hand, if you knew the rules going in and you would follow the rules anyway, you enjoy the amenities, and you don't want a neighbor with a bright red roof or a deserted house with a lawn that was last cut three years ago or a tour bus size camper parked right in front of your house or spring break vacation renters partying all night next door, HOA living is the life for you! Seriously, like everything else, there are good and bad HOAs and there are trade-offs in any situation. If you are considering buying property in an HOA your due diligence should include: 1. Review of the covenants, declaration, bylaw and rules and regulations, to be sure you are comfortable with playing by the rules. 2. Review of the design guidelines, to be sure you can build what you want. Really, what might have attracted you to the neighborhood may be because the other homes followed the design guidelines. 3. Review of the HOA financials. Do they provide for adequate reserves for maintainence of common properties? Is there a high delinquency rate - that might be reflective of poor management or it might tell you something about your future neighbors. 4. Review of minutes of past HOA meetings, including board minutes. This will give you a good feel for the ethos of the community - you can probably pick up on whether its "actions were filtered through a good neighbor policy which took into account the circumstances of the homeowner" as musicgale commented (good comment) or whether it's just a bunch of busybodies and whiney homeowners.