Thanks to all. I am learning a lot. I just took pictures of my Own root Roses. I purchased 2 Touch of Class and 2 Moncheri Roses from Amity last year. One Touch of Class did not make it. We had a hard 5 day freeze the first week in April last year. This was following a very warm March and my roses had already started to leaf out. They were still covered with composted cow manure and mulch. I only added the cones to the 4 from Amity roses. I lost around 8 of my HT last year and that is why I decided to try Own Root roses. I purchased 4 roses from Roses Unlimited a month ago during the sale--buy one and get one free. Those roses are growing well and full of buds. I live in Louisville, Ky. I have 31 HT, and I love HT, and I have one English rose and 8 Knockout Roses. I have a small yard and keep the Knockout Roses small. I just pruned them again a few weeks ago and they are still happy and about to bloom again. I am learning so much from this forum and all of you know more than some of the rose growers. I guess I will just stick with buying roses from Roses Unlimited for the future and continue to learn from all of you. Betty Sorry about the pictures--some came up twice.

It is VERY common for a store to repair an item rather than replace it. This is not because the store wants to shaft the customer. It is usually because the manufacturer will want to send replacement parts (ie, the base of a chair, seat of a sofa, side panel of a bed, etc.) rather than replace the entire piece. This is common sense. Why would any store replace an entire piece when a part can be ordered and make the existing piece new again. Most people have no clue how the industry works nor do they have a clue how most furniture is made and built. If you bought a new car and something was wrong right away, the dealer would repair it, not give you a whole new car. This is standard practice in the furniture industry as it should be. I have worked in furniture for over 30 years with 3 different companies. Repairing before replacing is not a scam and is standard practice in most instances. Most advice given online about how to deal with furniture stores is garbage, and most issues can be resolved with a simple repair of replacement part. If a leather sofa comes with a big scratch, why on Earth would the manufacturer replace the enitre piece when they could replace just a seat cushion, or even send a cut and sew piece of leather for a repair person. American consumers are spoiled and seem to think they can just demand whatever they like from a store and the store has to kiss their ass. Nope!

I am really sorry that some of you have had issues with quality on Visual Comfort products. I would love to know which retailer you are dealing with. You see, I am the Director of Product Development for Visual Comfort. We do have occasional quality issues which we deal with promptly. Like any company which strives to bring great design at an affordable price to everyone; we are only as good as our quality and know it. I am aware of the issues that have been mentioned here - but the struggle to get satisfaction is not part of how we operate. We stand behind our products FOREVER. Someone mentioned that our prices have gone up 4x in some period of time. This is untrue. We have been operating since 1987 and we have had only two price increases. In fact, we are the most copied designer lighting line and I make sure our originals are priced better than the cheap copies. Shades sometimes fail; glass sometimes breaks; occasionally we ship the wrong item. The world has voted. We are considered the best; and it isn't because we send junk and don't support our customers. If any of you have issues, feel free to send me an email. cneal@visualcomfort.com

Tmnca, I have painted many, many rooms, house exteriors and fences over the years for my home, my children's homes, my in-laws and some friends. If professional painters needed hours of painting to be certified, I would be more than certified. For my grand babies rooms though, I hired a painter. My DD chose not to find out her first babies sex ahead of time so she chose green and a nature theme which she added touches of pink to after her daughter was born. The painter painted the entire room the lighter green color first and then measured and taped around the room and painted every other taped off section with the darker green. He hand painted the tree on the wall. He also painted some grasses and little birds on the other walls. I have painted stripes in the past and if you want to do that in you baby's room there are lots of good tutorials on the web. abby, thank you for the compliments. My granddaughters are even luckier because the have 2 great grandmas involved in their lives also. One is 84 and the other is 95. Both women still live independently and both are in full procession of all their faculties. Mtnrdredux, thank you. The pool fence is fantastic. I researched pool fencing like crazy. Based on the recommendation of our own pool guy and my research, I used the fencing from this company: Pool safety fence. Choosing a fence basically boils down to the quality of the poles, the mesh and the method of installation. Holes with little sleeves in them were put in the concrete, the pole go in the holes and twist into place. The fencing comes in sections which are connected to each other. (The sections are available in a couple different heights.) We live in a cold climate. The fencing could be left up year round but my SIL has taken it down for the past 2 winters. He said it took him about 20 minutes to take it down and the same for putting it back up. If need be you can also just remove individual sections. So the fence can easily be taken down if you were having an adults only party and wanted more room around the pool deck. Our pool guy said that the pool is quite climb-proof. He said his 8 year old son could not get over it. Obviously nothing is 100% safe but the fence increases the odds favorably. In my area, there is only one dealer for this fencing. The website has a tab for locating dealers. The fence cost almost $3,000 but to us it was worth every penny. A funeral for child who accidentally drowns or the cost for caring for a child brain damaged by near drowning would cost so much more both monetarily and emotionally.