It's not so much the pond as the wet sand. Butterflies won't drink from standing water, but rather they land on wet soil and drink from the dirt. So by mounding the sand in the pool, I make a permanently moist beach as the sand will wick the water up at least 2 inches above the water level, possibly more, but I haven't mounded the sand up any higher than that. If you have a patch of open dirt in your yard, like around a citrus tree, spray it down on a nice sunny day and wait about 30 minutes. Over the summer I was always greeted by a veritable carpet of Sulphur and and Hairstreak (I believe) butterflies after watering my citrus trees. Which always annoyed me a bit since the pool was, at the time, about 12 feet from my Persian Lime that they would drink at. As far as bees go, the only thing that I have seen in my yard that will attract bees is my white-colored pentas. For most of the summer there were so many bees and wasps on those pentas that no butterflies would visit them. But I haven't seen the bees since the last Love Bug invasion and since then the Gulf Frits have been visiting those plants more frequently. Having said that, I'm more of a foliage person and so I don't have a lot of flowering plants yet. The white pentas are the only flowers I have on the west side of my house and I only have lavendar and white Trailing Lantanas on the east side. But that will hopefully be changing next spring as I set about building a wildflower bed (Yay! Even LESS grass to mow!). I also have cuttings from Purple, Pink and Red Pentas rooting, so those will be planted next spring as well.

An older way was to put short dead ends above each fixture, often concealed i the wall. Instead of an elbow to exit the wall, a T was used and about 12 inches of pipe run vertically ad then capped. As long as the stub remains full of air it acts as a hammer arrestor. Wen the air is finally absorbed into the water they stop working, and then the whole system needs to be drained to restore the air to in the stubs. Modern hammer arrestors use a seal between the air and water. They are required at every 'fast acting' valve (DW, washing machine, and large bore electric type solenoid valves) and are often a good idea near single handle facets since theys can often be slammed off fast enough manually.

I agree, except about using a second oven as a warming drawer. Some ovens don't go low enough to be used as a warmer. Our last house had double ovens that had a bread proofing mode, and also would go as low as 105 degrees. I found 115 degrees to be perfect for warming plates, and keeping food warm. But I was at a house recently with double ovens (new!) and we tried unsuccessfully to get the oven to a low enough temp to keep some food/plates warm. The lowest it would go was 170 degrees, which made the tortillas crisp and dry on the edges, and made the plates too hot to use.

Yes, a house in Toronto, is very desirous for those who want all the cultural variety a large city can offer, via dining, entertainment and so forth. One need not own something large or with considerable property, to just step out and enjoy the many choices that are easily accessible. But the current housing market in Toronto makes even the smallest houses difficult to purchase for the majority of people, if they don't have extra funds for any necessary repairs or renovation. The second home in New Brunswick is far larger, and turnkey. A much smaller city doesn't usually have the amount of cultural diversity to offer the same variety, via dining and entertainment, as a much larger city. But those who favour a larger house/property in a small city, probably are happy to avoid the congestion and hubbub a large city. So basically, neither is better and to each his own. But I do still find it interesting to see what a huge disparity the same dollar value will purchase, in different areas of a country!