Well, the pair came by again today. They've found another delicacy in the yard, the seeds of a terribly invasive vine with gorgeous pink flowers. I have no idea what it is, I'm constantly pulling it, probably because birds eat the seeds and drop them in my yard. But watching the two of them in the very tippy top of the little oak, toppling over head-first to get to their seeds, was pretty cool. I'm still pulling that vine and the Virginia creeper in the cabbage palm next to it, but maybe I'll leave it for another week, just in case I get to see "my" pair of Amazons. Funny was watching them look down completely unconcerned at the hunter cat with the bell. He's small for a cat and they're big for birds and he sulked by, making it clear he knew he was outmatched and wasn't happy about it. He stalked off to the neighbor's yard to terrorize their cats, who haven't figured out he's declawed and fixed. They think he's one bad kitty because when they first tried to defend their food, the giant yellow lab barked at the commotion. They seem to have decided that my little guy has a bodyguard. We need to give our neighbors cat food for Christmas.

Lago, yeah the Delaware Coast has a pretty favorable climate for windmills and such. They are not is wide spread because people just aren't aware of such thing as cold hardy palms and the availability is not as great as in VB. It's getting better. The early "palms pioneers" like the Royal Rose B&B shown above illustrate the great potential here. They have been my garden inspiration and I have windmills lining my Victorian wrap around porch. We are a high end zone 7b here according to the 2012 USDA map. Earlier revisions by AHS and Arbor Day placed the immediate coast as the northern most extreme of 8a. That latter point seems to really ruffle feathers for some reason. But those of us who live on the coast know that we're in a bit of a sweet spot. You hit a very interesting point about the geography of our coast (Delaware Bay to our north) mimicking VB coast (Chesapeake Bay to their north). They are a good half zone milder being 100 to 120 miles due south, but also closer to Gulf Stream which is deflected out to sea by the OBX of NC. We recognize we're not VB climate, but we're not far off either, which people find hard to believe. I agree with you that pot grown palmettos are a better long term survivor. They are hard to come by in most places in the areas. Never seen here. There are some very rare palmettos here. I did a thread in the fall (Sabal Palmettos in Delaware) you can look for. There is a hurricane cut palmetto near Bethany Beach that was planted by a friend if mine at his former garden center. It was growing slowly and had some setbacks. But he sold the center to a woman who is "palms clueless". She didn't protect it winter a year ago, but surprisingly it recovered nicely and was getting a decent green crown by November. Then she cooked it with lights wrapped in plastic this winter. We write it off. Shame. It would've been better off left alone. After this mild winter, it would've come through perfectly and had a great summer growth a head of it. Yesterday, my friend texted me that the palm is still alive! It has 8" of new green growth pushing out of the top. It just shows the resilience of the mighty sabal palmetto. Hurricane cut palmettos are a poor choice for marginal areas like here. But that one is an interesting experiment. A smaller, pot grown palmetto has been at a Fenwick Island (inches above the MD/DE line) for a few summers, is un protected other than seated infringe of a very short wall. It looks great and is example of why this type should be tried more often. Again, they are not available. I've read extensively about palmetto and most sites say they are an 8a tree, but hardy to 7b with good seating. I'm going to do a drive to Gary's nursery this week to pick up pot grown 7 gal. palmettos and a Birmingham. Besides the "Sabal Palmetto in Delaware" thread, I did "A palmy visit to Bethany Beach" a few weeks ago, you might find interesting. Bethany Beach seems to have an even sweeter microclimate because if the Inland Bays to their northwest, which may moderate cold winter winds.

My growing season last year was from March 28th to November 29th which is about 230 -240 growing days (the ocean and heat island effect helps keep frost from hitting as frequently as other areas). TOn average my growing season is from April 10th to November 10th which is around 180 days (give or take. But just because my growing season is about the same as yours, or maybe a bit longer, doesnt mean its better, since my growing season is definitely cooler than yours on average). Mine is in a full sun (During the summer it gets sun from about 11am to 6pm). The duration of cold during the winter here is longer though so I think that could be one problem (windmill palms do seem to handle cool temperatures better than sabals which might be one reason why I have more success with windmills than Sabals). One thing I should mention is I have my Sabal a bit above the actual ground level which might make the roots a bit more vulnerable to cold (and heat) and it also stays drier for that same reason. You are much closer to Sabal minor's native range than I am so Im sure that your soil type and temperatures are more similar to what they want. Good luck! -Alex

Thanks to all for your insights and experiences. It really helps. This post is a bit long because I thought I'd share more about our build and our decision-making process. The builder and I made some progress yesterday. I discovered he did bid out the pieces and had three quotes on each major component from various subs he has worked with over the years. We reviewed them together. He went with the lowest. However, he had miscalculated the overall square footage (100 sq feet too much). Now, after talking to the subs, the bid is a bit lower. The GC had also added an extra 5% for each line item to cover problems which might arise plus included a separate reserve fund. Actually, that's ok with me as I would rather estimate on the high side than be surprised and be forced into a home equity loan. We're doing the remodeling, addition, and pool in cash and I want to keep it that way. My big cost concern was the framing labor. The framers are doing more than just framing. They'll also be installing all the windows and doors, inside and outside trim, and painting. I don't know why he didn't communicate this during our earlier discussion. The current house is a combo of brick/wood and we're using Hardi-Board as our siding choice, a more expensive choice. We hope to replace the wood siding on the rest of the house with Hard-Board as soon as our budget recovers. We also cut the roof budget and the HVAC budget. As recommended here, I pulled out some pieces of the job that I can GC myself...mainly finishing work. I found flooring at half the estimated cost so we're going with my guy. I cut the paint budget to builder's white and will go back and repaint with my chosen paints. We can paint. The closet finishing was cut to the bone, as in "give me a rod". It's one thing I know how to do myself. I have no confidence in my ability to GC framing or plumbing and other big pieces and am not sure I can learn enough fast enough. I started this project with a very clear idea of what I wanted. I want this to be my last house. Of paramount importance was to build a house that was aging-friendly and could be retrofitted easily to accommodate age-related disabilities. For example, the walls in our separate toilet area are being reinforced now for future grab bars if needed. No steps and all transition areas incorporate universal design. Layout, doors, faucets, laundry...almost everything has been designed for age-related disabilities and keeping a person in the home, as long as possible, with the aid of home health care services. The toilet area is placed very specifically to ensure an easy transition from bed to bath in the middle of the night with few risks for accidents. Having moved and nursed two sets of aging parents into nursing homes, we have a pretty good idea of what it takes to keep people in their homes as long as possible. It goes beyond traditional universal design concepts. Now, watch me get taken out by a bus. We've been planning this for three years trying to decide between a new build or adding onto an existing house. This spring the right existing house, in the right location, at the right time, at the right price made the decision for us. Our next decision was to go with an architect or go design/build. We interviewed two architects. One of them scared the hooey out of me. He was very focused on redoing the entire facade of the house with stone work and a turret! I felt he had not listened to a word I said and would be very intent on fulfilling his vision instead of mine. The other architect spent more time talking about all the permitting problems we might encounter than the actual design. By the way, our permit sailed through, with one minor delay. Cost was also a factor. The architects quotes were 15-18% of the total cost for a small addition plus $175-250 per site visit. I do see the wisdom of using an architect but the price made me very nervous. Maybe that was a mistake on my part but almost everyone I know here goes design/build. That's what we decided to do. The architect fees for design/build ran about $4000. This included using an expediter to get the permit through. One of the problems we ran into in our initial planning for this project was the lack of timely responses from the builders we interviewed.. We are working within a certain time frame. I wrote a very detailed scope of work and prepared a super-detailed spreadsheet for my interviews. The three contractors I interviewed pretty much quoted the same price per square foot. I understand that talking price per square foot isn't completely realistic and that adding to the current can be more expensive than building new. I gave each one my spreadsheet and asked for a detailed estimate. The GC we are working with was the only who got back to us within 30 days. Given the downturn in housing, we thought we'd hear back from everyone pretty quickly. That didn't happen. Still hasn't. This GC has an excellent reputation and we have a pretty good rapport. We haggle and disagree but it's always civil. He's been working on some remodeling of the existing home and the work has been high quality and on budget. I also like and trust the subs he's employed to date...except that they keep drinking the bottled water in my fridge when my back is turned. If that's the biggest problem I have, then I have no problem. Many of the same crew will be working on the addition. Over the weekend, I had a pretty frank conversation with a builder/friend who couldn't take our work due to his schedule. He feels the cost of the project with the current cost cutting is about 10% more than he could deliver if he could take it on. He said our GC has an excellent reputation for quality work, tends to be more expensive, but does deliver on budget, once we've haggled our way through it. My friend also said that many of the custom builders here are still running very high in pricing and if they come in low they'll likely play games to make up for it. He did remind me to keep in mind that I'm building a single story addition which always costs more than a two-story. My friend also agreed with many of you that I should pull chunks and take care of it myself. We halted the remaining remodeling work in the current house which I'll finish off plus cut out chunks of the addition project. My time and labor is worth the dollar savings up to a certain point. The decision my husband and I face is to stop the process, go out to other builders, hope they respond, and blow our time frame with hopes for a better result or pay (literally) for our time constraints and continue with a reduced budget. We're leaning towards the latter. The DC housing economy has slowed but incomes are very protected here from recession here compared to the rest of the country. We are also facing a builder backlog because the weather has been so miserable with rain for the last couple of months. The one thing I don't get is why all the building folk talk about price per square foot on initial interviews but don't give you all the caveats. I think that's why I was so stunned when we actually looked at hard numbers. Even during this downturn, it's hard to get return calls. We've now got the cost for the addition down to $140,000 from $160,000 which is $213/square foot. Given our high-end bath, we may be approaching reasonable. The good news is that we are increasing the house from a 3 bedroom/2.5 bath to a 4 bedroom/3.5 bath which should increase our value (and tax assessment). Although, I hope to stay in the house until they carry me out. I must admit the Master Bath is driving up this price. It is the only area we planned to truly splurge. For those of you who are interested, here is our budget. Due to health reasons, neither of us can use a hot tub to relax those old muscles so went with a steam shower to help with muscles, allergies, and skin conditions. Master Bath 12'x12' Overall  5'x5' Steam Shower  5'x5' Separate Toilet Area  Separate Vanities. - No Bathtub- One Window, Main Entry Door, Another door to the very large combined Master Closet/Laundry space. Steam shower Generator/Control Kit  Mr. Steam - $3200 Stream Shower Lights  Mr Steam - $600 Rain Shower head  Moen - $600 2 Hand Held Spray showers - $700 Glass Door with seals - $1200 2 Grab Bars - $200 Kerdi Moisture Proof Barrier Kit - $900 2  36" Vanities with Medicine Chests  Merillat stock - $2000 Vanity Tops  Blue pearl Granite - $800 2 Faucets  Moen - $700 Tile  entire bath - $4300 Tile/Labor - $3000 Plumbing - $7000 (to bring from main house  most work done in a crawl space) Total Bath - $25, 250 Live wire oak  if you've made it this far, thanks for the reality check. You're right on the money. MyDreamHome  I agree with the difficulty figuring out the home building business. I'd rather face the dentist without anesthesia. If I had infinite time, I'd run down more of this myself but between work, kids, other family, life stuff, there's only so much one can do. Luckily, I work from home and can take on the smaller components. Actually, we're not in the house yet. We wanted to finish the current remodeling work and get the addition underway before we move in. We sold our other home in 2005 and have been renting and saving for this home. Our lease ends in August. Sniffdog, Congratulations on making it through. I'm so glad you like your steam shower. We've rarely used used the jacuzzi tubs in other homes and hope the steam shower is a good idea. The Bathrooms Forum was invaluable when we started thinking about the shower. Thanks to all....now over to the Pool Forum