I removed my Bermuda about 5 years ago and converted to desert with minus granite (love that stuff). I scrapped about 2-4" of soil with a shovel and piled it all to make a raised area in the yard, and dug deeper in other area to add more interest than a flat yard. People say Bermuda has roots 14' deep and it grows back from the roots. It doesn't...it grows from rhizomes which are just under the soil surface. People also told me the pile of sod would sprout at the next rain, it didn't. Bermuda is tough but with a little thinking and work you can win. You have to remove the rhizomes. I saw a class advertised by a permaculture guy where they dug like 12" down and shift thru the soil with mesh to find all the rhizomes. That's crazy. I dig down a bit, 4-6", and remove whatever green/rhizomes/root I find. Shake out the dirt and toss the plant into the compost or trash. Next rain or after watering I check for new growth, and that's the great thing about Bermuda, it sends up a flag to tell you exactly where the rhizome is located. Dig that out. For my lawn I had maybe 10 or so spots that sprouted after the scraping. And after that a couple where the rhizome was deep, like 12" down, looked like where it hit edging and had gone deeper to get under it. In the pile of sod there were a few sprouts which I just turned over. If there's a big area I'd scrape the entire area and pile the dirt/sod next to the area. Now I have a high berm and a low spot and I tamp down the high spot, smooth it all and it looks natural. Wait for any new sprouts, you can water to see that, remove any survivors. Then later cover with minus granite. You can of course just use RoundUp on Bermuda. For a large area you really need a serious sprayer and the concentrate. Using the spray bottle is expensive and to me a real pain to use for a large area. Pre-emergent would not effect rhizomes, it stops seeds from germinating. But I don't know much about pre-emergent chemicals, I'm OK with weeding. I enjoy it, time to think. Most weeds don't have to be pulled. I use a shovel and push it into the soil a bit and back out so the surface granite isn't disturbed too much, that loosens the root enough, and/or cuts the tap root, that touching it with the shovel removes it. I leave them in place normally to dry up and disappear. There are a few weeds with thick roots the plant can grow back from. I dig a bit deeper to cut that and same deal, comes out easy. Some do come back, but not many. I don't try to get every weed. Faster I get to it after a rain the easier. Being so dry here works to weed killing advantage. With Bermuda and weeds the real trick is to stay after it...as you already know.

Love the Rohl - great idea. I had looked at it, but wanted a single bowl, but this is 1/2 the price of the single bowl with Hebereau... means I'm back into a 36" sink base though... I was hoping for a 30".... thanks for the reminder and the review of it being a strong sink... that makes me feel much better... I'll likely go this route... I'll just have to mourn my 18" waste cabinet, and embrace a 15" one instead... cheryl

I am in exactly the same place with my red oak floors :( my floors look just as orange as in the pictures... and the variations and wood grain are much more pronounced than I wanted. I have the flooring company coming in on Monday to put down the third coat of poly - do I have any options at this point? Or just a matter of it mattering less once I get more used to the new color...? I had this same level of shock and discomfort with my wall color (had to leave my apartment for the evening just to soothe myself!), but once they sanded the floors - I realized I loved the wall color, just that my old floor finish was clashing with it. Now after staining the floor - I am back to feeling they really clash... and I really wish I had just opted for no stain and a natural finish instead... I’d take that look over what I now have any day. At least - that’s how it feels right now. To the original poster - @lacollar - (or anyone else with a similar experience) - did you eventually get used to (or even fall in love with?! :)) your floors... even though at first it felt like the choice of stain color was a huge mistake? Has anyone tried tinting the final coat to tone down the orange/reds? Does that work? Appreciate any help/advice. Thank you all!

Thank you for the food for thought - I guess I never really thought she was angry because she doesn't really sound angry when she's talking. And maybe that's what I find so bizarre: it's as if during the course of a normal conversation she starts in without any warning (and usually there's no relevance to whatever the topic is), and with no change of tone of voice and usually with a smile still on her face. You are absolutely correct when you say her life is of her own making, and to be honest, I'm not sure what her real beef is. She has a well paying job, a nice boyfriend, and a decent place to live. Her dad and I live about 1/2 hour away and see her a couple times a month. We moved here a couple of years ago, and she followed with the stated intention of attending a 4 year university which is about an hour away. She had been accepted for the fall semester this year, but then failed all her classes the semester before so was ultimately told she would have to reapply. Now she's got the opportunity to transfer in the Spring semester, but is saying she doesn't know if she wants to do that, she wants to live closer to campus, it's too far to commute, one reason after another why she can't do what she said she wanted to do. She consistently makes impulsive decisions that aren't well thought out, then doesn't seem to realize that she had the choice to make a different decision. When she's complaining, it's always somebody elses fault that she's unhappy or upset. Even when she failed her classes she blamed it on her bad roommates, but never did seem to get that she could have chosen different roommates, or at least checked out the ones she ended up with a little more thoroughly. I feel like we've been as supportive as anybody could reasonably expect: we've had her living with us off and on over the last 3 years, and we give her financial assistance as long as she's working towards her degree. DH and I are in agreement that she won't be living with us again - it's just too much drama in the house. Anyway, thanks for listening and responding - you really did give me a different perspective and I think I will try to suggest to her that she gets some counseling the next time she starts in when we're alone. And as far as Christmas goes, we're going to do something different this year: since it will just be the 4 of us, we're going for a bike ride on the beach, then out for Thai food. I told DH that we need to do something to try to deflect all that negativity, and hopefully this will be novel enough to do just that. Happy Holidays - Becky