Tapla, thank you for trying to help me figure this out. Each of the four little plants were about 6 inches when I bought them and I wonder if they were just too delicate to survive repotting⦠The first one was Ellwoodii, then a rosemary, then two lavender plants in a row - all died a fast decline, as fast as when cut flowers take that final nosedive. Maybe a couple of days and then there was no saving them. I removed most of the original soil from each of them using my fingers and a chopstick. Maybe I didn't keep the roots moist enough⦠but I immediately put them in the sink and poured a bunch of water through until it stopped draining. Then I let them sit away from sun on the coffee table for a couple of days. I may have turned on the steam radiators or used the gas oven, but the apartment temperature tends to stay in the 60-75 degree range all year. Not too hot, not too cold, but fairly dry. It's been a warm winter here in San Francisco, with spring-like temps outside, about 55-75 degrees since January, actually. My plants can't go outside, so I keep them in my bay windows. (I don't have access to a yard or any outdoor space for plants to live, unless you count the back stairwell in the middle of my building's lightwell.) ~ Mary PS - I'm still sore, so I'm lugging those bags of ingredients through my building a few at a time every day. Next time, I'm hiring a beefy teenager to do the lifting!

There was an article on appliance repair places in the SF Chronicle several days ago. Go to sfgate.com and then do a search on the site using *appliances* as your search term. The article itself has a jump to the full Consumer Checkbook article which will only be available until the end of the month or so. The CC article rates 57 places in the Bay Area. Otherwise, you might try Berkeley Parents Network, Yelp, or Angie'l List.

Again, thank you! So interesting to see something instead of just reading a menu.

IMO a two hour notice is reasonable:) It is more difficult today to get everyone's schedules together to show property so we don't kill two hours just driving around. But we do plan our showings and it is common to have notice well before two hours. The exception is when showing properties in the area and the buyer notices your house on the market and wants to see it right away :)