It's hard to believe that any Tree Forum regular participant would recommend would dressing for this application. It's like recommending tree topping or the escalation of Bradford Pear planting. Here is a small random sampling of what those who know about tree dressing/wound sealant have to say: International Society of Arboriculture: "Research has shown that the common wound dressings do not inhibit decay, do not prevent insect entry, and do not bring about faster wound closure. In fact, many of the commonly used dressings slow wound closure." Alex L. Shigo: "We should not rely on medicines and wound dressings to correct problems we create. It is not so important to start new practices as it is to STOP many old practices that do more harm than good." ...and... "Microorganisms have their picnics and parties under wound dressings." Perdue University: "Dressings may actually harbor disease organisms rather than exclude them. It has also been determined that wound dressing slows the wound callusing (often called healing) process, rather than speeding it up." Linda Chalker-Scott: "Covering wounds with traditional sealants inhibits oxidative processes, which in turn will reduce callus formation and subsequent compartmentalization." ...and... "Wound dressings do: ⢠seal in moisture and decay ⢠sometimes serve as a food source for pathogens ⢠prevent wound wood from forming ⢠inhibit compartmentalization ⢠eventually crack, exposing the tree to pathogens Wound dressings do not: ⢠prevent entrance of decay organisms ⢠stop rot"

I drive the same thing winter and summer. My 2002 Hyundai Sonata. Years ago when front-wheel drive first came out, I was driving a Camaro. Stupid thing would get stuck on a newspaper! Hated that car. Got rid of that thing after owning it a year. I bought a front-wheel drive car, and it would churn through anything. Have driven front wheel drives since. All cars, no SUV's or anything fancy. In my dreams I would like an SUV, but funds are limited. My car is still running fine, with 290,000 KM on it. I just got it checked for my bi-annual Drive Clean and it passed. This post was edited by jasdip on Tue, Aug 6, 13 at 9:02

@nanj, your Fusion is fantastic. @Sophie Wheeler, I DO like blues. One of the reasons I like this one so much is that my colors are always greens and blues, and I thought it would be a wonderful starting point to design my whole downstairs around. Maybe it doesn't show very well, but there are a lot of blues and greens in this one. The cabs I'm holding up are Showplace Hale Navy and either Heron Plume or Gun Smoke, I don't remember which. My plan has always been to pick the rock first and go from there. Anyway, to answer other questions, Mrs Pete, the kitchen is very important to me (and to the house) but I'm not trying to go nuts here. This is a new build lake home which we'll live in permanently in about five years and which we do not plan to leave until we are carried out drooling. That said, it's designed so we can live on only one floor of it, and we will have very nice bedroom suites in which theoretically a caregiver could live eventually. Also, to clarify - the fabricator is local, it's the slabs that are four hours away, but they're at a regular supplier to the fabricator. The prices above do include fabrication. I went to a warehouse in Brooklyn where I believe all the rocks land after they come off the boat, and they get disseminated from there. That guy said I could buy slabs from him and then pay only for fabrication, but I didn't even consider that. It seemed like it would be asking for trouble. Rita, I won't have marble and DH will not have soapstone. I like ss and had a box of samples from M Teix in NJ and I set about scratching and dinging them with a fork and my husband was horrified. He doesn't usually have opinions so when he has a strong one, I tend to listen. I've looked at hundreds of granites, quartzites, quartz products in Brooklyn, Albany, Ithaca, Syracuse, and in CT (I live downstate, the new house is upstate.) I may have to talk myself into liking one of them but I think I have a talent for unknowingly going for expensive ones. When we finished our basement several years ago, the contractor took me to a granite yard and I went right to one slab. He laughed and said, "You can't have that one; it's the most expensive one here." I picked another and he said, "And that's the second." This went on awhile, LOL. It would help a lot if slab prices were listed ON THE STONE. In Brooklyn I was looking at an amazing piece of labradorite (sp) and the guy said, "Trust me, you don't need that." Then he showed me blue eyes granite. Now that was actually useful. Unfortunately, I didn't like the granite. Thank you, everyone.

I used the Lexus on some of my windows and the Toyota on others. I had 38 windows that needed curtains when I built my home. I had the curtains in the family room, living room and dining room custom made. I purchased curtains from various stores for some of the bedrooms and study, and I made my own curtains for the master bedroom(could not find anything that I liked). It took a few years to dress all of my windows and I'm happy with the results.