Hi Strouper, Maybe because I started gardening with veggies mainly first, I'm willing to give things two seasons. Weather or location in the garden can really impact a plant's performance. If the plant is still awful the second time around, I move on. I do think this year was the year for cactus It was so dry this summer the mulch behind my garage caught fire! My husband was being nice and mowing our elderly neighbor's lawn. Of course no good deed goes unpunished, lol, and a spark or rock that got hit caused a fire to start, and the whole area behind the garage and the garage back wall caught fire. Luckily, another neighbor saw the smoke and the fire was stopped before the whole garage caught fire. Remy

What a fun post. I want the kitchen small enough to not feel vast, but lots of elments in that space without feeling crowded. I want an old fashioned fireplace hearth area with chairs and a bookcase within view of the dining area. I want the dining area off to one side, the kitchen area in the middle and large pantry space at other side. I want an island. And lots of windows and a patio door to the outside somewhere. That's all I know, I would be so scared of building my dream house because I can't even handle the kitchen. I have a friend that just got through building their dream house and she says she looks around now and loves it, but when she sees - oh, lets just pick the fireplace, but it could be any elment in her house - it reminds her of the 20 hours of research, 3 weeks of agonizing over the right choice, 2 hours of crying from frustration, and finally in exhaustion just picking. I know that would be me. I don't even really have the desire to build a dream home cause the choices would torment me :-).

snookums2 said: "How did you go about finding your own house inspector, greenhaven?" Our realtors have always arranged them for us, although after our first disastrous inspection (second inspection overall) we made it abundantly and redundantly clear to our realtors that we were willing to spend extra for a hard-core inspection so that we would never again be surprised the way we were that awful time. When we moved here to MI we were assigned a realtor. I hated it, but she ended up being great. The inspection company she recommended was licensed to the hilt, a local family of contractors who have lived here for...ever! I think some still contract, but the main business is inspecting. lascatx: We really do not know the exact history of the house, except that we saw before and after ics and the whole thing has been freshened, painted, replaced, retiled, new kitchen (cheapo stuff but new) and recarpeted. It has changed hands a couple times in the last year, our best guess is that is was bought as a short-sale with the intent to flip. They are gathering up all their documentation now, going back through it. They found out today there home warranty will cover the bulk of what needs to be done for the gas leaks, which is a relief! DS did not want to mess with gas lines, DIL was terrified they would get gouged by tradesmen. She was prepared to replace them herself if need be. Money is tight for them right now with all their moving and closing expenses. I don't know what their plan is. They know exactly how I feel about it, DH feels like they got ripped off. I think their plan is to take their grievance to the inspection company. I would hope they would at least ask for the fee back. If it were me I would ask them to cover the cost of a new inspection, too, or accept an offer to send a new guy out to do the fine-tooth-comb inspection they asked for. Thank you, though, everyone, for your responses. This was a good conversation for me, personally, even though it was on behalf of my kids. This little pooper (and his parents!) thanks you!

Ugh, I have been having this problem for awhile too. Has definitely caused me to not spend much time on this and the conversation side. After opening a thread there is a thin line and anything above that line I can not open with out going back out. Below the line I can click and open. Have not experienced it with my iPad or iPhone - only with my MacBook. Thank you for posting about this.