I think we have all run into landscape designers (include LA's as a sub set of LD's) who spec'd plants that were very difficult to get or "border line" as for survivability. Just as we have run into installers who unload plants by tipping up the bed on the dump truck, we run into engineers who will force you to deal with a grade that you can't change because it was more convenient to run a drainage pipe across the middle of the site, and architects who design the side entry garage 24' from the property line. One of the projects that we did in my senior year at the U of Idaho was to critique an existing landscape. I chose a plaza area adjacent to the library on campus that had recently been completed. It was not an "I like this" and "I don't like that" qualitative opinion type critique. It was more of an investigation. The best thing was that I had access to everyone involved. I met with the Capital Improvements manager of the U, and gues what his degree was and where he got it (LA, U Idaho). He spent a good hour or more with me after he put together the history of the project and gave me lots of copies of plans, memos from meetings, etc,... One of the LAs who worked on the design went to school with me about 12 years before, so I had access to another perspective there. Then another frieng of mine worked for the U of I as a project manager and took photo documentation throughout the entire project. To make an even longer story short, there were so many twists and turns in the funding, design, physical discoveries during construction, .... that the project was so degraded from its original intent that it looked like a concrete parking with very odd grade changes by the time it was done. At the beginning you asked yourself "who's the moron who designed this" and in the end you found out that in a project such as this, with so many different agendas, some political - some practical - some changing as the project moved forward, that a lot of the time the design is really owned by no one once it is complete. It started as a beautiful concept campus plaza by a Portland LA firm. It had a lot of ammenities and it was beautiful. They did not have the funding to do that particular project. They hired a local LA who did a much more affordable design which was also quite nice. The project did not go forward because funding got reduced. The university put together its own team to adjust the second LAs plan to make it more affordable. Then the fire department kicked in that they needed certain apparatus to be able to enter the site and turn around in it, so they adjusted the plan to take that into consideration. Meanwhile the reconstruction of the library is complete and they need to finish the plaza up to keep the campus functioning. Then they find that the very recent and very expensive fiber optic cluster ran through the site very close to the surface limiting excavation after the first half of it was constructed with the belief that the whole thing could be at a similar grade. But, they had to finish it off. Finish it they did and it was not pretty. So do we blame LA #1, LA #2, the funding, the poor records or research that left out the fiber optic cables, the fire department, the slowness of campus administration that made it a last minute project, or whom? My opinion is that the mistake was to continue to water down the original plan rather than starting over with all of the new criteria that needed to be met. Its no different in smaller planting projects. Someone does not want to pay for design details and then someone else thinks the designer is not thorough. Someone deletes the bed around the rock cluster and the designer does not understand maintenance. Someone begs the designer to plant some funky variety he saw in Maui, so the designer does not know plants. We all have our prejudices. Mine is building architects.

worthy, as someone else told me that the pic on the left shows that the basement slab extended outside. That's a GUARANTEED leak situation. And I've double checked my blueprint, mine is not like the left pic. My walkout wall is sitting on the concrete foundation (frost wall under grade). I've attached it here. Which one is more desired? Durability? Termite resistance? Flood/Moisture resistance? Fire resistance? Of course concrete may have cracks in the future. All I wanted to ask is which one is a better way to design the walkout side considering all the aspects.

I saw stained Loewen at a friend's house and they are beautiful windows. It was about two or three years ago and so far, he has had no problems with them. We use Marvin Ultimate which is AL-clad exterior and we ordered bare wood interior to stain. They are now five years plus a few months old, all are fine. We are in milder central CA near the coast. These windows and doors have put up with searing summer heat of over 100-F to winter temp of around 29-F; wind, rain, some rare snow. So far, so good. We approached a total of three Marvin dealers in our region about six years ago. Two were really bad and they are no longer in business. One long-time Marvin shop got our business because they were respectful and answered all our questions without stupid sales tactics. WE also got a really competent contractor (GC) who did an excellent job. Even the best company will have problems in a small fraction of their products, so it helps to carefully analyze what sort of problems have been reported on-line. Some are systemic problems, some are isolated incidents reported only by very few owners and some are either shipping damage or installation mistakes. Can you share what sort of problems are being reported now? Marvin had a class-action against them way back in the 80's and 90's due to a chemical company's defective wood treatment product. The wood windows rotted and Marvin in turn sued the chemical company. That whole mess was settled long ago and affected owners dealt with. We found the info while we were researching our windows six years ago. I do not know if there are any more new problems associated with Marvin. This class-action thing was recently rehashed and reposted as new by posters either ignorant of the actual dates of the event or for other unknown agenda. If this is what you have been reading, it is safe to ignore. If the problems are new, please do let us know. A friend is also looking at Brothers Custom Windows because of an architect's recommendation but I have absolutely no information about this company. Good luck with your research!

"Are you sure all these receptacles are not chained off the first GFCI? If you push the test button on the GFCI do the other receptacles stop working? " Positive. They're on totally separate circuits, for one thing. If testing the GFCI on one circuit causes outlets on totally different circuits to stop working, there is a big, big problem somewhere. "There's nothing wrong with all the bathroom receptacles on a single circuit with one GFCI as long as there's nothing else on that circuit. " No, but it is weird. I've not seen that before, ever. However I am unused to some of the shoddy things I've seen in newer tract housing. That's as opposed to some of the things I've seen in much older homes - such as wiring so old that it was still legal when the wiring was put in to have in-line fuses. My guess is that wiring it this way was a way to save money on having to put in another GFCI for the 2nd bathroom. Not putting one on the washing machine outlet was just sheer incompetence. But its still shoddy because now if someone in each bathroom switches on a hair dryer, you risk overloading that circuit. A hair dryer can draw 12.5A - and 2 of them on the same 15A circuit (and lets hope Dad isn't shaving at the other sink at the same time - or, come to think of it, running his OWN hair dryer, in this day of equal opportunity primping) is not something you want to do on a regular basis. "There's nothing wrong with the refrigerator being shared with a dining room receptacle if it is a 20A circuit (and it feeds nothing other than receptacles in the kitchen and dining room and like areas). " There most certainly is. There are power spikes on lines running something with a motor like a refrigerator. Plug your computer into a line on the same circuit as the refrigerator, and see how far you get. (Well, actually, the microwave would be worse, but it still wouldn't be that great). It's not even in the same room - there would be no reason for anyone to suspect that that outlet is not on the same circuit as all the other outlets in the room. This is not an attached dining "area". It is a totally separate room that is listed on the floor plans as "home office/formal dining". The dining "area" is on the other side of the kitchen, congruent with the living room. I doubt that you can lump THREE areas - kitchen, "dining area", and a "dual-use" office/formal dining room all into one under building codes. Also, it is a 15A circuit. Given that there is an outlet in the hallway that is closer to it than is the line for the fridge, I fail to see any advantage to hooking that one circuit in to the kitchen, fridge or no fridge. For all I know - I haven't checked yet - the microwave could be on the same circuit. I kind of doubt it, but at this point I have no idea what circuit the microwave is on (its built in) which raises the potential for problems should I find out the hard way that my Vita-mix is on the same circuit as the microwave. If for no other reason than I end up having to run out in the snow and switch the breaker back. The microwave also ought to be on a dedicated circuit - but it clearly is not. My guess is that it is on the same circuit as the rest of the outlets on that side of the room, which puts anything you have plugged into those other outlets at risk when the microwave comes on. And before you scoff at the idea of a dedicated circuit for the microwave - a 1200W microwave draws 10A to 11A (depending on how close your supply voltage is to 120V). It should be on a 15A circuit to account for the spike it causes when it comes on. That leaves little or no room for other things on the same circuit. Some fluorescent lighting - probably OK. Other high-draw appliances, such as food processors or powerful blenders or mixers - not OK. The microwave should be on its own circuit. Oh, and here's another Really Stupid Way To Wire Your House - the hall lights are on a 3 way switch. There is a switch over by the living room. A switch outside the doors to the Master bedroom and the bedroom next to it. And the 3rd switch is outside the bathroom door. Which means the 3rd bedroom has no switch within reach. Which means when you get up in the middle of the night, you either risk breaking your neck getting to the bathroom, or you take a flashlight with you. Having a switch next to the bathroom, and none within reach of the 3rd bedroom, is sheer stupidity. Outside of TV shows about teenage cyborgs, nobody sleeps in the bathroom. And if you did - you wouldn't need access to the hall lights to get there. "Prewiring for an electric cooktop even when a gas is installed is quite commonly done for practical reasons" Well yes, it is. I mentioned it because I see the breaker in the box, but I can't see the outlet for it. I ASSUME it is wired to an outlet behind the current gas stove, but I have no way to test or check that without removing the stove, which I am not about to do. Another weirdness is where they mounted the breaker box. The breaker box is mounted on the OUTSIDE WALL of the garage, IN FRONT of the backyard fence to boot. It has to be locked - which is actually no protection from meddling because the only kind of lock you can put on it (because the place for it will only accept a small hasp) is easily snipped off. There is just no reason that couldn't have been mounted inside the garage or elsewhere inside the house. In addition, having to lock the box (and then having to keep track of the keys for it) means an extra thing you have to fiddle around with in the cold/dark/snow/rain/ice or whatever. I'm no spring chicken any more and I don't relish having to find the keys (possibly in the dark) go outside and fiddle with my breaker box in the rain (which raises potential safety issues on top of everything else) because my VitaMix blew the circuit breaker when my housemate unknowingly turns on the microwave at the same time. Or whatever other circuit gets unknowingly overloaded because things are not as they should be. Which is why I always map the breakers in a new place - hence this recent exercise. "There's absolutely no requirement that each bedroom be on it's own circuit, and in fact, many designs specifically don't do that. " If there isn't, there ought to be. Now instead of having 15A for each bedroom, the 2 rooms have to share 15A. It is bad design, whether or not "many designs specifically don't do that", especially in the era of a computer and TV in practically every room. Keep in mind, its not just the lights or just the outlets that are all on the same circuit - it is ALL the lights AND outlets in both rooms. In the meantime, there is a 15A circuit in the laundry that has only that one outlet on it (and maybe the lights in there, I forgot to write that down). Then there is ANOTHER outlet on the other side of that room that is on the same circuit as some of the garage outlets. And no real use for either outlet as the room is way too small to try to iron in there, not to mention how inaccessible the one behind the dryer is anyway. I'm sure its not against code. It's just against common sense. "Frankly other than the fact your panel is mislabeled, nothing seems out of code or even contrary to normal practice. " The only thing I said was against code - except possibly the refrigerator situation, which, if it isn't against code, certainly OUGHT to be - is the fact that the outlet the washing machine is plugged in to is not GFCI. Frankly, if you think that isn't against code, I hope you're not a professional electrician - or an amateur one either, for that matter. The rest of it is just sheer stupid design, and - as I said - I strongly doubt the inspection for this place was done properly, looking at the situation in the "laundry room" with the washing machine plugged in to a dedicated circuit (good) but without GFCI (bad). There was another thread where people were jumping all over a guy who was trying to get a layout from his electrical contractor, because some folks felt that the consumer/customer has NO RIGHT to have things done his/her way. This sort of stupidity is EXACTLY why anybody with any common sense gets a layout before allowing the electrician (or plumber, or the guy who is going to put in the interior walls, or anything else) to go to work. Otherwise you end up with all sorts of stupidity - like a shortfall of amperage in 2 of the bedrooms, one of which is supposed, after all, to be the MASTER bedroom, and outlets in a room the size of a closet that will never ever be used. And fridges on a circuit that feeds an outlet in a totally separate room, and god knows where the microwave is drawing power. And the panel being improperly labeled at the time of installation, by the guy who actually did the wiring, IS a big deal. That's just another indicator of shoddy work. The information should have been on the plans - and if the plans were not followed, then that's yet another sign of crappy work.