Again, thanks for the help. Since my CC are doing great, I'm leaving them alone. Well, I struct gold today. I went into my garage to clean out my storage room. While I was getting rid of some unneeded junk, I came upon an unopened ten pound bag of Aussie Gold. I forgot all about it because I started putting my orchids on mounts before I gave them away. The Aussie Gold is the fine type and it produced strong roots for my orchids when I used it. I went and repotted all of my Easter Cacti in the Aussie Gold. You guys were right about the root system. The roots on every plant were tight and compacted in the mix. I immediately got the old mix off of the roots and into Aussie Gold went the plants. The great thing about AG is that you can never over water. I'll keep you informed on how the plants responded to the AG in the coming weeks. Thanks again for all of your help.

Chinacat..."it's not the smoke, it's the slacker who's abusing it. the prayer goes 'blessed art thou who has sanctified us by thy commandments, and given us the herb of the fields' by the way... and 'treat your body as a temple' applies just as much to things like white sugar and Pringles as it does to anything else..." You said it. I do know productive members of society who smoke, and I know others who abuse their bodies with food, abuse their minds with television. It's not the guns killing people, it's the people killing people. That said, perhaps that is his one vice? If he works as hard as she says he does, he must need some time to relax. Also, is he a homeowner? I thought it was the OP's house. If it is, then expecting him to contribute and feel equal may be difficult. Have you tried interesting him in exercise? That gives a great natural high. Does he have hobbies you could share? If you're really not interested in being with him because he smokes, yet you knew he smoked, did not ever own a home, etc... prior to getting married, you set yourself up for failure. Don't blame him for your inability to change him. You married a bachelor who has the social and homemaking skills of a college student (no offense to college students!) He doesn't want to grow up. You already have. Invite him to grow up with you, or get out. You deserve more, and your kids deserve more. By the way, don't ever assume kids don't know what's going on. They will find out sooner or later, and you will have to reconcile the "don't do as I do (or DH does) but do as I say" and we know that never works. I'm sorry, but you said to be frank. I mean no judgement. Best of luck to you.

Paint and new pulls/knobs will do wonders, and you'll feel like you're accomplishing something! I also recommend a major spring cleaning of your cabinets and drawers -- organize the pantry, throw out all the wedding presents you still have but will never use and anything else that you don't use, set up a cabinet for all the baby bottles/stuff if you don't have one already. Get all the baby stuff sterilized and ready to go. As for the painting, if you paint, make sure you get the low VOC paints -- Dunn Edwards carries a special paint designed to have the lowest VOCs possible -- and then paint OUTSIDE, with doors and windows open and fans/air filters going. OR, better yet, get that DH working. During my first pregnancy, I was determined that the hall bath had to be redone before the baby. Poor DH had to remove a giant mirror, relocate lighting (new lighting), patch the wall, build an open shelf unit to replace the ugly medicine cabinet, refinish the vanity, replace the sink, faucet and countertop, baseboards, remove a glass tub/shower enclosure, new shower head, and paint (oh, and I picked out a harlequin stencil for the paint!). Being the good sport that he is, he got it all done and it was beautiful. BTW -- don't expect that just because your 2 yo is an easy child as an ONLY child s/he'll stay that way when there's another one there taking away your attention. That's a whole different ball of wax. Good luck!

My goodness, your situation sounds exactly like ours! We were paying $250 on average in 2002 and decided it was time to take action! We are in Central CA, just south of SF Bay Area. Same conditions as your place. High enough on a slope that regularly has to 60-MPH gusts in Winter. During the last storm, warning in our area was for 75-MPH wind. In the summer, the exposed slope can heat outside to 115-F easily. Burning heat. Expecting snow the first part of this week. We are planning our retirement as well and setting up our place to hopefully last 20+ years with no more big improvements. I strongly suggest using windows with the following qualities: 1. In sun exposed location, consider using fiberglass or aluminum clad. In shaded location or less exposed location, vinyl may be OK. 2. In Wild fire zone, forget vinyl and stick with aluminum clad. 3. Have at least double-pane. 4. Make sure the window has Low-Solar-Heat-Gain Low-E II (or even III) coating. 5. If your elevation allows, consider buying those with argon gas filled in between the glass panes. 6. Sites that help determine best measurements for our locations. Main link: http://www.efficientwindows.org/ I did a search for windows appropriate for CA - San Diego and this link takes you there: http://www.efficientwindows.org/city_all.cfm?id=6 You can change the search by changing it to "All glass types" instead of "Double Low-Solar....." just to see. You can also look at CA-Daggett if that more closely approximate your location. 7. If you are in Wild Fire zones, be sure to use tempered glass. It will buy an extra safety margin. Low-E II (or III) is a coat of material applied to the glass so that it reflects solar heat away from the house in the summer and yet able to reflect the interior heat back into the house in the winter. We have them on ours and it is absolutely fantastic. THis is a must. Some will certainly argue that vinyl windows are cheaper and do as well. We still have two Milgard vinyl windows left in our house. As a home owner who wants to live peacefully through retirement, I will not use vinyl. Vinyl is inherently weak chemically so other chemicals must be added for it to survive heat and cold and so on. Why bother? If you are willing to spend for long term satisfaction, go straight for fiberglass or aluminum-clad wood interior windows. Fiberglass and aluminum are both stronger than vinyl and require no special additive to stiffen them against heat and cold. As for Argon gas, it can only be used up to a certain elevation. Reputable windows dealers will know this and know whether they can order the gas for you. The gas fills the airspace between the glass panes so that solar heat cannot easily travel by convection from the outer glass to the inner glass. It can cook outside up to 115-F and the inside remains a cool 75. It is wonderful! As for brands, we used Marvin Windows (bought 4 years ago now). They make a fiberglass version too. Andersen windows is a good brand as long as you buy the higher end versions that meet your requirements. My relatives use Andersen in SF East Bay Hills area, one lives on Santa Cruz mountains facing the sea. We last shop for windows 4+ years ago so I can say nothing about other brands now. Our experience is that we paid for what we got most of the time. Go cheap, for sure it will have cheaper performance. Do research carefully before signing anything. Be very picky and let the shop know you are "picky". A bit of hard work now up front will save a lot of angst later. For contractors, make sure they know what they are doing. Some charge extravagant prices if they think they can fool ya. Some charge too low because they cut corners. You will need to get good recommendations and learn a bit about how windows are installed and then quiz the contractors. Then watch them like a hawk. They will need access inside and outside. For ease of access, we basically cleared everything away from our windows so they could move safely and swiftly without hurting themselves or slowing the job. Better we give them lots of room than hurting them or having them accidentally break something. Finally, a side note. We installed a 10KW Grid-Tied PV Solar system on our property and have paid nothing to PG&E since. It cost $75K at the time, state paid $25K rebate so we ended up with $50K. At current PG&E rate, we would be paying close to $300 a month even with new windows. We will "recoup" our $50K in 14 years. With PG&E rate about to go up again this year, it has been a blessing. You do not need a 10KW system to save. Most families use a 5KW to reduce energy cost. It is worth considering for your location. Good luck and Happy Retirement!!!