I know exactly what you're saying on the hazards of a hand-written order. Just last week we attempted to deliver a Hancock and Moore Austin High Back Sofa for a customer - and the wrong brass nails were on it. How did that happen?! She wanted the "A" nail and it came in with the "H" nail on it. I clearly remember the specs and writing the order correctly, who screwed up? I pull out my original handwritten purchase order that I faxed to H&M and I specified the "A" nail. Then I looked closely at my hand-writing. Argh! I didn't fully close the top of the "A" and though it looked fine to me that way, it was seen by someone at H&M as an "H" and there ya go...wrong nail trim. My, my....Re-order - Quick Ship. Silver Lining: Put it back in the store Saturday at lunch and have sold two of that model since then (it was a model I have never floor stocked before) from customers coming in and trying it out (Hi Chris!). Yes, I usually go to the Valley Forge Market but have been coming away empty-handed for the past few years. What used to be fine American-made crafts/furniture in Bob Goodrich's event has morphed into becoming what I call the 5-C show (Cheap - Chinese - Cutesy - Country - Clones). How many resin-mold, stenciled chickens and cows does one really need? Ugh. Theres a new show in Reading PA that same weekend I'm going to instead, by a new promoter that saw the same thing I did and won't have the imports there (so they say). Not sure if I have time to go to Valley Forge that same trip but I'll do Reading first. JLT has always offered 5 % off inventory items as long as I can remember. Thats not new to the website (which is vastly improved over the old one, isn't it?) What part of the trade are you in, ED? Store? Sales Rep? Company? -Duane

Of the output of the 3 used here, I have to say, I do like waterlogue the best...it looks more hand painted water color. Fotosketcher to me looks more like it would've been done in oils. I wonder if there's a way of transferring the computerized images onto canvas and then doing a "paint by number" kind of thing to get a real painting....

DruidClark, While the advertised R-values for FG and cellulose may be fairly close, in application they are not. As people reading this thread are discovering, air infiltration is an absolute killer when it comes to the thermal efficiencies of the envelope of a house. The big "pro" for cells is that when blown in to a stud/joist/rafter bay and dense-packed, they knit together and do a fabulous job at eliminating air infiltration. The net effect is far superior to that achieved when using FG batts, even with a vabor barrier. The reason is that FG batts are never installed quite right. "Quite right" means NO GAPS between the batt face and the framing. Gaps in the corners of the framing bays allow convective loops to occur. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but it's a big negative. Any type of air washing over the surface of FG batts also decreases the efective R-value of the insulation. That's why Tyvek was first brought to market...trivia tidbit moment...Tyvek was designed to be laid over FG batts installed on attic floors to prevent winter air washes in the attic from penetrating into the batts and lowering the effective insulative value of the insulation. With vapor barriers on the interior side of the FG (heating climates) and housewraps on the exterior, we're seeing better building practices when it comes to thermal envelopes...but the true value lays in the fine detailing f the barriers. And that detailing still has a way to go. Things are better than they were, but they can get better yet again. Overall? Dense-packed cellulose far outperforms FG batts. Even blown in FG. It outperforms it in terms if air infiltration, sound deadening, absorbing radiant energy, and handling water vapor that may happen to get past whatever barrier there is and get into the framing bay. It's better at resisting/slowing the spread of fire. My only negative with cellulose is when remodeling. I'd much prefer to crack open a wall of FG during a remodel than open up a wall filled with cellulose. I guess I can't have it all.(g) Minimizing air infiltration is the most effective way for a homeowner to lower their energy use year-round. Rigid foam board is the homeowner's friend. However, tightening up a house must be done using the whole-house approach. Moisture sources (basement/cooking/bathing/HVAC) need to be addressed in conjunction with the air sealing.

I don't think there is a quick site solution to what you are asking for. My morning coffee reading for the past two years has started on gardenweb and taken off from there, using links and keyword searches in google. It's been a lot of fun, and I've figured out many things that will be useful to me. One of the first things we did when we bought our house was to have all the old, smoke-stinky wallpaper taken out. It was from the 1980's. If it had been from the 1880's when the house was built, I might have tried to keep it. Anyway, I can't remember if it was apartmenttherapy or gardenweb that put me on to Farrow&Ball paints, but I hate to think what might have happened if I had not used their stabilising primer on my 120 y.o. bare plaster walls. Apparently old plaster can be extremely alkali, and can cause all kinds of problems when you go to paint. The primer I used neutralized and "fixed" the plaster, so that paint systems could go on without being subject to some alkali chemical reaction. Also the colors were great for a historic home. So this was one little tidbit I picked up from my browsing that was a big help. Another think I figured out over time was the use of solatubes. I did not think I could use them in this house, because the main places I would want them (kitchen and conservatory) are on a lower floor of the house. But in my browsing I just recently noticed they can have a 20' run and still be quite bright. And what could be more appropriate for a conservatory than natural sunlight pouring in. (Incidentally, the tube diameter is 10 3/4", a challenge to run through the second floor, but I have a plan to make it work.) So, I don't live on the ocean or operate a lighthouse, but I'm gonna have a least 4 Fresnel lenses in my house. How cool is that? Reading Victorian house blogs has been very useful to me. Craig and Yvonne's, The Devil Queen, and especially the Petch House are all great blogs to check. Greg over at the Petch House is wonderfully meticulous in both his execution and in his writing about it. Some of these blogs have lists of links to other old house reno blogs. Reading about what other people have done to their houses over time has given me a wonderful sense of the flow and natural order of work on these houses, and what some of the unexpected twists and turns might be. From reading these I've decided to have a consult with a structural engineer before I do any more to my house. Also, from reading modvic.com, I decided to have an architect use 3D software to model my house as-is and as-planned, down to plumbing run locations for any remodeling. Modvic was a great restoration, but they did not have a computerized 3-d model of the house, and ran into issues both when placing a new stairway, and some plumbing runs. i think the cost and delay resulting was much more than what it costs to have someone come out and measure and plunk it into a computer program. Lessons learned. I think you might enjoy the renewable energy for the home forum here on gardenweb. I spend the most time in the old house forum, then kitchens and baths, and finally, home decorating. Ah, home decor, that elevated place you get to when all the functions of the house are in order and you can turn your eyes to the icing on the cake. What luxury to think about curtains instead of new 20 amp circuits. "What should I put on my mantel for the most eye-pleasing effect?" instead of "how the heck do I get this fireplace working and mantel restored?" Someday I will be there. And to me, no discussion of home decorating is complete without mention of the Cote de Texas blog. Finally, somebody who writes about home decor in terms that an engineer can understand. Check out her top ten #4 entry on curtains. Finally, I know why something looks right to me, in very clear terms and boundaries. So, I don't think there is one place you can go to read and find what you want to know in an afternoon. I think it's more of an evolving process, and an enjoyable one. Best of luck!