Mike, It sounds like you are at that stage when local nurseries and big box nurseries are too limited for what you want to grow, and you need to make the transition to mail order specialty nurseries. Big Box and local nurseries will vary in their selection based on what the market demand is, and whether there is an educated, more adventurous buyer for the store. I can speak from experience that it varies by location, as there is one Home Depot in particular here in the San Francisco Bay Area that consistently has the most interesting and diverse selection compared to any other location. For those locals, that would be the San Rafael Home Depot in Marin County. To answer your general question about a specific Aloe's adaptability to your conditions, it is hard to generalize about how they will do in your location, as you don't have the basic climate that supports them as outdoor plants, nor are plants grown indoors in winter and outdoors in summer going to exhibit the same degree of hardiness to unexpected weather that the same plant hardened off outdoors will exhibit. To give just one example, succulent plants that I grow such as Bulbine frutescens, Aloe striata and Aeonium canariense all tend to be somewhat frost tender in my local conditions because cold is often accompanied by very wet winter storms. I tend to get damage on all of these at 30 to 32F temperatures, whereas in drier winter locations with less winter rains and much warmer days, such as in Tucson, these plants may easily take 25~26F without any signs of damage,(except for the Aeonium, which just doesn't like desert heat). As to what succulents will do best under your local conditions, you'll be better served by speaking with local specialty growers, and find what has worked best for them. I can really only speak to which plants do well under California conditions here in northern California, but also have some experience with succulents from South Africa or Mexico which I have also seen do well in tropical locations such as Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia and subtropical desert climate of Saudi Arabia; all places where I have lived and worked professionally. As one example, the Bulbine frutescens is so widely tolerant of different growing conditions that it is well regarded in both subtropical deserts, Mediterranean climates and the wet, humid tropics, but probably grows best and flowers the most here in a Mediterranean climate, where it can bloom all year round. If you have a local Cactus and Succulent Society that you can join, or a local botanic garden to join as a member to get more specific growing information, that all helps. If you have a specific interest in Aloes in general, and need to grow them indoors in winter, then you will probably gravitate to the smaller growing Madagascar species and hybrids, which take up less space, but are usually more tender to cold and more specific in their needs, as Madagascar has a real range of climates based on rainfall and altitude. My own focus on Aloes is more related to the ones most easily grown outdoors year round in my climate, and that have the more interesting forms or flowers, with a bias towards the showiest bloomers and the larger growers. I also tend to specialize in those that clump easily or are fast to regrow from cuttings, as these lend themselves to landscaping projects with lower budgets, for instant effects. I particularly love species and hybrids that I can replant directly as unrooted cuttings, and know that they will simply take off for mass bloom. Plants such as A. arborescens in the different color forms, A. striatula, A. maculata are particularly useful in this regard. One dwarfer growing hybrid that I would highly recommend for container culture and is probably little seen outside of California, is the dwarf everblooming Aloe 'Johnson's Hybrid', which truly does bloom all year round here in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is very showy to boot. Good luck with your hobby, and if you can squeeze in a foreign trip to South Africa or Mexico to see your favorite plants in habitat, it will definitely reward you with a better understanding of the succulent growing possibilites and the range of plants that you might get interested in. I might also steer you towards one of my favorite local nurseries that does mail order country wide and has a rather diverse range of succulents to choose from: www.anniesannuals.com Good luck with your interests, and sorry I couldn't really be more specific about plants for your conditions! I don't grow any succulents indoors except for a few Gasterias and Kalanchoes, and most everything else is outdoors year round and must be able to take the occasional 28F frost and wet winters of Berkeley.

It is not feasible to put the shut off valve in an adjacent cabinet. The gas line runs down the wall directly behind the end run of a DRAWER cabinet, then corners to come out behind the range. The exisiting line that comes out behind the range was installed by a licenced plumber and was inspected and passed by the city. It is up to code having the shut off valve behind the range, as sliding out the range to access the shut off valve is considered "accessible." Regardless, the shut off valve to the main gas supply to my house is directly outside the kitchen door, just a few steps away from the range, so shutting it off outside in an emergency is easy enough. Takkone, that recessessed box set up is what I was pushing for, but the idea was nixed by my DH who decided it was overkill for our situtation. There is a large recessed panel in the back of the range, and we have decided to raise the shut off valve a few inches to where it will slide into that area when the stove is pushed in. This post was edited by jellytoast on Tue, Feb 19, 13 at 15:37

I don't mean to stir up the pot, but before just re-doing my garage ceiling, I looked into the moisture barrier issue, and found enough reason to believe it really doesn't help, at least not as part of a fiberglass roll. For a moisture barrier to work, it needs to be tight to the surface where you're trying to block moisture, airtight really. If there's any room for air to escape from under it, then moisture will escape, too, and the barrier is wasted. Yet most "barriers/retarders" are just that, placed as part of the fiberglass batt, or fastened somehow to the ceiling, but almost never is it airtight. The fact that most barriers/retarders are not effective, yet rarely is moisture in insulation a problem (at least in northern climates), makes me wonder if the whole issue is overblown. BTW--I'd vote for 5/8 drywall in a garage, especially if you're going to be doing lots of work in there. The thicker stuff will take hits from long lumber and pipes etc. much better.

Just wanted to give an update on this since so many of you had ideas on what the issue could be. Since the last post we just last week had the drywall removed, new drywall installed, a new cabinet and hooked everything back up. It was under the builders impression that the issue was still caused by the constant fan. However, shortly after the last post we discovered that our Septic Tank was never turned on. It began overflowing into the backyard, which is right behind the side of the home with the moisture issue. We were concerned about why the septic pump alarm never went off and that was because it was never connected by the electrician. We moved in last November so it was off for that whole time. We never noticed back up toilets or any odors or even the toilets making bubbly noises. We got that hooked up correctly and it started working. Last night when I was cleaning my sons room I noticed the edge of the wall on the hardwood flooring had water stains that were solid black. We have the Chesapeake Bay Gray Fog Engineered Hardwood flooring thru-out our whole first floor except for the wet areas where we have tile. The black spots we noticed are the same spots that had high moisture readings when we noticed the mold issue. The builder said the two issues werent related and that we would deal with the moisture after we took care of the mold issue. Since I have looked into all of these possible solutions, my only idea of what could have caused all this is the flashing on the home. It looked correct when they removed the brick on the side of the home but it has to have gaps in places that allowed water to leak in. the water spots are about every two feet away from each other in my youngest sons room and we found one spot in the dining area which is on the front of the home and then in the bedroom next to the bathroom that had the mold. Thank you for all of your help researching and figuring it all out.