My heart goes out to you as I read your saga. Here are a few items that may be of assistance, they are not garden related but may help you enjoy your yard and not have to worry about your children. There is DIRT, an internet discussion group that is a service of American Bar Association and University of Missouri Law School that has a real estate focus. Post your story there and see what ideads that have. Ask if there is existing case law that would support your claim http://dirt.umkc.edu/ There is a legal concept of "unreasonable decision making" when a HOA does this, in some states the court will not allow them to restrict your actions. To be reasonable the decisions have to be documented and consistent. Some HOA have buried in them a clause that gives you the right to call for Arbitration to resolve an issue. I will pray that justice prevails.

kp I've been following this from a distance - So glad you are doing the right thing by your windows & home. I have a 1930 Dutch Colonial w/double hung 6/1 configuration When we did a reno the GC was rec replacement windows - OH, NO!!! - I found a true craftsman locally that just does window repairs - he works w/another gentleman and they are incredible - He rehabbed every window in our home - took them apart, put in new parting strips, repaired glazing where needed, re-weighted (this was incredible - he drives around w/old window weights) - new roping ta da! Link below to his site. Operating functional windows - he even took the lovely arched windows from the attic stripped, re-glazed and reinstalled - it was $200/window so glad we did that. Next was the storms - 1/2 the home had aluminum triple track (2nd story) old bad condition, the 1st story had wood storms - heavy, not really fitting correctly any longer and oddly configured 2/2 on top of the 6/1 weird.. in any event I ckd Adams architect & didn't like that they were pine - thought they wouldn't have the longevity needed. We ended up w/Harvey triple track storms & are pleased w/the results. http://www.harveyind.com/category.aspx?type=windows There was also an article in this old house on how to weather strip windows This might be it http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/article/0,,211760,00.html Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: The window dr

OK, the ceiling is about halfway down and the wood is not coming down without a fight. The contractors are being as careful as they can be, but still the wood is cracking and chipping. I could try glueing and puttying it back together, but at this point I'm thinking that painting is going to be easier and much less risky. And as far as the fireplace wall goes, Les, I almost always agree with everything you say but the photos don't really capture the true hideousness of the color. There's some kind of varnish over the top so I can't even restain because it won't take. Also, there are many cracks and gaps in the fireplace paneling that allow cold air in - part of the reason for painting that wall was so I could caulk the heck out of those gaps without the caulk being noticeable. (I used clear caulk on some of the biggest cracks a few years ago but it is very noticeable since the caulk is shiny.) The guy that built this house was apparently striving for authenticity, right down to the draftiness and lack of insulation of a 200 year old farmhouse. So, assuming that I'm going to paint both the ceiling and the fireplace wall, what are your opinions? I was thinking of choosing a colonial color and going for the look like in the links that reeree posted. The only thing is that I don't want to commit to colored trim throughout the house - I don't mind it in this room, but would have trouble figuring out where to transition it back to white. I could easily do the baseboards dark in that room without a problem, and could do the windows as well, but could not do the posts or the trim at the top of the stone half wall without connecting directly a room with white trim. So actually, I was thinking of a dark dark reddish brown - something like BM's hadley red or townsend harbor brown. I was thinking of putting it on both the ceilng and fireplace wall. But I'm worried that this will look too imposing, especially if the rest of the trim is white and the walls are light. I do like the look of the blue and green as well, but after 10 years of blue sofas, I'm a bit sick of blue. The green is pretty but since I have no idea what color I'll end up with as far as sofas and rugs go, I hate to commit to a definitely color - I'd rather stay neutral. I was also thinking of a dark gold color like BM Livingston Gold, Blair Gold, Summerdale Gold, or Yorkshire Tan. I think I'd rather stay away from painting the ceiling white because of the soot/dust from the stove. We have another beamed ceiling in our breakfast area that is painted white and it looks kind of blah. I'm considering rehanging only every other beam to keep the ceiling less busy. It is a small room, maybe 13 x 15 (in fact, when I'm ready to ditch the blue sofas, I'm going to be posting for room layout help - it's such an oddly laid out room that I can't figure out what type of furniture I even need in there!). But because the room is open to the kitchen and foyer (where the photos are taken from) and because the ceilings are high (they are about 10.5 ft) the room doesn't feel claustrophobic, so I'm not afraid to put a dark color back on the ceiling. So at any rate, assuming we're painting the ceiling, beams, and fireplace wall (and assuming the walls are going to be a yellow-ish cream), what colors would you suggest? What about the baseboards and windows? Thanks for all the advice!

I've now used Deer Out for quite a few years, Aaron, and found it to work best among all the other stuff I've tried. Like many repellents, it contains rotten eggs as its active ingredient, plus oil of white pepper, and oil of peppermint (which helps the stench). I buy a concentrate to mix with water, which is by far the cheapest way because this stuff is hardly cheap to start with. I buy it Amazon and pay no shipping. I spray it on with a pump hand sprayer. Yes, I've been backsprayed many a time (watch out for breezes), but smelling like rotten eggs is a small price to pay for your roses. Actually, the smell goes away quickly, and it's mostly peppermint you smell. We have very little rain all summer, so I don't worry about that. Diane