I think the point here is that if a company wants to generate FUTURE sales from new customers (isn't that the point of having a business?) they really need to make sure that their website is up to date and easy to use. I don't think it has to be "fancy" - whatever that means - but it sure better look PROFESSIONAL and like a reputable company. Companies continually need new blood to keep going, not just the sales from the people who know the company and don't care about the website. If a person is googling "rose sales" and comes across a vendor whose website isn't easy or looks too "homemade" I bet a lot of those people are just going to keep on googling. (I'm not referring to people who would be on this forum but just the casual "lay person" out there) The only reason I started ordering from RU is because SO many people on here have sung their praises (and I am now one of them!!) BUT BUT BUT I never would have ordered from them without those recommendations. I actually ran across their website before knowing and my initial reaction was that if a company doesn't take credit cards and the website is a little bit funky.......well maybe I dare not order from them (who wants the hassle of ordering online from a potentially unreliable source?). If ALL you know about a company is the way it's website looks and performs, well which one are you going to take the chance or ordering from? Most people are going to go with the one that seems more professional because people are going to assume that the more professional looking website is the "better" one. I'm not saying that's right but that's the way people think and our beloved vendors sure better always keep that in mind. I would suspect that a lot of people out there ordering online don't know about this forum (I didn't for a long time) and don't know about HMF (again, I didn't for a long time). It is scary to order from unknown companies over the internet and people are going to be cautious. It is a serious drawback to have a difficult or irritating or unprofessional looking website for those wonderful companies that we all want to stay in business. You and I - no matter how much we love them and don't care about their website - aren't going to keep these vendors in business - they need a continual flush of NEW customers and it would certainly be in their best interest to keep and maintain the best website that they can afford. That's what we want, right, for them to stay in business? I sure do and I WANT them to attract new customers and a lot of those new customers are going to be web surfers who may run across a vendor's website and their first impression is.......what? The vendor's website is the only thing they have to draw this new person in and if the customer's initial reaction is not favorable, well they have just lost a sale. The new person doesn't have a clue that they have wonderful customer service or that their roses are beautiful......all they see is an out of date, hard to navigate website. Yes, "fancy" may not be important to a lot of us because we are already "in the know" about certain companies but for the average person out there surfing around, it sure may be and it would be tragic if companies were losing NEW sales because of the inefficiency of their website. Lynn

I don't know that the Seedless Kishu is less cold tolerant than other mandarins, bamboo (although I see Britleaf seems to think so, ask them where they got their information from, this is news to me). Most mandarins are up there, as far as the line up for citrus cold tolerant varieties as a whole. So, we may be splitting hairs here, a degree or two. Certainly not like a lime tree, if that's what you're worried about. Of course, any of the Satsumas are very cold tolerant, and believe it or not, the Gold Nugget actually faired better with some wicked cold weather than the Satsumas for UC Riverside. I'd risk it, personally. As far as "must haves", well certainly I would consider a Cara Cara navel orange. Very sweet, sweeter than it's parent, the Washington navel, and the flesh is a very pretty pink. Looks really nice in a salad, and of course, excellent for eating out of hand. The Tarocco blood orange for sure. Might not be as pigmented as a Moro, but it's sweeter. And, if you can find a Breem Tarocco, it WILL be as pigmented. You get enough temp variation to make this a "must have" in your collection. Consider a Flame grapefruit. I don't see that they have a Cocktail (or I think it's probably the same as your 'Golden'). I happen to love my Cocktail grapefruit (although it's not a grapefruit, but a pummelo/mandarin hybrid, as most likely is the 'Golden'). I love a sweeter grapefruit, but still having the characteristics of a grapefruit, but without all the wincing. Lastly, a Meiwa kumquat is a great kumquat. Fatter, bigger and sweeter than all other kumquats. Very prolific producers, and the tree itself has a nice form. And they're very cold tolerant. I see lots of mandarins, so I think the above are good choices to round things out a bit for you. Patty S.

Mixing styles can work, as long as all the overall "mix" has been taken into account. This could include your faucets, trims, towel bars, etc. From what you've said so far, while you've settled on brushed nickel, it's not clear what kind of style or functionality you have in mind... Is the shower bar/hand held shower you've chosen from the same set as the matching shower head and diverter above, or is it different? What is your plan for faucets (sink and tub)? To my eye, those two bases are very different and distinctive styles. You are going to have your shower bar/shower, shower head and diverter in close proximity (and maybe other fixtures too). I would continue the hunt for other options.

Leslie, here's what I'd do (and have done in some cases): go online and price out all the items you're going to order, or at least all the big ones. If you qualify for free shipping, make sure you have that showing (e.g. print out your shopping cart showing $0.00 shipping if it isn't otherwise prominently displayed somewhere). Then go into your local store and tell the guy you want to get a final price quote so you can make the decision to finalize your order. Tell him he mentioned discounts, but you want to see how much it all comes out to. And mention that you were looking online to try to get an idea of what the prices would be, but you're hoping his price will be in the same neighborhood so you can order from him. And then see what he does. He may say, "let me see what pricing you found," sit at his computer and compare that to his pricing, and tell you he can match the pricing. Or he may immediately backpedal and tell you he can't match online prices because he has the overhead of a brick-and-mortar operation, or that you aren't getting the same quality items ordering online, or some other excuses. When I shopped a local dealer, he did the former -- took the pages I had in my folder (I made it clear I had researched the pricing, but didn't wave the sheets in his face) and matched the online pricing within a few bucks in every case. Now, in my case, buying locally means that I have to pay 6% sales tax, which I'm not charged if I buy online. (Technically, we should be voluntarily declaring our tax-free purchases and paying the state a 6% use tax, but no one does this.) I decided that I'd be willing to pay that difference in order to support the local business. I'd have been somewhat lost without his knowledge -- brands I didn't know about, pieces I didn't know about -- and seeing a wide range of products in his showroom, and so I tried to rationalize that it's worth a little more in sales taxes to support the local merchant. That all being said, when I did place the order for our first bathroom through the local dealer, and it wasn't all completely smooth going. I found out that for some manufacturers, they only place orders once a week or when they hit a minimum dollar threshold, so we lost some days I wasn't anticipating. And then they didn't notify me that some items were backordered from the manufacturer. I couldn't check my order status online; I had to repeatedly call the dealer to ask someone to check. When I found out after a week or so that my tub was going to be delayed three more weeks, and had my contractor breathing down my neck because it was going to delay a lot of work, I ended up canceling that item with the local dealer because I found it online, in stock and available for same-day shipping, so I got it within a week. (Despite what some have posted here, I used eFaucets for that order and a few other items in the past six months, with absolutely no problems.) And I had to go back to the local dealer (more than 30 minutes away) to pick things up several times as items came in piecemeal over a period of several weeks. So when it came time to start ordering items for our second bathroom, I decided that with the knowledge I had gained during the first rounds of shopping and procurement, that it was going to be easier for me to order online, and that's what I did. I got all my Hansgrohe shower hardware from Ira Woods, an online site that isn't mentioned much on this forum but is often recommended in the Kitchen forum. Sink, faucet, toilet, light fixture, dimmers, doorknobs, etc. were all ordered online, from various online sites. One other thing I'd like to mention. You said you're starting in two weeks. You need to ask the local dealer and/or any online retailer what is in stock, and when you will receive each item. Many online sites say "in stock" but actually don't have real-time inventory data feeding their web site. Some just say "in stock" for everything, whether it ever is or not. Don't assume it'll be okay; get on the phone, or live chat support, and ask them to specifically check what's in stock and when you will get it. (I did this just yesterday with our final batch of bathroom accessories; I found two online sites which said "in stock" for the five items I was ordering, but actually didn't have all the items in stock, and I ended up splitting the order between two different sites.) If you're inclined to buy from the local dealer, ask him to check with his warehouse/distributors/manufacturers to be able to give you actual shipping dates rather than generalized estimate (e.g "usually ships within one week"). In my experiences just having done two bathrooms, you'll be lucky to get all your materials within two weeks -- but it depends a great deal on the manufacturers and product lines you're buying, as I'm sure some more popular items are readily in stock at warehouses. Also, for your own sanity and stress reduction, be sure to find out from your contractor exactly what he needs when. He may tell you, for example, that the shower trim/diverter and showerhead won't be needed for a month, but the thermostatic valve is needed when he begins work in two weeks. Or that the toilet isn't needed until near the end of the job, but the tub is needed at the beginning. So a delay in shipping some products may not be any problem at all, but your contractor can tell you. Depending what you're doing in your bathroom, there may be some things you need early in the process which you aren't aware of without asking. (For example, I was caught unprepared when my contractor told me he needed the shower drain near the beginning of the shower construction; now that I've seen how a shower is built, I understand why, but it just wasn't on my radar until my contractor gave me a heads up. It turned out that the drain we chose consists of a frame and the actual metal drain which sits inside the frame; the frame was available immediately, and that's what the contractor needed immediately to build the shower bed and tile, while the metal drain had a four week lead time, which worked out fine because it wasn't needed until after the tile was done.) And yes, this can all become rather overwhelming, especially while working full-time! I'm just finishing nearly six months of work on the gust bath, an addition, and a master bath, and I can't wait to be able to devote my full attention back to my "day job". ;) -- Eric