I am with flora on this one, slugs are not as abundant or large here in CT as they where in the UK, and I have yet to see a snail in a year here...you watch, I'll go outside and find a hundred now! the Snails we had in Kent, where huge not as big as African snails but pretty big, I put it down to the lack of wildlife to eat them up. This is the beast, it says they are rare, but every garden I had on the Isle of Thanet and surrounding villages to Sandwich had hundreds of the things. that said it was a area of large Roman settlement! and my last garden was part of a Roman flint mine ;) so maybe not a surprise! 1 inch is approx 2.2cm. Here is a link that might be useful: the Roman snail, rare! my eye!

Sorry I lost track of this discussion. My preference for fertilizer is plain alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow). No mixing, no fuss. Apply at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. MorpheusPA likes Milorganite and soybean meal. Those are very good, too. I like alfalfa because I can find it locally and it is less expensive in South Texas. You can mix them or not. The application rate for any mixed grains is still 20 pounds per 1,000. This watering schedule you're on is only for this year and only because you seeded in the spring. This is an attempt to nurse your new seeded grass through the heat of summer. Eventually, deep and infrequent watering will mean that you water a full inch of water, once every week or two depending on heat. Next summer if it gets into the 90s then you should water once a week. Otherwise every other week should be fine. Nutgrass hates this watering schedule, so it must be good. The way you measure one inch of water is to set out some cat food or tuna cans. Turn on the sprinkler and time how long it takes to fill the cans. That will be your target time for watering once the summer heat breaks (next month). When the heat breaks and you know your watering time, water for that time and set your calendar. Watch the grass to tell you when to water next. As soon as you see any part of it drying out (the grass, not the soil surface), water again immediately. Remember the days and reset your calendar. Eventually watering like this will stretch out the calendar and you'll be watering every other week or less. If you do this, you should not need to worry about weeds. Weed seed needs much more water than this to germinate. If you are not germinating weed seeds, then you won't get new weeds. As for current weeds, the broad leaf weeds can be killed with something like Weed-b-gone spray. Spot spray individual weeds if you only have a few. For weeds over a broad area I would still use weed b gone spray. For grassy weeds you'll have to use something else. Someone else can help you with the various chemicals for grasses. After you get rid of current weeds, then you're relying on grass density and infrequent watering to keep the weeds out. With Kentucky bluegrass in full sun, grass density will not be a problem. With anything else in the shade, you will have to overseed in the fall to keep it dense. Good news is most weeds like full sun, too, so the shade helps. Watch the sloped area carefully for runoff. An inch of water can take hours and hours to apply with an oscillator sprinkler. That is actually a good thing because it allows the water to seep in slowly.

Wow, wish I was closer. The trip from Orange County, NY would eat up way too much gas. You're a good soul offering these items.

Definitely not in a rush and in the very early stages of putting all this together. We won't be moving in until around the end of July and aren't even closing for a few more weeks. Right now I am just trying to start the process so we don't fall behind after we close. I am mostly looking at different cabinet options and speaking with KDs and GCs to get a sense of what is possible while also getting the good feedback from the knowledgeable folks here. I think a tall pantry cabinet alongside the current fridge would be a good option instead of that run of base cabs but was also trying to keep some counter space adjacent to the fridge based on the post in the FAQs that discusses aisle widths, overhangs, etc. I suppose the island space opposite the fridge would match up with that criteria as well... The sink, range and fridge in the current kitchen are all in the same places as in the draft I am working with, the only addition being the island. I am basing much of this design on the kitchen I grew up with that had a very similar layout. That kitchen's layout was very similar to my initial draft except that it had a rangetop on the island on the same side as the window-sink. We always did the prep work on the fridge/sink side then moved around to the other side of the island to cook and used the island space to each side of the rangetop as needed then did cleanup where the window/sink would be. It looks like I'll be spending some time this weekend reviewing more literature and posts and speaking with a few more KDs. Thanks and keep the thoughts coming!