Thank you very much for your kind words everyone! Just learning and applying stuff I read from the 'proffesionals' in here! Dave, it means a lot coming from you. You've got a perfect eye for this! Richard, thank you. There is a natural slope there. I couldn't change that even if I wanted to (though I don't). Thank you Josh! Edwin all the mistakes are noted! I have a great number of plants that came from you (and outside that bed) and they are perfect! My most rare and one of the most beautiful conifers I own is Picea engelmannii ssp mexicana 'Pervana' from you! perfect! Thank you Jay! I was lucky to own this property by the mountain so I could plan such garden. (and lucky I managed to finish the house before the crisis because things are somewhat tight right now...) Will, 1,5 year is not adequate to make safe statements about the climate but up to now it looks like your description is quite accurate. I had only two losses due to summer heat-drought. Abies procera 'Blaue Hexe' and Abies koreana 'Bonsai Blue'. everything else survived, some with some help... Funny is that I envy your setting underneath the mature Pseudotsuga. I just have no shade places for japanese maples... Thank you! Thank you Severnside, Cher and Tj! +oM, The setting is in southern, mainland Greece, at elevation of 2400 ft aproximately. Just below mountain Mainalo (with the biggest pure Abies cephalonica forest) as Josh noted. Thank you Dax! always enjoy your funny touch in your postings as well as the knowledge you offer! Thank you Mike! It's interesting to compare the true form of someone's with the imaginative form you get from the posts in here! That's why I uploaded this! Hope I'll be around in 30 years to gaze my garden as you do yours now! Kinda hope it looks like yours too... Thank you very much Ken! I actually have a rock-garden... The real deal! Funny, the other a day I was making a hole to plant Abies pinsapo 'Aurea' and as usualy I hit a rock (I've plant 90 conifers and I think only two times I dug without hitting rock underneath!) and then I made this comment, that I wish I could dig like they do in the U.S., with just a shovel, having in mind YOUR post of transplanting a conifer... hilarious! (about the female operatic singer!) Best regards, Fotis

Your post is a bit confusing. If all or part of the pump body was made from magnesium, then I would suspect that high concentrations of chlorine was the cause. Magnesium is a man-made metal derived from chemistry. In other words, it is not like copper, gold, silver or iron that can be mined. If you were pouring bottles of bleach down your well as a sanitizer on a regular basis, then the chlorine attacked and weakened the magnesium casing. After 12 years, the deterioration reached the point of total failure. I am not a chemist nor a metalurgist but from what I have read about magnesium, I would go with the chlorine as being the culprit. Hopefully, your new pump does not use magnesium.

Given that we have actually attended the World of Concrete convention, I’d say I’m quite comfortable with the material. What you’re describing is pretty much a failure of the material in design or install, not typical. Even your average garage floor, which is the cheapest of the cheap in install and quality, doesn’t have the durability and etching issues you’re describing. The costs you’re describing are also WAY out of line for anything I have seen, even with fiber reinforced and stained, with multiple sealing passes. Especially on a slab, you’d be hard pressed to hit $12 a square foot all done and done unless you’re being seriously ripped off, especially on top of an existing slab - that makes everything easier :) Over timber framing the costs go up and the mitigation needed to create a good base becomes more complex, but still not significantly beyond a tile product. And the possibilities for design are vast (props to WoC again, I didn’t know half those techniques and products existed!). I agree it’s not a budget finish in some circumstances, but having a good mix design for residential finish application is NOT difficult to obtain, especially if you’re working with a good contractor and not just directly with the batch plant (easier but only if you know what you’re doing, like with any fabrication mill). I wouldn’t be scared off OP - if it is a look you want go for it. If you’re ‘meh’ about it, a cheap tile will be easier to manage, especially in a small space. But you can do a very nice job, even DIY, if you have a slab already and like the material. What can I say, I’m an optimist and concrete is fantastic stuff.

Taking Erinsean's idea about adding drywall to the front of the hearth, here are a couple more ideas. I have kept your existing wall decor, but there are certainly other options there as the wall becomes more of a normal backdrop. Here's how it might look if you drywall over the stones and the face of the hearth and then grey was the hearth and put some slate around the opening with a white mantel surround and our Carolina Window Pane Fireplace Door. To achieve this look you would need to float the fireplace opening out with bricks before installing the slate. Here's the same concept without the slate and mantel just using our Legend Fireplace Door with Custom Tuscan Leaf Surround. You cannot use drywall right up to the fireplace opening because it is combustible, so you would need to float the fireplace opening out with bricks and then plaster over the bricks to finish flush with the drywall. Bit of a challenge, but doable. Hansen Wholesale specializes in Custom Fireplace Doors.