I should amend my earlier statement that "there are no plant police out there, driving through our neighborhoods with binoculars..." . There ARE inspectors, but their time is spent at the locations where plants are propagated and/or sold. All of the paperwork had better be in order when the 'plant police' pay a visit.

First, there are very few gardening issues that will be very widespread throughout a garden. Most plant disease tend to be rather host specific and even most insects have their preferences. Second, many folks overreact to insect damage on foliage. Unless it concerns a portion of the plant intended to be eaten, like lettuce greens, cabbage, etc., holes in foliage caused by insects are really only cosmetic in their seriousness. They cause the plant no harm. Often it is more disruptive to spray to control than it is to ignore. Both the pear and the peach show some insect damage. Nothing I would worry about. Pears can also develop scab, a fungal disease that can produce brownish gray lesions on both foliage and fruit. This is a possibility but I can't tell for sure just from that photo. Regardless, unless a severe case (and this is not, if at all) it too is of no lasting harm. Any damage to the fruit is just a surface blemish - the meat under the skin is fine. Cherries can have an assortment of ailments and a fungal leaf curl can be one of them. Curling or distortion of tip growth (the newest foliage) is more often a sign of aphids or other sucking insects, which may be long gone by now. Neither one of these issues is life threatening to the tree :-)) New gardeners can understandably be alarmed when they see these things happening while oldies like me tend to pass them off as NBD. It is important to remember that plants in our gardens are subject to a infinite number of influences, most of which we can't or shouldn't attempt to control. You will enjoy your garden so much more if you allow some tolerance for less than perfection :-)) Keep asking questions - that's how you learn - but don't freak out. And it is quite possible to grow wonderful fruit trees without spraying 5 times a year. Often a single dormant spray is more than sufficient and if you are as tolerant as I to the vagaries of nature, it is pretty easy to get by without ANY spraying. After all, as home gardeners we are not growing for supermarket perfection!

Plumeria, I understand your frustration. My husband and I almost had our 1880's home *destroyed* by unscrupulous contractors. We hired an award winning architect, David Dillard, and his design build company, Historic Projects of New Orleans, LLC to perform our restoration. Dillard stole over $75K from us and we've been turned back at nearly every corner while he is free to continue destroying people's homes and lives. I know what you mean about "unwrapping your brain." The worst part is that after these animals are out of your house, they are not out of your lives. I just keep clawing back every chance I get. I go after him everywhere I can. If the legal system won't help me, word of mouth must. It took me six months to recover enough from the shock and awe of this betrayal to start the process of hiring a new contractor. I feel like a victim still, and trusting my new contractor is a slow and daily struggle. I feel like an abuse victim. You will need strength to get through this. We've filed insurance claims against his general liability policy - maybe won't get anything, but above all, I'm building a record. Maybe something someone else will find down the road and they won't hire him. Our state contractor's board did nothing. The architect's board - nothing. The DA has a six month backlog... When our new contractor started it turns out I have a "renegade permit" that doesn't protect me or my job in terms of inspections, etc. David Dillard stole $1K from me to get a worthless permit. Dillard has made me look like a scofflaw because I went along with this stuff because I didn't know any better. Call a lawyer and start the process to get these people punished. However, the one thing I learned was not to fire them (although bar them from your property) until I spoke to an attorney. You do not want to alter any terms of your contract until you have sound legal advice.

Not in the same ballpark as a kitchen, but I tore down a half-wall between my family room and an old wet bar and was all set to move a full wall back about a foot. My significant other walked in and said "Why are you putting the wall there? Why wouldn't you put it here?" I thought about it overnight, agreed he was right, and changed the location of the wall. Exactly what live_wire_oak said. If a new layout will be a significant improvement, look into it. Call your GC and ask him to hold off briefly while you reconsider. If your new plan will be better and save you money and you'll end up spending a little money on restocking fees, sounds like you'll be off better in the end.