It looks like the OP may have gotten fed up and left, but if you're still reading.... If you have reasons to believe this house will be a money pit and a burden, then it's better to pass on it. But if this is a good house that will suit you and your family, I would feel like the love and good energy you bring to it will be enough to make it a happy place. I would also feel like that house "needed" me in a way, and like it deserves to have your loving attention. My house was new but vandalized by local teens before we ever viewed it. It was fixed by the bank that owned it, but once in a while, in a certain light, I can see where the wall or cabinet was scraped with something, etc. I feel bad for this nice house that anyone mistreated it and that my house is so much better off with me caring for it. I convince myself that the house knows this and returns the favor. It takes care of me and my family. I know giving the house the power of emotion might not sound logical to some people, but it comes down to your attitude and how you want to feel about your new home. I chose to look at it this way, and that helped me adjust to a big move and a whole new environment. And I would try to keep in mind that this difficult seller who may have lied will not be there any more. She'll be gone and out of your house and out of your lives. You don't really need to hear any more from her or deal with her again. Home inspections will be more reliable than anything she says. I can see a widow not wanting to deal with repairs, but is it too late to knock off some money from the purchase price in order to do them? That's what I would have tried and then fixed things on my own. I don't know about a natural death being a factor. Only you can decide that for yourself. But I was thinking things like people going through a divorce or bankruptcy and losing a home could be seen as negatives, too. But that doesn't have anything to do with your situation and what positive energy you'll bring to the house. I don't really believe in ghosts, but I have relatives who swear they've come in contact with them. And all of them live in PA. What is it about PA and ghosts? I hope this has worked out for you and that you'll come back and let people know what happened.

Well, looks like we have one consumer that wasn't buffaloed by the personal attacks, and more remarkably, she had the guts to stand up for her right to know about any risks. Paulines, Bill Vincents, and a few others seem to like to proclaim each others crediblity on this issue. How convenient. Paulines, I wouldn't put myself in the same leauge as Bill, he no doubt is a very talented tile guy, but doens't know much about radiation or granite. Like you, he has a reputation to uphold, and like you he participated in the installation of a lot of granite over the years. Opposition to this testing effort is all about the money and loss of reputation. After all, what expert wants the public to find out that they really didn't know everything about what they were selling or installing? Paulines want to whine about baselines, but measurements are measurements. The simple fact is that today I was measuring a slab that averaged around 5 mR/hr and had hot spots over 10 mR/hr. Think about that, a chest xray is around 20 mR... two hours on a hot spot or four hours just using the kitchen countertop gives you the same exposure. There is a difference though, the chest X ray is used to protect your health, there is public good in exchange for the exposure. A hot granite countertop is not any prettier than a low level one of the same type. Where is the benefit? And Paulines, Dr. Llope and I stay in touch constantly either through email or the rad forum I got him hooked on. The guy has become a friend of mine and I can tell you that people like you, Kevin, Bill, and Sue are the ones that made him stop contributing. He won't likely come back till comments like your side makes on a constant basis are stopped. Bill, I still see you as misguided, but basically a decent man on the wrong side from lack of information. Problem is is that you refuse to consider any info but what fits your world view, so there is no help for it. Split hairs if you must, but installing and selling isn't much different. I'm not knocking you for what you didn't know before, but from last year on, you should have educated yourself on the issues instead of spending the time and effort to try to squash the discussion. Bill, Geiger counters are go/no go devices. They won't give you a extremely accurate reading because of the inefficiencies of the small units, but they are designed to be portable and fast. Designed for the aftermath of a nuclear war, testing food and water for safety didn't require exact levels, just good or bad. That is what they can do for the fabricator. The EPA stance is not up for interpetation. Prior to mid May, they said not to worry about radiation or radon from a granite countertop. Now they say they don't really know, that some granite can have high levels, that if you have a granite countertop, you ought to test your home for Radon. That is not a 180 but it is a 150 degree turn. Once Dr. Llope gets done testing and publishing, the other 30 degee turn will happen. NORM regulations are in 33 states, from 5 uR/hr to 30 uR/hr, and I can take any fool that still wants to debate to a slab yard and find two dozen granite types that will be higher than the highest state NORM level. Lisagraz, thank you for having the courage to stand up to the bullies. There are plenty of safe granites out there, I have reported on some on both here and stone sites, but the other side doesn't dare admit that or they would lose their only effective weapon against the testing effort, using personal attacks to attempt to destroy the messanger. You see that Revans1 and I are way closer on the facts than the others, but he can't admit it or the others will stop listening to him as well. The facts are that somewhere between 5 and 10 percent of all granites are a problem. Revans1 gets this, spent time educating himself on the issues, and is now on the opposite side he was last year. It is a wonder the others haven't attacked him more than they have already. arda, will you ever understand that that cartoon is about electomagnetic radiation not ionizing radiation? Electromagnetic has not been proven dangerous, a small fringe thinks so, but it hasen't been proven. But today I worked cutting samples from a top that was 40 times background radiation, and BEIR VII said that even background radiation caused some cancers. It is open and shut on that issue. Luvmyguys, it isn't a mess to the stoners, they want this to be a mess. They will continue to smear anyone that dares mention the issue and post distortions along with their personal attacks. It is the only weapon they have cause the facts are against them. Bill, again microwaves are not ionizing radiation. Saying that they equate to ionizing radiation from a granite countertop is just plain ignorant. And as always, your argument is that it is too expensive to make sure granite is safe, better to let the consumers take the risk than the stone shops lose a few bucks. And some quarries are testing now, and some importers. All the chinese importers brag about their class A granite rating. Really, does anyone that has read the posts believe that one side of this debate is not only endangering consumers for personal gain, but has resorted to personal attack and outright lies despite haveing seen data to the contrary? And don't think for a minute that when this thread is gone that will be the end of it. People will continue to ask questions, are you going to riducle all of them?

I don't see anything odd looking about the new foliage on your plant. It is common for new growth to be red, depending upon the genetics of the variety. New growth can look "puckered" due to a variety of causes, many of which require nothing from you to alter. I wouldn't continue clipping off the new growth as it would be harmful to the plant. Just keep it watered and fed as you have been and it should be OK. Or, it should continue being OK, rather. Good luck.

Thanks for the response, guys :-) For additional background information, this appeared on a rural property in an area of large properties (most 3+ acres) and each bordered from its neighbors with a 25-40' wide strip of natural vegetation. And with large chunks of mostly undisturbed forest surrounding. Lots of these native rhodies around, growing naturally (completely untended) in the wooded areas. A very common situation in this area. Nothing very out of the ordinary wrt to weather or rainfall. Typically very dry but cool summers and moderately wet winter and spring. Rainfall has been pretty average. I only saw this growth on two plants in the same general area but at some distance from each other. And they were fighting their way through the dense growth of salal and evergreen hucks. But so are all the rest of the rhodies in the area. Plant health overall looked reasonable - not pristine but nothing overwhelming. A few showing some leaf spot and now and again some rust pustules And with a bit of leaf spot on the salal and rust on the hucks....also extremely common. There were other rhodies in the same area that were unblemished. We were standing on a deck overlooking this wooded area when I saw this discoloration as it was only on the newest, uppermost growth and really stood out due to the color. My clients are new to this home within the last year and have not used any chemicals anywhere (18 month old daughter and like many PNW'ers, very organic in their approach to gardening). Without any more ideas on what this might be, I guess we will just wait to see what happens to this odd colored new growth as the season progresses. It was very random on the plants, only appearing in a couple of places. Plants were maybe 10-15 feet tall, variable spread, so quite well established and mature. Other new growth was the typical bright grassy green color you can see in the photos. I hate it when I can't provide an answer!!