I noticed at WalMart yesterday that they are selling disks to fit inside the bottom of hanging baskets which are lined with the coir fibers. It looks exactly like a dull Scotchbrite cleaner, which does not disintegrate at all. I picked up two of them to fit a large wire basket, but still need the proper sized coir form for it. At Old Time Pottery a couple of years ago, I found wire baskets which were NOT meant for hanging, they were designed to sit on top of wooden 4x4 posts. I even put one of them on top of a short 4x4 post with a coir insert and a pot of birdnest fern which rose up a bit higher than the plants in the ground. (I think Les might find it useful in his minihaha garden). I also planted the asparagus fern in the smaller such pots and put them up in the air on top of the 8' tall fence posts, those ferns can survive better without being watered. However, the coir sort of disintegrated and the soil fell out, the plants are struggling but still alive. Soon I will try the Scotchbrite indestructible pads in them....or maybe the steel wool 20" wide pads as a liner for my big basket. I ordered two big boxes of these floor cleaner pads to use in the garden. My intent is to repel slugs with the 4" wide rolls of the steel wool, surely they won't climb over that.....and then to stop the ground diggers from going under my house, by burying these all around the perimeter where they are a problem. But I'm now thinking I can put one as the insert for a hanging wire basket. Good drainage, good soil retention. What's not to like about that.

As already posted, I'd skip the garage and convert the space in more comfortable living, and make some other changes. Move the wall about 3' between the salon and the salle á dener so that more than six could eat at the same table. There will be occasions when you will want more than the immediate family. (Consider when the kids start bringing friends to dinner.) Use the shortened salon for office. Form a hall by putting a wall between doors in [ex]garage, just deep enough to permit shallow cubbies and storage shelves. If you put a sun-bay where the G doors are, the dimensions will remain close to 16x21, a nice size living area. Remove W/D and make shallow for coat closet. Remove foyer closet and change into wide arched entry into living area. Upstairs: Plead with BevAngel or one of the other great folks to re-design the bains so that W/D could fit in. I personally would not want that pair of steps at the top of the landing. It appears that would make the door to chambre 2 literally at the top of the long flight and lower than the doors to the other rooms. YMMV. And that landing looks rather small... be sure you can move long bureaus and box springs around. MB: If one took away that odd wall forming the walkin closet, instead using reach-in closets as placed, the MB will appear much larger while permitting space for personal sitting area. Be sure reach-in closets don't have wasted space -- these look quite deep. Be sure all the doors are wide enough. It looks as though the doors to the bains are each 30", much too narrow.

I have an Electrolux & I quite like it. I'm in Canada so I paid a bit more than $2000, but you're in the US so it should be within your budget. I didn't get the wave touch, I figured it was just a gimmick, it's a range, I don't care that you can see all the settings. It has a warming drawer, it also has lots of settings for the oven, like bread proof, convection roast & bake, dehydrate, slow cook etc... I bought white, I don't really like stainless. My only tiny complaint would be that the low simmer isn't quite low enough but I think that can be adjusted, I just can't justify getting a tech out here as I have to pay for traveling time for him to ride the ferry. HTH, mfrog

It can depend on what the concentration of A/F is at present. If it's at least 35% right now then just draining and refilling one zone shouldn't make much difference. Are you sure it's antifreeze? Is there a tag or sticker indicating when and how much was added? I ask because EK ships a quart of 8-Way boiler treatment with each system that's to be added to the system to clean and protect things. That'll usually have a purplish color. If you find that there is A/F and the concentration is less than 30% when you're done then turn off the automatic feeder, close all the ball valves to the heat zones and drain about a gallon of water from the drain under the boiler. Remove the automatic air vent on top of the boiler. (That's the thing that says "Warning" that is visible in the picture.) Use a funnel to pour in a gallon of 90-95% concentration A/F and replace the vent. Open the feed valve to repressurize the boiler. Turn the burner switch on the right side of the manager to the off position. Turn the system switch on. If there is a call for hot water the system circulator will start and while it's running it will vent the remaining air in the boiler. Turn the system switch off and on a few times, which will remove any remaining air. When that's done turn the burner switch back on and open all of the ball valves. Sounds complicated but it's not and doesn't require any special tools, just test strips for the A/F.