Personally, the Radiances are not in my plans. I just don't know where I'd put them. It sounds like a wonderful rose, and hopefully, others will decide to try it from reading here. I have Tiffany also, and it's doing very well right now - even with all this rain. Really, all of my roses are doing well, but that was also the case last year before summer hit and with it the BS. I'm hoping that another year under their belts and my improved mulching will keep them from stressing as badly as they did last year. IOW, I'm not overconfident about being free from BS later in the year. Re these old HT's I'm really interested in these that Vintage says stay "thigh-high" or thereabouts. *** you might be lookin' for love in all the wrong places. So what else is new, Michael? Right now my Mme Abel Chatenay is perfectly clean. I looked her up on HMF today, and she has lots of HP's in her lineage, so we'll see. The ladies at Rose Petals Nursery prune their HP's hard after each bloom to force new growth and get rid of older growth that is susceptible to or infected with BS. I don't know if I'll have to resort to that technique with MAC, but I guess it's an option unless she's a total mess. She defoliated last summer (along with several others), but I think it was heat stress. Laura, you're right. HMF does not say Betty has a Damask fragrance. I was reading the wrong line in my scribbled notes. Elaine, do you spray? Captain Christy's pics really are beautiful. Keep us posted on these roses as they progress, OK? We Floridians need to know. Anita, I have wanted KAV for 2 years. I should have gotten her (I tried but VG sold out) last year but was unsure of her disease resistance here, and now the garden is full :(( Hopefully, others are growing some of these roses. W E Lippiat and British Queen are gorgeous - among others! Sherry

Tiger is right. Take the free money and get the better system. $1500 is just the from the Feds. Your state and/or local utility also will give you rebates, but you'll need to meet a minimum efficiency which your quotes do not achieve. If your cost delta goes from $2300 down to $400 that is a big difference. Your contractor is not being very helpful. I interviewed 8 contractors for my home and went with the the one that: a. did the load calcs b. worked with me and all my crazy thoughts on various system configurations c. was professional and responsive when it came to answering questions. d. made me and my wife feel comfortable with what they proposed. I did not go with the cheapest bid or the most expensive (although it was quite expensive). My costs were much higher due to a lot of duct work. Either way I can promise you that you will get what you pay for. Tigerdunes is steering you in the right direction. In the end it is up to you. I spent a month researching and interviewing contractors before making a decision. BTW I took an option for 12months 0% so I could actually get all my rebates and returns and spread out the cost at the same time. In my case I get the $1500+ 1200 more from my utility. There are also a lot of rebates for new systems. I know Carrier and Lennox have major rebates at this time for sure, but in general they are larger with the nicer systems. It never hurts to get a variety of quotes to weigh your system options (I had multiple quotes from the same contractors)

Well, we did a mini "refresh" on our kitchen in 1999 to add a dishwasher and standard-sized range, as we had one of those apartment-sized ranges that DH detested. When we did the mini refresh, we also changed countertops, sink & faucet, and we had put in peel and stick vinyl over the hideous gold linoleum when we first moved in. That being said, we still had issues with layout, with the only really useable countertop being the 15" to left of the range and 5" to the right of it. There was a small swath of countertop across from the stove, next to the sink, but because it was right by the back door, it became a catchall. When I took anything out of the oven, it pretty much had to go on the stovetop. Baking cookies just wasn't very fun after a while. I sorta stopped doing it. :^( Then there was the wall between the kitchen and livingroom that made the kitchen seem so dark and cramped. The lack of storage was the biggest issue we had. I still get the heebs when I think of that cabinet where the plastic storage containers lived. I don't know how many times I sat on the floor and cleaned out that blasted cabinet, just to have it heave out plasticware all over me the next time I opened that door. I'm pretty sure that DH would open the door *just enough* to throw an item in there. We had no venting over the range, instead we had a cabinet directly over the range, and it was lower than standard. When we did the remodel, we could see big black burn marks underneath. Lovely. Our garbage was located across the kitchen on the stairwell landing. If I had gunk in my hands, I had the pleasure of carrying it across the floor, leaving a nice little dribble trail. Fun times! The giant fluorescent light box, with that hideous tube light. I tried to "tart it up" at one point, but in the end, it was just a big rectangle with an ugly light, so it had to go. My peel and stick vinyl tiles, so wonderful and bright when we installed them, were pitted and cracking in places. No matter how long I scrubbed on my hands and knees, there were areas where the tile was worn, and the dirt was embedded. Yuck. The kitchen wasn't awful; it just was not a joy to work in. Now I enjoy baking and cooking in there, and putting away the tupperware is not an exercise in frustration! Hooray! Oh, happy day! :^)

Hi, does this include any decking? This seems quite high for just the pool. We are in the process of a build in MA (see my thread "our pool build" for pictures). We originally planned a 36 x 18 freeform gunite pool. With spill over 7 foot diamter spa on a raised beam, and 7 foot first step-tanning shelf. It was to be 3-8 foot deep. Two benches in the deep end. Midnight blue pebble tec. Originally included 800 Sq Ft of stamped concrete, 6 inch waterline tile, Hayward 2 HR pump, cartridge filter, gold line salt-system, gas heater, aqualink controller, Polaris 480 cleaner, 2 skimmers, 3 floor returns, and 4 surface returns and preplumbed for future water fall. Electrical included upto 75 feet to panel. Our quote was for 65K. We hit some stumps during the dig so the pool got modified to its current shape. It is now 39 x 19, 3-6.5 deep, No raised beam, just the raised spa at a raised deck grade. Bullnose coping, 1500 Sq Ft. of paver deck, stone planter wall with (2) 6 inch steps from spa grade to pool grade, natural rock coping with waterfall and dive rock on the far end of the pool. Extra .75 HPR pump due to elevation of spa and waterfall. Everything else is the same. The upgrades cost us 16K more. Incidental extras that popped up included: extra sub-base material for deck, extra stone for pool bottom due to water condition, haybales due to proximity of conservation land and conservation hearing to get approval...these have totalled about 2500. Our retaining wall was done by a friend at a very good price and our fencing (black aluminum with majestic finials) will run about 9500. I would get other quotes and see how they compare. Hope this helps. Here is a link that might be useful: our pool build