OMG - what a horrible job cutting the tile. Looks like he used nippers to clip the tile or his snap cutter's cutting wheel is still the original one from the 80's. "...How and where did you hire the handyman claiming to be a tile setter, was price the deciding factor?..." - Tundra I think this is a fair question myself. If you are budgeting a job that is priced buy the square foot, some times the added skilled work is ommited. A skilled installer like myself or Tundra come with proper tools and experience. Check out Tundra's photos online and you can see he is a tile ninja.... I think a diamond Riffling File and some time might fix it but best to replace the cut tile with new better cut tile. Placing cut tile in the field of view is tricky unless the installer uses care and proper tools to make it look nice. And really the Dal Tile Home Depot stock is not really Top Shelf product anyway. Could be the tools where good but the glazing crap.

Seems to me, (on topic about parent pop ins) that you have a reasonable request to make to your parents. Try to explain that your circumstances have changed, that your lifestyle has changed, and that while you do love them and want to see them, you have to ration your time more carefully. Let them know you want to give the your full attention when you can be with them, and scheduled visits allow for that. Having said that, I find that the longer parents are retired, the more they get out of touch with people who don't have the schedule flexibility that they do. Also old folks brain flexibility does (sometimes!) take a hit. I know my dad went ballistic one day because he wanted me to "run down" to the car dealership with him for what he expected to be a 15 min. trip. Problem was, I was on my way to teach a class and no way did I have any time flexibility, no margin for unexpected delays. My dad said the most unreasonable things to me when I just asked him if I could do it the next day. And this was a spur of the moment request on his part. He said I didn't care about him and never did anything to help him and he hoped I was late. Totally ridiculous. (BTW I did run the errand with him the next day, it took and hour, and he never said BOO about all the over the top nasty things he said the day before). But then my dad is having lots of mental issues in his old age. Senility characterized by forgetfulness and inability to do daily tasks is not the only kind of mental problems old folks have (sometimes). There can be all sorts of other processing problems, which creep up on them bit by bit. So it may be a tough go with your folks, you can't always have reasonable discussions with parents, sad to say.

I don't want to add to your trouble but that will quickly rot the facia,soffit and rafter tails leaving you with an expensive repair. That is one of the most common errors made by inexperienced remodel contractors. The usual remedy include's removing the cover to start over. The main problem is that cover can't be sloped enough so that water run's off without backing uphill and leaking between facia and cover. My solution for 90% of these is A, Remove cover while attempting to save as much material as possible. B. Add a gutter to house. C. Raise cover ABOVE roof on house or move cover away from roof of house. Leave room to replace shingles when time come's. If the mist coming between roof and cover when it rains bother's you, have a roofer install an apron in the gap.

" what ...would you guys recommend? " (cough) A decent soil test (/cough) But seriously, we'll let that one ride for this year, it's good enough, I suppose (I'm not a fan of abbreviated tests that don't give a complete report, and absolutely never a fan of any test that even bothers to report nitrogen, which varies by time of day, moisture in the soil, temperature of the soil, and so on). At the very least, your pH looks, off the cuff, to be consistent with calcium and magnesium levels, which is more than I can say for some tests I've seen. I'm not a hundred percent happy with your Ca:Mg:K balance, but it's certainly workable and I'm disinclined to fiddle without much better data. For right now? It's spring in S. Texas, yes? Let's see if we can attract a southern grass person to give you a good, solid recommendation--and I do mean a southern grass expert, not just a stand-in to give you book larnin'. That's very nice, but it's not tuned to your particular weather and projected spring forecast. I know what I should say, but I'm not directly familiar with exactly what's happening in your neck of the woods right now. It's 44 and raining right now where I'm sitting. If it goes a couple days, bounce this message and I'll give you a gentle recommendation.