If the unheated portion is in a place where I'd place my bare foot as part of my normal traffic pattern as I make my way around the room? To me that'd be something to gripe about. If it was in front of a vanity, a place where's I'd typically be stationary? That'd be completely unacceptable. I've refused to short cut mat or cable coverage, even when the homeowner has insisted that it'd be okay to do so. Because it never will be okay. They might accept the poorly heated floor with cold spots because they insisted on and agreed to it. But they'll never, ever be happy with it. If I were ever to shortcut a mat...which I won't...I'd not do it without the homeowner signing off on a very detailed "heated versus unheated" floor plan. In your original post you wrote that there is no heat on the floor within 18" of the vanity, right in front of a sink. To me, and to Suntouch, that's way out of bounds. In front of vanities Suntouch recommends the mat be right up next to the vanity. If there's a toe kick, it goes under the toe kick. So 18"? That's a battle to be fought between you and your sub who installed the mat. In my eyes, the homeowner wins on that one. How this is remedied? You could refund them the amount of the RFH back to the homeowner, perhaps even recouping a part of the money through the sub who installed the mat. That may or may not satisfy. You can keep things as they are and let it slide. You might end up with an ulcer. You can fix it from below.You can eat the cost of the new mat, the tile sub perhaps could compensate you for the cost of opening up and closing up the ceiling below the bathroom. Or you can bring the original tile sub back in and fix it from above. He supplies the labor at no charge. You can work out the materials cost as best as you can with the tile sub. There are options, none of them pleasant. I do feel for you. You sound like someone who builds with good intentions. You wrote that "Many of the issues are self inflicted, and come about in an effort from him trying to save money, which all come back to bite ME. Our profit margin is currently below our overhead costs, and there is no indication of it stopping here." That's a tough spot to be in. But if he's talking you into changing things along the way and you're not executing formal Change Orders as the plans and contract morph away from the original design and budget agreement? Again, I might be reading too much into this and making an erroneous assumption. But when I've had difficult clients, everything goes in writing. Every change to the original plan is a written change order, paid for by the customer before the change is made. If the payment isn't made before the due date specified on the change order, no change is made and for that portion of the project, work goes along per the original plan and the original contract. If the change order results in a cost savings, it gets deducted from the next disbursement notice. There is karma. There are the easy clients. Like the one a few years ago who deposited $900k in an account with my name on it and said "build me a house". Anyhow, I do wish you luck with this. You sound like one of the good guys who's been run over by a freight train. Might be time to put on your engineer's cap, wave a red lantern, and slow this guy down a bit.

Hi Mama! I hear you about lapsitting a good-sized dog! Sort of takes the zest out of immersing yourself in the stormy day. I like your conduit and your hangers for the tubing. It takes up little space off the dimensions of a room that way, and if outdoors it would block most flying insects. I think it would be a fine way to hang flat panels of shade cloth too. If you are in a windy location though, I should have to meditate a while on how to deal with the effect of wind on panels secured top and bottom with such conduit. In my case, there will be some temporary tension rods holding the flat shade cloth panels on the west windows of the front bedroom. I don't want to nibble away at my supply of that heavy 90% cloth, so I won't cut it again....until I put the top-down Roman shades together. I think Shades commented on how many layers of curtains I am using in this bedroom. It sort of reminds me of dressing Annie Hall, with sweater, jacket, scarve, necklace, hat, the whole 9 yards so to speak. I had my neighbor come over yesterday and look at the windows. She lives across the street and recognizes what we are doing from the position of the curtains. She said she cannot see through the shade cloth even at night when the lamps are on and the other curtains are not pulled. Did I upload here any shots of the latest state of the curtain panels? Well, I have to hem the recently purchased panels. And the original grommeted suedecloth panels were labelled 108" but were probably 96" and that is why they did not sell full price and I got them for $10 each at Tuesday Morning. But I willy-nilly ordered the other panels to supplement the suedecloth panels at a hemmed length of 108" and that is why I must drag my sewing machine in the bedroom and do the hem job while they hang. My DH does not want me up on the ladder because of my bone spur problem. But I have the neatest little wrought iron table that is exact size as the sewing machine, so I can move it around easily. I have not quite figured out how to upload here via my Webshots account, so I will continue with tinypic.com for the time being. But some folks must be visiting my Webshots albums, because they had FOUR TIMES AS MANY VIEWS from any week in my recollection. I wonder if Loretta is bored and just browsing albums?

I have untinted SW paint in my basement from the last 40% off sale because I hadn't chosen colors yet but I'm willing to consider having it tinted to a competitor's color(s). How I want the rooms to feel is a hard question. I guess I'm too analytical. Comfortable and livable -- somewhere between jarring/pay-attention-to-me and boring/bland? Guest room is rarely used, just the occasional overnight by a traveling family member. It might get more use in a few years if my kids bring friends home from college but I doubt they'll care as long as you feed them. :) Tibbrix, I'll definitely check out the other blues you suggested. I'm glad you responded because I remembered seeing that you weren't entirely happy with SW Languid Blue. Will take some photos after I get things better organized.

50-ish, if you find one at 45 or so that you like don't discount it just because of the LRV number. Unless there are standards/color specs involved, LRV is more like a loosey-goosey guideline, not a formula or prescription to follow. And, yes, colors with a higher LRV number have better odds of delivering the light and airy atmosphere you're after vs. darker colors. A dramatically shifting paint color has more to do with its own metameric tendencies vs. the quality of light. A rule of thumb is if your color stays consistent in appearance when viewed in fluorescent and incandescent lighting, it will *probably* be consistent in any light source. More about north light: North exposure is not direct rays of sunlight. Very different from south light beaming into your kitchen almost all day long, or the morning sun bursting through your east facing bedroom windows at the break of day. North light isn’t necessarily reflecting or bouncing off of something else to get inside the space, it’s just that when your windows face north you don’t have actual, direct beams of light entering fenestration. North light is the most balanced from a spectral distribution perspective, it has a nice, even collection of all the wavelengths though it tends to be heavier in the blue range. Because it’s a balanced bundle of wavelengths and also because it is not a direct beaming, or spot-light effect of natural light, north facing rooms are ideal for any kind of artistic work environment. The pronounced blue of north light is a factoid that's been blown way out of proportion. Blogosphere has taken that one single aspect of north light and made a huge deal out of it - I guess because it makes a good 'sound bite' or something. I dunno. But it's kind of a dumb thing to hyper-focus on. Heavy in blue doesn't mean it's gray. Doesn't necessarily mean it's cool either. North light is simply indirect light that's balanced over the visible spectrum as a whole but with a pronounced bump of blue.