Thanks to all of you, as always I got a lot of advise, which is why I love ths web site. With that being said, I will continue to care for the two orchids I have, admire the ones you all show off, and resist from buying anymore. I have a lot of house plants, now. I took a break from them for about 5 years, now I have over 25. I bought the orchids as a challenge, to see if I could be successful in keeping them pretty, happy and most of all alive. I think I accomplished that. I would rather save my limited space for the plants that don't take as much expertice. Actually I am done buyiing any plants for awhile. I will continue to visit this forum and drool over the beauties you all so proudly show off, cuz I do think they are truly a stunning plant. Thanks again to all of you, and no you didn't scare me off, the sensible side of me says orchids probably aren't for me.

Karen, here's some more comments on the ones I have from your list; I never understood why Regal Splendor gets such good press, I think it's kind of ordinary but it does perform well, no problems with it...so yes, it is a good one to get Revolution I absolutely LOVE! It's different and strikingly pretty. Independence I bought because it is supposedly the reverse of Revolution. Took some time to grow but last year it was nice! Fair Maiden is a really pretty hosta when grown well, almost like an artist brushed the leaves. Eternal Flame I've had about three years. No problems with it, doesn't grow exceptionally fast for me but no complaints either. Kabitan I do like. I know it can be slug bait but try to place where you can monitor it. Medusa, no comment since I don't currently have it. Masquerade tends to revert to green, high maintenance hosta for me as it needed to be frequently divided to stay true to type. Aristocrat, slow but ok. Little Sunspot, nice hosta that I like!

claire, I can tell you that it's been HARD being our own GC, because at least in our area, there's a construction boom, and a lot of people have gone to N.O. for the ongoing work there, so it's almost impossible to get someone if all you have is a small one-time job, unless you're willing to pay extortionist prices that I think were really "don't want the job" bids, iykwim. Maybe your area won't be so bad. Ours is murder. The city permits woman told me, when we finally went in to get a permit to do our own plumbing (argh), that her brother built a whole house with himself as GC, and couldn't get anyone to return his calls. He said he'd never do it again--the construction industry is set up, and somewhat understandably so, so that the contractors get all the good subs and the subs who can't get ongoing gigs are the only ones available to us poor retail folk. But even the contractors I tried to get to work with us were not interested in "merely" a Master Bedroom and bath remodel; folks are evidently using their home equity to do complete gut remodels or huge additions, and a within-the-footprint remodel where many of the fixtures have already been purchased (they can't make their profit there) is just not attractive. A tile guy, and not an experienced long-time tile guy at that, told me that although he'd said he could do the work in late June, it now had to be moved to August because a construction company he works for has asked him to work starting in late June through July. He needs to keep them as a client, so he has to push the one-off folks off til later, if they're willing to wait. I understand this completely from his point of view, but it's still a pain to me. Not to discourage you or anything...

Just to clarify: The entire value for your land, let alone your house, is what someone will pay for it. For insurance valuation you can look at replacement cost because it's about what you've lost that you can buy again at a store. As soon as you start using your stuff its individual market value (that is, what you could sell it on Craig's List for) goes down. That's why insurance for replacement value costs so much more than insurance for real value. The concept, if you sue someone for destroying your stuff, is to make you whole for what it's worth at the time it's destroyed. You might be able to argue that the durability of granite is such that it doesn't depreciate, but your appliances sure do! That's why people want to be insured to be able to replace what they lost as if it were new. No one wants to replace a fridge that was new out of the box two years ago with a two year old one on Craig's List that's been in someone else's house holding someone else's food, even though, technically, you already used up the first two years' worth of of value, and only lost a two year old, used fridge. For security against your loan, you're looking at market sale value only. The appraisal is what someone who really understands the market thinks you can reasonably get for it. It's more art than science, and the only way to know for sure is to actually sell. Since, of course, you don't want to sell, the trick might be to find an independent appraiser who thinks that your opinion about jalousies being not charming matches that of potential buyers for your house, and that seeing that they're gone will induce them to pay more for your place. The disintegrating and dangerous stuff you mentioned doesn't necessarily mean someone will pay more for the exact same house with those things fixed. It may be that there's a higher demand for a fixer "that we can put our own personalities into" than a place that's been fixed up already. Maybe there are 10 houses on the market with similar lots, houses, etc., 2 like your was, 5 with less destruction, but still ugly old tiles and jalousies, and 3 like yours improved with nice windows and no maintenance issues. If the ones like yours are priced at 20-30% more, do the buyers just choose the 5 in the middle? Do they actually pay less for the two at the bottom? Or does it turn out that they all sell for within $5K of each other? That's what the appraisers check. One of the two at the bottom might be at the top of that range, too, because it has a really cool tree, and one of the best three might go for the least because no one likes the granite in the kitchen. And that's how they get an average price for what your house is worth based on everything remotely like it, not just the ones that have had the maintenance and upgrades. Why do they sell the loans that way? So you'll buy them!!! They're into it for making money off of you, not to do you a favor. Banks are remarkably cold blooded institutions, and credit unions only seem nicer. Underneath they're just as cold blooded.