Thanks Carla. I just wish we could edit our posts. Even this last one, I wish I could, but I will not ask Garden Web to do it again for me. Of course the above post is a close copy of the last one that I had posted here on the subject. I copied it from the one I posted to my friends on our B&B board. I should have edited it first I guess. I did have one reply from Florence on this particular post, but as I said, it was pulled. Anyway our grandson did come at Christmas to us and we had a great time with him, as well as some good visits with our Daugher Louise and Ryan's cousins. It was a great Christmas. His dad, our son also got permission to have a visit with him at our house. It went very well. Neither Ryan or us had seen him for a few years. We keep in touch with him (Ryan) by phone and a couple of weeks ago visited the foster parents in Victoria who had come to the island for a short vacation. Anyway, after my first posts on this subject, which was received with encouragement and kindness, I just wanted to update you. Will tell more aftr the JDR in Edmonton on 13th March. Pauline

I usually try to blow off the snarky remarks, but this one left me a little flabbergasted, and I feel the need to respond. You spend hours-days-weeks endlessly scrutinizing agents Our agent selection process has taken exactly 2 weeks, and only took that long because I'm only in town on weekends to meet with them. That hardly seems unduly long for a $30,000 purchase from someone I've got to work well with. I take that long to hire employees. I have contemplated hiring an agent during the period we've had it listed FSBO, knowing that FSBO was a risk; perhaps that's why you're thinking it has been an endless process. while making it clear you don't think any of them can do what you cannot: sell the house. Based on my past choices of agents, they haven't done a good job; hence my jadedness. The fact that we're now hiring an agent indicates that we do think someone can do a better job than we can. I was thorough in my interview questions and actually learned a lot about what a good agent can do. I've got a lot better handle on how to pick a good one and what my expectations of them should be. I was actually pleasantly surprised by some of the interviews, and left them thinking "wow, they could sell our house!" It has definitely changed my view (not of all of them; there are plenty of doofuses out there, but there are some solid ones too). This follows hours-days-weeks of scrutinizing your landscaping and external appearance which is, I agree with others, that of a big box plopped onto a field. And instead of asking others' opinions and figuring out what the best thing to do was, I should have done what, exactly? Or is it the fact it didn't happen in two days? I recall you spent hours-days-weeks agonizing over a very lengthy, very detailed and effusive homemade listing of the house when you originally decided to sell FSBO. Again, are you saying I shouldn't spend time getting the right photos and good descriptions for our website? Or that the result was poor? Several of the realtors we interviewed said it was the best website they've ever seen from a FSBO. And all of them wanted to use our photos (at least of the inside; we acknowledge we need something better for the outside). And today, what is the result of all that? The house is still for sale. When you say you've done so much analysis and you know the house is priced right--obviously it isn't or someone would have bought it! Actually I disagree with your conclusion. It hasn't sold because we haven't had much traffic through it. And that's because we're not in the MLS. Not all buyers looking for something like our house know about us. It seems that your perception isn't matching the reality of your situation. As pointed out, you are getting a ton of disinterested and neutral feedback, most of which you seem to dismiss. Do you mean from the showings we've had? I haven't done anything about the things I can't change (house was too big for one, one didn't like the steepness of the slope down to the lake, one needed a first floor accessible suite), but when I got feedback from a realtor about the curb appeal, I posted the feedback here, sought input, and we re-did the front landscaping. How is that dismissive? Because we're not redoing the facade or planting $1000 trees? Or does it feel that way because I'm not saying "I know, I hate the front as much as you do?" I'm particularly impressed by the feedback from actual *realtors* who are taking time to try to tell you their professional judgment, although again you don't seem to be able to accept what they are saying to you as helpful and useful advice. I listened carefully to all the realtors that came through, and asked them for specifics on what they'd change. As a result, in the past 2 weeks we sealed the circle drive, painted the shutters and re-seeded a large patch of barren ground. Where are you getting that I'm not accepting what they're saying? Are you talking about pricing? 8 of 10 said we were fine, and several commented that they usually have to dash sellers' high expectations in that regard. So, perhaps now it's time to work on one of those 'life lessons' which usually turn out to mean doing something different and not too comfortable: hire the realtor, then LET THE REALTOR DO THE JOB. Frankly, I wouldn't want to be your realtor but that's neither here nor there. Uh, ok, that's what we're doing, no? I'm not willing to just randomly hire a realtor without careful investigation, and I do not apologize for that. Nor do I apologize for making one of my criteria an expectation of a high level of service from them. You may choose to do otherwise if you like, but I won't.

Nanadoll, Beautiful planting of summer beauties! Great photos, thanks for sharing them! Rudbeckia hirta (Gloriosa Daisy), is the ideal daisy, much beloved. It's a short lived perennial at best, an asset, not a liability...essentially an annual...and oh, how beautiful and easy to grow and manage it is. It gives so much in return for so little effort. There's a huge flowered double yellow, green petal centered Gloriosa Daisy that blooms its head off from seed the first year. Bushy and not a leggy grower. The flowers look like exhibition, show Chrysanthemums. Out of 10 plants, only one will come back next year, but that's OK. Easy, easy to grow from seed. It does not self sow or come true from seeds, if I can remember correctly. I may be wrong. I grew it years ago and it exceeded my greatest expectation. Nothing says summertime like a bed of: Gloriosa Daisy, any and all Echinaceas, Phlox paniculata (any varieties, especially David....not to forget the common garden Phlox), Liatris, Malva alcea fastigiata, and/or Malva moschata alba, and last but not least, Heliopsis 'Summer Sun'. Grow Rudbeckia 'Goldstrum,' at your own risk. Should be outlawed! It invades everything, and chokes itself to the point of producing junk flowers. I'm tempted to rip up the roses in favor of a bed of the above beauties. It sure would be a lot less work! Moses

This is a great thread and I've read it with lots of interest. I'm not as interested in IKEA vs. the rest as I am in frameless vs. framed. I grew up in Europe with frameless cabinets and have now lived in the US for nearly 30 years with various framed cabinets. I still like frameless better from what appears to me be a usability factor, but maybe that is all in my head, but the things that I'd like more information on is to figure out if this is just in my head. What is the inside dimension of a drawer for a say a 30" cabinet for the different brands, or use the 36" or an 18" as an example. The same goes for how much space is wasted in say in the 171" direction and the 143" direction due to the framed parts? It might not be much, but having gone from a large kitchen where I had plenty of storage and the frame was smaller to a smaller kitchen with framed cabinets that has more frame (I assume to save money on the doors) this is something that is really pushing me towards frameless feeling like it has less wasted space and be more comparable across lines of frameless cabinets vs. framed ones where that seems to vary by the manufacturer. One thing that to this day annoys me with the framed cabinets is the lip on the bottom shelf. I love it when I visit my mom and friends in Europe how easy it is to slide out a stack of plates from the bottom shelf and not have to go through the lift motion first.