Out of curiosity, where in upstate NY? I visited somebody at Cornell and it's beautiful there. How much shade? I think Kentucky bluegrass (KBG) is probably the best choice for upstate New York in sunny areas. For shady areas, a fine fescue mix would be better. If you have a mixture of sun and shade, you'll probably want to plant KBG in the sunny areas and transition to a mixture of KBG and fine fescue and then all fine fescue in the shade. If you google "Kentucky Bluegrass Seed Selections" you'll find a variety of resources to pick good cultivars. I don't think there are as many choices for fine fescues. Some people have reported good results with the Bonny Dunes mixture.

I feel your pain! I wanted a sectional last year, and was really sad about the size and quality at my $3000 budget point. I found a large sectional, 12' by 8' on craigslist. Stanford furniture, 8-way hand-tied springs, down cushions, hardwood frame, good construction, with matching ottoman. It was described as being in excellent condition. The loose back cushions were a little slouchy, the fabric was very red, and the arm style was a little dated. So i paid them $800, and planned to get my friend, a local upholsterer to redo it for me probably in blue in a year or so.. So i will probably put another $1500 to 2000 in fabric and labor, but i can have the arm style altered cushion density altered. But... When i arrived with moving truck, the seller happily told me that she had pulled it out from the wall and vacuumed it all over for me and she was going to give me all of her decorative pillows too. We went in the room to inspect it and the entire sofa had been pulled apart into 4 or 5 sections, and Seat cushions, back cushions and decorative pillows were stacked in piles everywhere. She proudly announced, "i've been putting them in bags for you, so they will stay clean for transport." I felt a little rude but i told her as politely as possible, that i would need to see the cushions before i bought them. (trying to be wary here, i was afraid of stains, etc....). The cushions were clearly invery nice condition. We paid and loaded and drove 2 hours home. We unloaded and discovered that Four of the seven back cushions were missing! At first i thought we had maybe left them there or dropped them in the snow, lol, but when you looked at her photo in the ad -- - i dont know how to describe it exactly - but she had plumped the decorative pillows forward, so they looked like they were resting on back cushions. And with the deep red sofa, and the kind of grainy photo... It just wasnt easy to see that there were back cushions missing, even when you knew! At her home, with all the sectional pieces apart and the pillows and cushions stacked in piles ---- i thought to examine the condition of them, but i never thought to count them! So i was furious, but to best salvage the situation for myself, i politely emailed her, told her that 4 cushions were missing, and that i assumed that they had gotten damaged or something. i was aware on CL it was caveat emptor, but if the cushions were damaged, i would still apprecite having the down bags that go inside the cushions. She apologized and offered to mail me back $200, and said she didnt have the cushions. Never heard from her again. Definitely didn't receive the $200. Anyway, since i was planning to reupholster it anyway, it is not a complete disaster, but now i have the additional cost of having 4 large down cushions made. And it looks goofy right now. But it is exceedingly comfortable and solid. So ultimately it will come out right. I hope. But as an aside, if you want revenge - ask high school students! They are all secretly creative evil geniuses with enough free time to hatch a plan. I tutor, and one of the vocb words was "dupe" During breaktime, we were laughing about my experience being Sofa-Duped and my students suggested that since i knew the seller's address, that i could use google earth to locate all the addresses of neighbors in her community. My students offered to write a letter describing my experience, paste in a copy of her ad showing the deceptive "staging" of the sectional, paste in a copy of the sofa as it actually is, and close by saying that "i cant fix my transaction but i can publicize her behavior" andmail the story to everyone in her neighborhood. I did NOT do that, and instead assigned an SAT style essay on whether revenge is ever justified ; ) (apologies for typos, i have a terrible time typing on ipad screen!) Here is a link that might be useful: This is exactly my ottoman, shows color of sectional.

When it comes to cars, I've never thought of one as a status symbol and it's paid off. I've purchased two new vehicles in my life. Not sure if I'll ever buy another. Run them about 15 years and pay cash for them to make it cost-effective. I don't like monthly payments. Even with my mortgage I took pains to pay off early. Whenever possible I paid extra on the principle and even $10, $50, $100 makes a big difference since that comes off the principle and you don't pay the interest on it. The earlier you do it, the better. I cut five years off the mortgage with extra payments in rather small amounts. That's 60 x the monthly payment. Well worth it. And it came at a good time as I was laid off right after it was paid off. Not having that house payment hanging over my head let me sleep better and be able to take lower paying jobs and be comfortable until I could get something better. A friend was getting a sales job on renewing a lease on the vehicle. When she finally realized what it was costing and pointed it out to them the response was "no problem, we'll just roll that into the loan!" A time or two like that and you'll never be able to pay it off! They play and prey on stupidity and naivety. It's a war! And when I keep getting these things to take out an equity mortgage to take a vacation or add on or whatever, I shake my head and wonder just how stupid they think I am!

Mater of fact , I let my roots callous over for a couple of days out in the air before I put them in new digs , Then I DO NOT WATER them for another three days.