I'm particularly fond of bottle (beer and wine) borders, I've been putting them in slowly for the last 4 or 5 years, and haven't had any frost heaving or popping problems in the winter. Overzealous weedwhacking will occasionally break a bottle, but you learn pretty quickly how to avoid that. :) Looks like I actually need to take some more current pictures of the borders, but the link below shows the one I put in first, around a new herb garden. I've since rearranged and enlarged it (mixing the brown, green and blue bottles more randomly along the border). There's also a nice article in garden gate on how to make a lighted bottle border. Here is a link that might be useful: herb bottle border

We got several quotes for reglazing with the highest at $285. Tearing out the tub and surrounding tile and replacing it all would've added at least $1000 to our budget. This project was *supposed* to be a quick, easy and budget-friendly facelift for our guest/kid bath, but it's been anything BUT! :-0 We bought the white toilet at Lowe's, so it can be exchanged for bone. We considered reglazing the soap holder and towel bar (which are affixed within the wall tile) to white, as well, then changed our minds when we saw a condo with a white tub with all beige tile and soap holder and towel bars. I thought it looked fine, and began to think that the white fixtures might stand out too much against the beige tile. I have contacted the refinishing guy who's supposed to have a good reputation to go look at some of the work he's done, so we'll see when he gets back to me. Oh my...all the decisions to make....

If you leave the fitting in place and it's unglued, it can leak, especially when it gets colder and the plastics shrink. Oh, and use #6 plugs. #8 plugs fit inside 1.5" pipe, not in the fittings. #7s tend to pop out. The extended stem plugs are for returns that are cut on a diagonal so the return water goes to one side. The extension makes it easier to plug the line without scraping your fingers trying to get it in far enough. I don't think you need them or need to spend the extra money for them.

gbsim Your house with real wood trim, moulding and doors look very lovely, warm and grounded. Don't let anyone paint that beautiful wood trim in awful contractor special white that looks shiny and tacky at the same time. I am so tired of looking at cheaply done MDF shiny white trim on so many houses that it is a breath of fresh air to see real wood trim and moulding. Not only does the MDF and bad paint job make the trim look shiny, most people end up picking stark white that makes the trim look like pimples with make up on it. Coupled with strong paint color on the walls, whew! Good luck selling your house! It really has kept its age well. I know what you are talking about: the unknown construction quality. We have gutted and redid our house. There is nothing left of the original house. We can't imagine not knowing how things were done behind the walls. My husband even had them put metal flashing between each joins of the lap siding! (kind of extreme but...) We have a walk out basement: we call it daylight basement here. They don't live like basemnet at all. I suggest exploring in floor hydronic heating for the basement slab. It is expensive but it makes the basement quite comfortable.