One thing I'm curious about is that my OGRs on Multiflora over the years seem to have much more trouble with it than my modern roses. *** Here is an example. I have an informal hedge of 6-8 'Golden Celebrations.' The first one planted (and the largest) of them came from Hortico, and is on Multiflora. It was one of the first GCs planted in our part of the country. I think there's an even chance it is not virused. It is very vigorous, and repeats like a champ. It is almost always chlorotic to some degree or another. If that doesn't bother you, it's fine. (It bothers me.) ----------------- The rest of the plants are on Dr. Huey. They are almost certainly virused. If they get enough water, they're very very vigorous, and repeat like champs. They are NOT troubled by chlorosis. The color contrast between the big yellow blooms and the deep green foliage is beautiful. The difference in the foliage between the one plant on Multiflora and the several on Huey is striking. Jeri

Eleven years ago I replaced the cheap beige carpet in our house with beautiful Karastan wall-to-wall beige carpet. We have a lot of kids and back in 2004 we still had toddlers. I don't regret the carpets, at that point it was hard to know what type of hardwood to put down on a concrete slab, it seems that engineered hardwoods were an emerging product and solid hardwood planks were not recommended for slab foundations. There were moisture transfer issues that seemed to make hardwood floors a risky proposition back then. Our carpet looks exactly like the close-up sample that AuntJen posted. It looked to me like beautiful sand, the quality is excellent. We paid a fair sum of money for it in part because it did not off-gas, and we installed rubber padding (instead of the compressed foam) which helped prevent goat trails. Now we have a dog who occassionally barfs. So our carpet is stained. And worn out. Having a Dyson vacuum had made all the difference in keeping it looking good when we vacuumed daily, our carpet looked fabulous. Wish we had a Roomba. It's a frieze and I love it. I'd love hardwood floor more, but do not regret the carpeting. My kids played on the floor until five years ago, and the carpet kept the house a little quieter and allowed them to lay on the floor and play anywhere. I certainly miss those days.

General contractor is a given..the rest-it largely depends on you-your funds, confidence what you can/cannot do, resilience, time and energy you can devote, etc. (And experience and passion of your contractor. He won't pick your finishes of course; but he might have an idea to put a window instead of a door for example or some other thing you didn't think of by yourself. Brainstorming is part of the process) we pulled off gut remodel plus addition plus reconfiguring stuff with the help of GC only but I'd say I longed to have a designer not once..would be easier. it's a very trying experience, long as well, you want more professional people by your side. It doesn't get done by itself-and it's a full time job, if nobody undertakes it, you do. So by all means either contact a designer, or maybe look at design-build firms. Just make sure you have a good chemistry with that person. Important with everybody of course, builder as well. You'll spend hours with these people..days..months..hopefully not years but can happen:) Minimize stuff that can go wrong by choosing right people. Some things will go wrong but the better your relationship is the more chance in overcoming obstacles. Architect, I'm not sure you need..your builder may advise with structural engineer if needed for that to be removed wall "Understand that if you are tearing out walls, finalization of the plan occurs AFTER the walls are out and you can see what is behind them"-agreed (we didn't tear down walls though, if anything we added some lol..but as we fully gutted the space-I know some stuff can't be predicted until you touch the wall and know what's there) So yes..the combo of general contractor and interior designer would be best. Whom to contact first? I'd start with a GC to get a feel of a general scope of the work, but I think both can be contacted simultaneously, or one can start with a designer too Whether people do double duty? Rarely. They might want to, but will not be best equipped for it even if passionate or simply won't have time. But you don't neccessarily need them to do double duty, in your particular case. Interior designers, for example, are trained to understand how the house works, so they are not architects but can have great vision and realize the mechanics that are required to achieve it.

Interesting discussion. I do think it depends on your culture, and different cultures have different drinking traditions. However, America tends to have a big consumer culture with various trends being pushed. I'm a late boomer who grew up in a middle American small town, and most people did not drink that much, and when they did, it was beer or if you were into the heavy stuff, hard liquor with maybe a little soda water or a splash of a soft drink, aka "rum and coke." There was however, a big push during the 60's for sophistication among the masses via advertising. My folks got a very swanky bar set for a wedding gift, and both had recipe books for cocktails in their libraries. They lived in San Francisco for a while so became big wine drinkers before it was trendy. I grew up drinking wine, unlike most of my peers. I remember my folks being into making daquaris, which were a popular MCM drink. We also hung out with some folks from Russia/Eastern Europe who put vodka in everything! And some Italians and others who made their own dessert wines and liqueurs. Those days seem quite sophisticated to me looking back on them. I'm allergic to beer, and I remember in college always being the weird one out because I either drank wine, which seemed too fru fru in college, or a mixed drink with vodka, which was pretty expensive! That was before the days of every kind of "cooler" and mixed drink being packaged and sold like soda pop. Hard root beer, hard fruit sodas, hard lemonade, etc. That is definitely driving today's younger generation's taste. I love all the mixed drinks, but they are expensive and full of calories in which I can no longer indulge. My bladder can't take much alcohol either. So, as usual, youth is wasted on the young. I wish I had lived in the days where I could have both the money and occasion to indulge in a cocktail or two on a semi-regular basis. Too often, and it isn't that special, IMHO. But can add a fun twist to a social gathering of friends.