I'll chip in because I've been fighting with my garden, and came to a few conclusions. For those of us in "rich" soils, i.e. clay or anything fairly high in organic matter, our drainage seems to be our downfall... I personally mix in mulch and peat to get a little organic material to provide a good starter soil for the bugs/worms to break down, then continue mulching to keep the organic material adding. Sand can be a solution, but more than likely we'll never be able to really improve drainage by just adjusting the top foot or two of dirt; the real action is down below and most of us (including myself) will never change that. So we have to deal with that top 2 feet and moderate our watering accordingly. The #1 most important thing with any plant that needs "sharp drainage" is Air. I know, you're thinking, well, duh... but if you think of it in the reverse, it makes more sense... water inhibits air, so balancing air is much easier if you know your water input. More than anything else, soil needs to exchange air. If you have a clay soil, organic material will be your best bet for the long term in fluffing. Until you hit like 30% sand by volume in your soil, it's not making much air space. Unless you're bringing in for beds, It's probably not worth the effort of adding because you'll need so much. Or at least this is the conclusion I've come to. Different soils and sands depending on their chemical composition can solidify into a hard pact material. A higher pH soil will run the danger of hard packing, or if your soil sometimes water logs. The ebb of acidic rain through high pH sand can harden the sand into a cement like material. If you're going to amend with sand, try to find some that is not calcium/magnesium based, i.e. no shells or anything that would bubble with vinegar. Play sand that is silicate based is usually fine. But the real thing I'm surprised about is that more people don't use an automated watering systems. I know in the west a lot of people do, and I get fantastic results with my drip irrigation system, even in my clay soil that I have ammended with peat and mulch. I find a small amount of water correctly placed on a regular basis can grow just about any plant. If you're placing just a small amount around the base of the plant, it can drain quickly and get air. Roots are more like lungs than anything. If you haven't looked at drip irrigation, it's hugely successful, and can mitigate poor soil by letting you apply water in a very targeted way instead of flooding the entire bed. Just my $.02 Here is a link that might be useful: Drip Irrigation Link

I am terrible at printing photos!! I also don't like the way my computer at home stores photos (don't like the look of it compared to how I was used to saving) and they're pretty unorganized. When DH and I got together we'd always buy cheapy camera and take photos. Photos of places we've been, goofy photos, caught you off guard photos... we have three huge photo albums filled up (in order) and then I got a new digital camera and we just stopped. :( I guess I'm lazy when it comes to digital. The stores that have the little photo maker things are always so busy. Ording online means paying for shipping which can be high if you're ordering a bunch. I have photos on CDs but for some reason I think it makes it more difficult to find and view. Much easier when they're physically right there. I do back everything up now because I once lost all my photos on my computer. Most weren't important but there were some of family and of Sylvester as a kitten. I know people store them online with sites like Snapfish and Shutterfly but what happens if that company goes under or something? I have photos on some of those sites but it kind of bothers me to think they're just sitting there, online. Forever? My family took gobs of photos over the years and had them developed. I loved and still do enjoy looking. I also love a good home video once in awhile. They all bring back fond memories of being a kid. I'll have to come up with a good system/get organized when we have kids since I know we'll take a bazillion photos.

Patti - WordPad doesn't have that feature. You could set up the spacing yourself - but it would be difficult to get it right. Do you have any other word processing software or Works? Or even sometimes greeting card/scrapbooking software has a feature for it. Are you looking to print it on a business card type of paper? I have attached a link to cnet that has a free download for a business card design/printing software. I haven't tried it - but I generally trust downloads from that site. Here is a link that might be useful: Business Card Designer.

Wendy, I love your graph paper and notebook! I saw your design on the other thread, and I love the pillar there! One thing I've learned from the gw forums is to check and recheck everybody else's work, especially the KD's! On one of the kitchen forum's "how to ask for layout help," it specifically says that overhead 2D plans are more helpful than the 3D views, so I will do that. But for me, I really need to visualize something to understand it, and the 3D views, like the IKEA planner makes, or those above that you revised from your KD's plans that had the mistakes, are way more helpful for me to understand how things will look. I also really like notebooks and/or folders! i know this is "low tech," but I'm going to print out some inspiration pics and pics of the actual appliances and things I've picked out, and make a scrapbook. It will cover all the rooms in the house, have the "before" pictures I'm shooting on Saturday, and then pictures of what I want in each room from the floor to the lighting, including walls, and pretty much everything. Then I'm going to take a lot of pictures throughout the whole process, and finally, the "reveal" pictures. I'll have it all on my computer too, but sometimes it's nice to flip through a physical hard copy folder/notebook, and it can be handy when you don't want to whip out your phone or tablet on site.