rager ... I got quite excited and emailed that company. Here is their extremely thorough response: "we Dillo dirt only. we only level st Augustine grass ". lovely. Seems like there is money to be made in the area as no one either A - knows how to do it or B - wants to do it. Out of curiosity do you remember who you used and what they charged? The picture looks like they did a great job. I'm leaning towards doing it myself and renting some equipment. I've convinced a neighbor to do it with me and rent a bobcat for loading the dirt into the back of a dump trailer pulled by a riding mower than drag it using a homemade drag. Can anyone comment on time of year and if I can do it soon with my backyard already greening up? It would be great to do it at the same time I scalp the yard at the beginning of the season.

When we were a farm family, my husband and I could go through a gallon of tea a day. My mom in law taught me the 'correct' method for making good iced tea when I was a newlywed. ;0) Boil water in a small pan. Remove from heat, pour in about a quarter cup of loose tea leaves (these days I use a couple of family sized tea bags) Allow to steep for 5-10 minutes. Longer seems to make the tea bitter. Pour the tea water through a strainer into a gallon jar 3/4 full of water. Rinse the tea leaves and pour that water into the jar as well. Add water to make a full gallon. Add sugar to taste. Serve over ice. I also love sun tea. Two family sized tea bags, a gallon jar of water, and three hours in the sun. Sweeten to taste and refridgerate.

Ok, here's my super long reply! The sink is a Kindred, made of granite composite material. It's a dark grey color (WONDERFUL for not showing any spots and most stains). It's 31" long, 18" wide (front to back) and 8" deep, single basin. The dining fixture is centered with the window on the far left wall (where your fireplace is; I've got a side window instead). It's NOT lined up with the window in the "dining room" area - several inches off, actually, but I never noticed until I just got up to check. (And I see that in my floorplan it looks like it's lined up with that window - oops!) The clearances to get past the table to the living room are perfect. Plenty of room on both sides of the table (except during holidays when I put that extra leaf in...then I try to push it toward the front wall so you can easily get around the "back" (hallway side) of the table. The noise with the open plan hasn't been a problem for me at all - I've got a 4-year-old and 19-month-old who are regularly running laps around the room screeching at each other. (Who knew opening up the floorplan like that made for the first real circular running path in the house?) When I'm cooking, if they're in the living room watching TV, I've got the TV as my background noise too. My only issue is the dishwasher. We tend to hit the "delay start" button when company is over or when we're just trying to watch a movie in the evenings. But, we didn't spring for a quiet dishwasher either - it was one we bought in '06 when we moved in and just made it work with the remodeled kitchen. When it's time to replace, I'll look for a panel-ready or stainless model that's got reviews for being extra quiet. Now, for outside, like I said, we've JUST closed it in. No siding or even a real door or windows up yet! The picture I'll post was taken several weeks ago and we've made some progress since then, but with waiting for those materials to arrive and it being a project my husband is doing, it's not exactly fast moving. :-). I'll also show you a picture from a few years ago - the door has ALWAYS been off-center. On to the good stuff - pictures! Here's the pictures from the mostly finished kitchen remodel in May of last year. It's probably the cleanest my house has ever been (the day of my son's christening). Imagine many more toys strewn along walls in the living room and a wooden play kitchen in the dining room now. View from the hutch/fireplace area: View of my island - notice how we raised it on the one end - another great mess hider! Mudroom area we built into the kitchen, given where we really enter the house. The small doors are for a pantry we added. Another reason we raised the island on that one side - for the hidden microwave at a slightly higher height than the traditional under-counter ones. The sink I still drool over. Here's a view from the kitchen out toward the dining and living room. That front door will become a doorway with our new enclosed entry. But it's not moving location at all. The original entry with off-center door: And, I know it's a blurry picture (cell phone) and it's off to the side, but here's the addition as it started to take shape. It now has a small porch (about 3' deep) and steps that line up with the door. The porch is covered entirely by the roof overhang (there will also be columns on each side). On that blank-looking wall, we're putting in a 24" x 24" square window, set up high so the top of the window lines up with the top of the door. It helps balance the off-center door within the addition. We may dormer the attic at some point and we'll do different size/shape ones to balance it out even more, but it really doesn't look too bad now. I wish I had a more recent picture for you - maybe if I remember tomorrow morning since it's dark by the time I'm home from work. We laid out a lot with painters tape on the floor (as much as we could since walls were coming down and we pushed the kitchen out about a foot from where it was). Heck, I even set up pieces of cardboard to test our layouts. I was thinking peninsula too, but hated the idea of doing dishes and having to walk around the peninsula, and then around the dining room table to open the front door. My dad threw out the idea of fridge on the front wall and an island with a totally open wall and we loved it. I never would've thought to do it that way. The pantry/entry/2 seats at the island side keeps guests out of my way when I'm cooking - but they can still linger nearby.

Hi, BrokenBitMosaics! Up until August 2014, I was paying a kiln fee of $11 at the local stained glass store to fire my projects, but the store went out of business. I knew that a kiln was going to be an expensive piece of equipment, and I, too, keep repeating "do not need kiln!" A glass kiln was going to cost as much as my husbandâÂÂs annual golf course membership, sooooo I started pricing glass kilns, and purchased a kiln at http://www.clay-king.com/kilnslist.htm . I selected the biggest glass kiln I could, where I would not have to have an electrician install a 240V line. I bought a Skutt HotStart Pro with a viewing window, and I love it! I have to admit, IâÂÂm nervous when I use it. But, I follow the manual instructions to-the-letter, and I have had âÂÂmeltdowns,â but no disaster "meltdowns!" The little feet were so fun to make (and easy!), but I couldnâÂÂt wait to glue them onto the wood frame to keep from losing a toe or 2! The footprints are a single layer of glass, and a "full fuse" in the kiln. Susan Griebel This post was edited by segrieb on Thu, Dec 11, 14 at 11:57