DON B -- Oh, you mean digging up the raw turf by back-breaking hand, schlepping about 600 lbs. of topsoil in 30 lb. bags for my garden and the Neighbor's Plot, having to impress upon the 20s-something son of the Chinese Upstairs Next Door Neighbor why it's not cool to litter the sidewalk and porch with cigarette butts (maybe gathering them and putting them on his porch gave him a hint?), having to endure kitschy plastic pinwheels and 99 cent store wooden signs ("Garden!", "Spring!") put into new Neighbor's Plot garden, having a beautiful white limestone rock STOLEN from hosta tree garden, having nearly every passer-by praising the gardens, having the "landscape workers" trample fencing, plants and I.D. tags, having to cover the "dangerous" sharp edge of the Adirondack fencing with split foam tubing, having to replace the "dangerous" wrought-iron trellis for my clematis with swim noodles mounted on bamboo stakes, having my hosta garden plowed under by a vicious co-op manager for no reason, having to bump out an extension, apply topsoil and all the other goodies, plant, and water a new place for my hosta by cover of night----you mean THAT blog?? Don't have time for that blog--too busy living it!

I've gotta tell you about our 1922 beach cottage made of spit and bubblegum. PO's? There must have been a PO for every year of the house's life. It seems that we are the first owners who planned to stay a while, without renting it out. It has gorgeous views, a beautiful beach and is in a very desirable second home and rental home beach community. So po's buy it, rent it for big bucks, never put a dime into it, and sell it-they then buy their 'real' second home. It was the cheapest, shabbiest, and only affordable house on Lake Shore Drive, so we bought it. 1. It's on a dune, and still sits on a two foot tall iffy crawl space. The walls of the foundation have holes. We found brand new boxes of floor jacks (to hold up the floors) in the crawl sp. Pre-sale, the inspector could not inspect the contents of the crawl because it was jammed with 80 years of stuff, deliberately. 2. Crawl contains the plenum (thingy which distributes heat and a/c to the various rooms), lying on its side and connected to the furnace in the first floor util room. Two of the four second floor bedrooms are unheated and un a/c'ed because the plenum is too far from the rooms. There are no chases, no ducts going to these bedrooms. I'm afraid room air conditioners will blow the knob and tube upstairs wiring. 3. There is no real drywall or plaster, just wallpaper smoothed out over paneling. Only thin paneling over random studs. 4. The floor under the second floor toilet was rotted, a common occurence I've been told. The metal linen cabinets in the solo upstairs bath were rusted, dented, disgusting. The shower was uh, kind of blue and rust colored. It was worse than fourth world countries' bathroom facilities. We gutted to the random studs, searched for elec in the most unexpected places, and remodeled into a beautiful room. 5. Bedrooms measured 7X9, 8X9, 9X9 and the master is 9X15 with a sloped ceiling, from 6.5' to 7' high. No upstairs ceiling is taller than 6.5'+. Painted paneling with many, many holes. Had to remove closet doors:they were gerryrigged and never fit. 6. Oh, yes, the popcorn ceiling panels collapsed in two bedrooms. Fixed it once and after the second collapse, we installed new drywall ceilings upstairs. 7. Instead of having regular can ceiling lights in the bedrooms, they had shower lights, which gave off, oh, 10 watts of dim. 8. The walls bow a bit, here and there. 9. The floors have holes but I covered every square inch with inexpensive laminate which looks great and has a few bouncy spots. A marble rolls on the floor from one end of the house to the other in a split second! 10. We have fixed most of the major things and it is now a cute cottage, but The afterthought utility room which holds the furnace, some water pipes and the water heater has a 13" wide door. However, the diameter of the water heater is 18". This may be the year when we create a new door from the wall of the util room to the outside of the house, to replace the water heater, whenever, not if. Still, 6 years later, some money, lots of effort, it's delightful and in great demand by family and friends. Oh, btw, dh and I went there for N.Y. Eve and a big snowstorm hit and we had to evacuate quickly, because, among other reasons, the only way to get down and out, would be like sliding down an olympic luge, aka known as high flights of stairs, unevenly spaced stairs. We went to the casino hotel and had a great time! Bev

I don't believe in poltergeists... OTOH, it could be you've got gremlins ; ) Whatever it is, it's not good. The countertops are a nerve wracking part of a kitchen, that being said they will turn out gorgeous and everything will go smoothly for you, I know it! Please send good vibes because there is no more of my quartzite. Thankfully I have 3 slabs so I'm hoping it's going to be ok. I really look forward to your end result. You really do have a sharp eye for nice detail! This flooring better be "all that." Or you have my permission to just kill 'em. Or take it all to the COO's office and have it unloaded in his foyer. And sit on it, waving your arms screaming at everyone getting off the elevator, "YOU SAID IT WOULD BE PERFECT!!!!!" "PERFECT, you said!!!!" Hahaha. Maybe what I'll have to do is get all the GW people to descend on the manufacturer's offices in PA. We'll have a sit in. LOL. The cabinets are beautiful! Can’t wait to see everything. Just curious, how much space do you have between the island and perimeter cabinets? I’m a little nervous we have too much. Thank you. I have 50.25" between cabinets on the cooktop wall right now. Once the counters are in, that will leave me with 47.25". The distance between the island the the counter run by the prep sink wall is 44.5" which means I'll wind up with 41.5". I want to thank everyone for allowing me to vent here. I'm so stressed over all of this and will be until my final floor is installed.

Super excited to get this new agave I just order today. A little more than I wanted to pay but I never saw one like this. Agave Cubic is an interesting cultivar with bizarre ridges on the back of most of the leaves, resulting in some of them having a three or four angled appearance. Plants need winter protection when temperatures dip down into the high 20’s F. This plant is a mutated monstrose form of Agave potatorum. Marginal spines can grow on up to all four of the leaf sides. The leaves grow as if 2 leaves are fused together forming a square shape. Grow this plant in full sun to partial shade. Picture are from Esty seller Succulent Cabin; All photos are of the same plant and the one I purchased.