Kelli, I followed the link to your blog, but didn't see a good close-up picture of the problem with your lettuce. However, I often have store-bought transplants lose a leaf or three when I place them in my SFG. As long as the rest of the plant appears healthy, I don't worry about it. I'd remove the yellowed leaves, because they aren't helping the plant, then watch to see how the lettuce does over the next couple of weeks. There "could" be other problems, including that the transplants weren't hardened off before being planted, water issues, etc... but I wouldn't assume any of those unless the plant has real problems. You may want to look up what the planting season is for bibb lettuce in your area. If your daily temperatures are really high, it may already be too warm for bibb lettuce to grow well in your area. I've learned that the garden centers here in Florida sell seedlings based on the retail calendar and not really on the planting calendar for my area.

Here's another old GW thread on reducing sound transmission. Incidentally, one company that manufactures both solid core and hollow doors published figures showing very little difference in sound transmission between their two offerings. To really effect a difference, you would have to move up to door and frame units such as these. (This is an example only. Not advertising!) Fitting the door tightly with no undercutting is key. In one home I built with an eye to reducing sound transmission, I used expanding foam between the door jambs and house framing. I also use slip-on foam covers on all supply pipes.

What you want is adjustability that the built-in control apparently doesn't provide. Since the vendor isn't able to accomplish anything, I would suggest a variation on the theme they did mention. Rather than poking holes in the main air-tube (where's the control in that?) I suggest splicing a same-diameter T-fitting into it. Lead the tube you've tee'd off to a place where you can reach it and affix a valve to the end of it that you can adjust full-closed to full-open or anywhere in between. The air-pump won't care and you'll have control. Stupid situation, though. I'd be in the vendor's face over it.

We listed in May of 2007 with a local realtor with a good reputation who had been in the business for a few years. Our asking price was $10k less than the house two doors away which was a bit smaller than ours and did not have a new kitchen, bath, and other features ours had. We saw three houses that were in our neighborhood, one listed at $5k more than ours and the other two listed even higher sell in the first 3 months we had ours listed. I'm very realistic and just knew that ours wasn't being marketed effectively. Also, I could look at the good and bad in our home and knew ours was in much better condition and in a better location than two of the three that sold. Two of them were on a busy street while ours was on one of the most desired streets in our town. We ended up cancelling our listing after promises similar to yours of people who were "really interested" never materialized. We were going to forget about moving for awhile and relax about the whole selling situation. However, I saw an article in a local paper the week after our listing was cancelled about a real go-getter in the RE business. She didn't promise to sell in any specified amount of time but this woman sold houses that others didn't, even after being listed for months. Two months after listing with her and having had three times as many showings as we had in 7 months with the other realtor, we sold our home. The couple who bought our house wanted to look at it after driving by, they hadn't been looking in our area but our home caught their eye. Their realtor called ours after hours and they saw the house at 9:00 P.M. on a Saturday night because they were scheduled to fly home the next morning. When she asked me if I would leave the dining room drapes, I knew we had sold our home. She said she walked in and knew that was it. We had come down in price about $40k, but it was only 5% of our original asking price so I was happy to sell when we did. We had also cancelled a contract we had on another home that we were going to build when our home didn't sell with our original realtor. In the long run, we ended up getting a bit less for our home, but we also bought our new home for less than we would have and received even more builders' incentives so in the long run, things worked out for the best. I know that is hard to hear but I kept telling myself that everything happens for a reason and it is true. We just need a lot of patience to believe that and keep telling yourself that whatever happens is meant to be. I'm not making light of the situation for those who have to sell and haven't been able to but I really do believe everything happens the way it's supposed to in life. If you're not happy with your realtor, evaluate the situation and think about finding a new one if you don't think they are doing their job. Take a good, hard look at your home with a critical eye and ask your friends to tell you what you can do to improve your home. We had friends offer excellent advice but because we lived with it on a daily basis, we never saw our home the way others did. Most of all, your home has to be priced right. I've noticed in the area we left, homes have come down an average of 5 to 7% since we left and some of them were on the market at the same time ours was. If it's not priced right, it won't sell, no matter how nice it is. Good luck to everyone and may the new year bring you a buyer for your home!