I love my Rosa, America. Love the salmon color and fragrance. Pretty foliage too. It is growing up on my wattle fence at the back of my cottage rose garden. In my zone, it does not die back. I mulch most of my roses heavily for winter with soil and wood chips, then pull it back in spring. Our soil has winter heave - freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw all winter long and in early spring. I mulch deeply to prevent my roses' roots from being exposed due to the heaving. My Rosa. America has not required any spraying. No muss, no fuss. I don't grow roses that can't take my climate and require a lot of work. Experiment and see what YOU think. It may be just the thing for you. (BTW, I bought mine from WalMart for $4...cash and carry) I order from Countryside Roses and the Antique Rose Emporium too, but I never pass up a good rose just because it happens to be from WalMart or any other store's garden center. I bought a yellow Lady Banks rose from Lowe's one year. It was on the "discount rack" dying a very sad and ugly way. It had downy mildew and some other god-awful problem, but I still wanted to try to bring it back to life. According to the tag and professional rose growers, Lady Banks is not supposed to be grown in zone 6b. But, I took it home, washed it with Tide and water and cleaned all the yuck off and it recovered quickly. It grew 6 feet the first year and then shot up to the porch pillars by the following year. It now covers half of my front porch - I have had it for over 10 years. It does not require any spraying, mulching, it does not die back and it doesn't even need watering. Occasionally, I need to prune it back because it's canes invade the porch sitting area. It has survived several years of above normal summer temps and drought, and our severe winter weather deep freezes and ice storms. So if you like Rosa, America, buy it, plant it and see how it does for you in your garden and your climate. sweetannie4u

I have a HAH and absolutely love it. It has worked flawlessly for over 3 years in our 3400 square foot home. When our friends that have traditional systems installed take a look at our hose retracting automatically, their jaws drop. I have seen the Hose Magic system, now called the Dock-it. It is a much heavier hose, and unlike the HAH, uses a motor and geared system to pull the hose back into the wall. The main thing that I don't like about this system is that the access door for the hose is huge and difficult to conceal compared with the HAH outlet. We installed our HAH system only for the upstairs portion of our house. The 60 foot hose covers all of the upstairs plus 3/4 of our down stairs, around 3000 square feet. The total installation, with tools and a carpet head was $1795.00.

All this discussion, did I miss where someone mentioned climate? It is a factor. For instance, here in the South ceiling fans are never outre, except perhaps among a subset who keep their houses sealed up and the HVAC running practically 24/7/52. For most of us, they perform a very important function and thus are very appropriate. Flgargoyle, I'm in Georgia and have a fan over my island, 9' ceiling. It's not at all hard to keep clean, and it takes some while before it needs me to climb on the counter with paper towels and spray cleaner. Note that this is the first time it's occurred to me to wonder what the bacteria count up there in between cleanings might be, but I won't be taking a swab to have it tested, or of the ceiling for that matter, because if it came to it I'd absolutely choose cooking with open windows, breezes, birdsong and an occasional Imodium to the alternative. Especially since we don't seem to have a problem. The biggest problem I am aware of with it is that it'll blow my onion and garlic skins all over the kitchen if I start chopping with it on high.

sklka--the housekeeper would take care of the pool. (I have cleaners who come every other week and take care of the filth in the house--I call her a housekeeper for lack of a better word, but I guess 'sanity saver' isn't a job title, but she mostly doesn't clean.) Also, I think anyone with children who doesn't have a very strong system is in the same category as people who leave loaded pistols in their nightstands around small children. It's not a matter of "comfort." It's a matter of actual risk. I'm fortunate that I could write a check for the pool right now. :) My business is finally doing very well. I do want to save for an au pair, though, as that's the only possible way I can have a 4th child and not go crazy. I can work pretty well with a baby on my lap (and have done so with three), but I do need some breathing time. My husband is not a fan of moving. (Also, Hitler was a bad man.) I doubt we will ever leave this house. I'm overimproving for the neighborhood, but I so don't care. If I'm staying here forever (and my husband has been told by multiple upper-level managers that he's considered a core member of the company and they will do anything within reason to keep him--he's famous enough in his field that his name on contracts brings money), I'm going to have the house I want. Even if he loses his job, there are companies lined up to poach him. Even if all that falls apart, I'm the primary breadwinner, and he could just create products on his own and I could support him while his business takes off. My husband was emotionally attached to our first crappy apartment in NM without working AC, to give you an idea of how much he gets attached to places. And he hated New Mexico. tcufrog--we will have the fence as well. The cover is backup and for particularly determined neighborhood children who might decide to take a swim. The alarm system will be hardwired and integrated into the design. Locks up top only works until a kid can reach them on a stepladder, though that's where we'll place them, anyway. Mine are...exceptionally inventive. ourgeorgiahouse--I know what drowning looks like. :) I've taken water safety courses and am a certified diver, so I've done some basic water rescue practice, too. The fact is that if my poor kids depend on me to TAKE them to the pool, it will happen at most 6 times a season. Now that I have a FT housekeeper, that can be more often, though at a sacrifice of other things. The pools are a good distance away, especially those that don't completely suck for children. "square or rectangle, and larger (believe it or not). Put a large bank of straight-edge steps, and sitting shelves in a couple of places where the water is deep so there is the ability to get out of the deep end as well." The diving well can't have any obstacles, but I do have a shelf planned along the rest of the pool. Even in the 3.5' deep area. And yes, it's angular. A true L. The baja shelf is on the short leg of the L. There will be no pool without a safety cover!