Our wall was finished up today, so I thought I should follow up on this in case someone finds it later so this isn't just left "hanging". I also wanted to share pictures because we're so excited about it. Now, ever since we moved into this house, we have had serious flooding issues out front due to the poor street paving work we were left with (Thanks, City of Atlanta!) Then there was the stupid mound in front of the house which didn't do much of anything worthwhile except collect weeds. Any time we rec'd any significant downpour (more than a half an inch in 1-2 hours), the result was a "lake" in front of the house that left us unable to park. It would fill up until it reached our sidewalk, at which time it would overflow down the sidewalk, right down into our beds, which resulted in the death of several salvia last year due to waterlogging. When I say "lake", I'm not kidding....this is at least 6"-8" deep: Well, after posting this thread, we (unexpectedly) got a solid contractor lead from it, and the real green light was a solid reference for this contractor we'd received from another member (thanks, GGG, for everything!) The contractor we chose was GW member 'vroomp', or Brad in real life, and his company DCR, Inc. I was not kidding about the previous contractors we contacted above over the past couple of years - if we got a call back, most wouldn't show up, and this led to so much delay. It was amazing - out of probably three dozen phone calls to Brad, the only time he didn't actually pick up was on a Sunday at 9pm, and, really, I wouldn't have answered either! He was literally at our house within a day or two to walk through the plans and give us options, hash out ideas, toss out suggestions. It was quite refreshing, a huge change from what we were accustomed to. What started out as a small 30'-40' wall wound up finding its way up to 62', and then almost 75' .... our fault, of course - the neighbors wanted to join forces and have the wall spread between both yards. I imagine we were the nightmare customers from hell - changing lengths, changing shapes, took us a while to pick out the stone, we couldn't decide on lighting or drains, etc. Through the process, Brad was really communicative and very sensitive to issues and changes we needed to make along the way, and *incredibly* respectful of our budgeting desires, and held his cool even when our neighbors and I couldn't get our crap straight on budgeting (again - thanks Brad!!) We got everything sorted out. He even tossed in a couple of extras including sealing the back of the wall and adding an additional drain for the neighbors, which was not in the original plan. The end result is bigger and better than we'd expected, and the wall has already become a fixture to hang out on and chat with the neighbors and relax with friends, rivalled only by our deck. For pictures of our flooding issues and the mound itself, in all of its (ha ha) glory, check out this gallery page For a couple more pictures of the mound, and the wall before and after it was veneered out, check out this gallery page Since the wall was constructed, we have not had a single issue with flooding, in fact, the drain works like a champ and the sea outs we have growing at the base of our rather steep yard's slope (back/rear of the house) couldn't be happier about the additional water. All in all, the pictures speak for themselves, but I really felt it was necessary to come in and share my experience. I know this was a small job for Brad in comparison to what he's accustomed to, but we're really grateful for his taking it on, and regardless of how small it was, he treated us as if we were spending ten times what we actually did (and again - if you're reading this - THANKS.) We've already sent two of our friends his way, and they've had good experiences as well. I'll post more pictures of the wall in this thread as it gets planted out. We're waiting on stone to revive/refurb the original granite curb that exists throughout our neighborhood, and some fill dirt and mulch to bring the soil level up just a tad. The ultimate goal is to fill/amend, landscape mat, then plant with edibles...cherry and plum trees, blueberries, cranberries and several natives for the fill-in between. The end result:

Thanks, everyone. The centerpiece is a little silly looking, I know. But I just HAD to do something other than Valentine's Day. I don't know what's wrong with me this year. It just seemed like there were so many Valentine's Day tables popping up everywhere. And they started appearing about January 15th. So, I just couldn't get my heart and mind around it. My grandchildren keeping asking where my valentine decorations are. Do you suppose I'm getting to old (cranky) to enjoy Valentine's Day. Oh, my! Jeanne, That picture is a kick. I think it would be fun to do something like that for our annual Fourth of July party. Luvs recently sent me a link to a tutorial for making outdoor backdrops. The idea could be adapted into something like you posted above. I am a big fan of PVC construction: cheap, no special tools required, light-weight and portable. So, the put-your-head-in-here picture is something I can run with. Here is a link that might be useful: Link from Luvs

when i was in college i too could not get help because i moved out at 18, to make it worse i had to make good $$ to support myself in chicago. my parents were CPA's, they could easily afford it but i would not study finance/accounting so i was left out. i ended up working full time, going to school part-time and by the time i turned 24 was making too much $$ to qualify and had become accustomed to finer things and couldn't cut back on the work $$. took me forever to finish but i paid it off w/in each semester, took out no loans and finished w/ a house full of designer clothes and furniture lol. i got no counseling in high school about financial aid or scholarships, even thou i graduated in the top 3% of my class and would have done things very differently if i had known better. growing up in a family of accountants i was improperly steered away from loans or credit cards of any kind. i would have taken out a loan and gone to school full-time and tried to find scholarships. oh well i learned ALOT and have done very well for myself and really i mean by myself lol. my dh started back to college a few yrs ago part-time to change degrees. luckily his county job paid for 2 classes a semester and he did that for 4 yrs while working full-time. he recently left his job and starts going full-time this mon. working on an accelerated masters (dual BS/MS) in engineering. we make too much $$ to qualify for anything but stafford loans. because he's white and 37 yrs old he doesn't qualify for most scholarships or any aid, even thou he has an A+ average. he only gets $500 in scholarships (buys 1 book) per semester. but he will make over $90K a yr when done so it's more than worth having to get $20-30K in federal low interest loans, he'll pay off in 2 yrs. we are very very lucky that we have no credit card debt, no car loans owed, we both make good $$ and i have $200K in home equity plus plenty of savings and retirement. i would like for him to get some sort of reward for his academic achievements in the form of scholarships but considering the starting pay at the end and the internships paying $20 per hr he's up for, i shouldn't complain i guess. when he is done w/ his MS i will go back and get my MS, you can not get ahead very far w/out advanced degrees in our fields of engineering, biology and chemistry. i would advise them to just get loans but be very smart about them. kids graduating today grossly underestimate how little they will earn at first and how extremely expensive it is to live in major cities. in these days (sure makes me sound old LOL) there are few jobs where a BS degree isn't requirred and once you have that job you have to continue education just to keep up w/ your competition in the market. i hope they figure out how to stay in school! ~ liz

Since these cabinets have sentimental value to them, there's no way that I would do a kludge fix to them like gel staining. Gelstaining is for someone who is selling and moving. It's not really staining, and in fact obscures the grain pattern of the wood because of the high solids content. It's a work-around for cheap cabinets, not a solution to at all be considered for someone in your situation with something well made and sentimental to you. Treat them like fine furniture. I would take off the doors, number them, and find a local furniture refinisher who has a dip tank. Have the finish removed and then have them properly restained and finished with a catalyzed varnish. You can work on the frames yourself to save a little money, but have the refinisher do the staining and finishing for your so everything matches.