A needle palm might be your best bet for a first year palm. It needs some protection in your zone (despite claims of it being cold tolerant to -20F) and you should look to buy online from someone in a temperate climate if possible (such as NC, VA, TN, GA, etc). E-bay has a few needle palms and I remember seeing some nice sized ones for sale on it. Needle palms dont trunk (technically it does, but its not a very nice looking trunk). If you really want to push the elements, try a Chamaedora microspadix or Chamaedora radicalis. They are only cold tolerant to 20F, but eventually can survive down to 15F, maybe close to 10F in protected conditions, but it will be damaged. They have a slender trunk and they look very tropical. They will never get too tall. Plant in shade though, especially near your house for some added heat. Trachys will eventually get tall, but it takes a very long time from a small size (over 10 years from seedling stage). Many palms with trunks get pretty tall so there arent a huge amount of options for a trunking, short growing, cold hardy palm. The palms and cycads forum could maybe help a little too. -Alex

Xine, I'm not too concerned about BofA, although dishonesty and not playing fair doesn't sit well with me. What I am concerned about is being a pawn in someone else's game. And if there is something dishonest going on with the first contract, I would like it to be declined by the bank. The home is wayyyyyyy underpriced, suspicously underporiced.........nothing in the neighborhood has sold for less than $140,000 (not even the towhomes one street over). And this home is in far nicer condition, on a larger lot, and newer than most of the others. I am prepared to up my offer to the bank, I just want a fair shake at it. I honestly don't believe that the agent/broker ever really intended to sell it on the MLS, I think everything has possibly been pre-arranged w/ the seller, including possibly cash on the side. (the seller purchased it as an 80/20 and HAD a second mortgage, which has mysteriously disappeared...she has been in dire financial straights and there was no way she could have paid that off on her own) I think the house might just be on the MLS to put a show on for the bank. Being encouraged (by the listing agent) to put in a backup offer is not fair play if this is all just a pre-arranged investor game. As for my financial housing situation...My current house is prepped and ready for sale, I just won't put it on the market until I have another house to go to. (I have 2 large dogs and a cat and being put in the position to have to find a rental that will want my menagerie does not seem feasible) My current home has no mortgage, and the new home is to be a cash purchase...so no mortgages are involved on either side of my housing equation.

Update: I called the guy at the stoneyard (the nice, helpful one), and asked him if he could track down a remnant of a dif. slab from my lot. He did, but it won't be cut until mid next week, so I won't know if it's white/dark/etc. until then. I made sure to get the info of that fabricator, and the salesman also was calling my fabricator with the info. I just don't trust my fabricator to be honest. While I was waiting for the confirmation on remnants from that guy, I called the owner and expressed my utter dissatisfaction. Overall, I'd say that didn't go well in terms of his responsiveness. I told him I was appalled that I was asked to pay the balance. He didn't think that it was that off-base to ask me to pay since they are out money too. (Mind you I did pay 1/2 my total so far.) I made it clear that I will not be paying the balance until the job is complete and right. He's trying to say something to the effect of "Well, how much isn't done?" As if that matters. The fact is it is not done since they made errors. I don't think he was too happy that I was attempting to track down a remnant either. I again noted that my 1st slab was sold, and that I had to settle on this slab, to which he says if I don't like this slab I should have never got it. (My point apparently went right past his head.) Obviously I like this slab, but I liked my 1st slab better. I tried to explain that my deposit was put down knowing I was getting that specific slab. I noted that I also had to settle on their sink installation or risk it looking worse. I was sure to tell him about my interactions with the saleswoman. I explained that she was treating me poorly, and I'm not sure if she just treats everyone this way, or just me because I look young, have a small kitchen, etc. He said they've never had a complaint about her (who knows if that's true or not). I told him I will no longer deal with her because I will lose my cool. So anyway, I tried to install my bathroom faucet yesterday, and guess what now? The holes are drilled a bit uneven, so when I put in the faucet and handles (widespread) there's a larger gap between the faucet and cold water handle than the hot water handle. Part of the problem is the mounting piece for the faucet that doesn't give much room to center better. I think drilling the center hole a little larger will be an easy fix... But, while attempting the install of the faucet, I got to look real closely at that counter area. Apparently when they drilled the holes, they lost control of the drill and the bit dinged/gouged the sink counter 5 times between the hot water and center holes! (They are rounded divots.) They are pretty hard to see in the photo, but in real life they are pretty deep. I just can't win with this company! I can't believe I can't find any reviews online for them (positive or negative). I am tempted to join Angie's list just to see if there's any. I'm still waiting to call the owner to explain my new bathroom counter issues. I just don't think this is going to go well. I am thinking about giving him the option to work with me or letting him know I will go ahead and get a 3rd party (BBB). I was ready to let them know I wouldn't even worry about the remnant, and I'd just use that left piece pictured above. Now I think I will wait to at least see the remnant; it's only a few more days. Any new advice?

I worked for a Investment House (now collapsed) during the Boom Years and specialized in Structured Finance. Needless to say, this is a topic I know pretty well. Originally, this boom "started" when Alan Greenspan cut the Federal Reserve Interest Rates due to the Dot Com Crash & 9/11. Our country was in a bit of a minor rescission, and he was looking to stimulate the economy. Now there had always been "Subprime" Lending. And some of it was being Securitized and Packaged into "ABS" (an Asset Backed Security) or MBS. But most of it was actually held in Banks Portfolios, and funded with Depositors Money. Around 2003, this started to change. Investment Banks started hearing demand from investors for higher-yield products, that would track the worlds indices (like the Treasury Yields, or LIBOR) and their main products that seemed to function for this box was Home Loans, Auto Leases & Car Notes, and... Corporate Debt. At this same time.... many huge Mortgage Lenders... Ameriquest, New Century, Washington Mutual, Countrywide, Option One... were having record mortgage sales, thanks to the lower interest rates and homeowners lining up to Refi, but.. they knew the business would begin to slow down dramatically in Late 2003, and Early 2004. They realized if they wanted to meet their shareholders demands and keep up with the earnings, they'd have to start offering new products. And... companies like mine, were willing to provide tons of capital to temporarily fund these alternative, and subprime loans. We were also more than willing to purchase them, and were fighting with other Investment Banks, all competing to buy these loans to be packaged into ABS and MBS. Everyone was trying to beat each other on Premiums and Yields for these loans. One of the most popular ones were the 2/28's. Which simply means, the first two years of your home loan is "Fixed"... during the "Hybrid" Period, and than it converts to a high priced Adjustable Rate based off an Index. Usually the Six Month LIBOR. And they could reset 2 or 3% higher than your initial rate on the first Reset, than.. usually an additional 1% higher six months later. The Margins on these loans were made to almost guarantee an adjustment would occur, even if rates stagnated. Although... that didn't really happen. The Federal Reserve kept on upping the Prime Rate. And World Markets Followed. The biggest problem with these loans... was they were never designed to be actually kept by the Homeowner. They were originally designed to be refinanced out of and deliver returns to the Mortgage Company. They were truly made to give a steady stream of Refinances to the mortgage lender. Supposedly in theory, the Two Year Period would allow the Homeowner to pay off Credit Card Debt, and allow their Credit Score to recover and get them into a better loan... but often the actual homeowner would go back on a spending spree and never think much of it. So they were still "Subprime" and locked into a endless cycle of these 2/28 Mortgages. What really happened, in my mind was a few things. You see.... pretty much everyone, assumed that home prices would always go up. And as long as they did... these loans would be refinanced, and there would never be any reason to worry about "Payment Shock", and "Poor Performance" from homeowners. Nothing would ever go wrong as long as the underlying value (property) kept going up. The underwriters at the mortgage companies slept at night, knowing all of this stuff would be refi'd out of before payments adjusted. But... Home Prices in Southern California, Parts of FL, and NV.... started to stagnate, and even fall in 2006. Far before most of the country got to their 2007 Peaks. When these people could no longer serial refinance. When they could no longer refinance out of the higher payments they could never truly afford in the first place... things really got bad. The worst part was... many of these ABS, and MBS Deals that were constructed... contained large portions of loans from Cali, FL, and NV, and AZ. So... when these particular markets... (which were supposed to be "regional") all started to go bad in late 2006, and early 2007.... losses started to hit badly on the lower-level certificates. Even worse... was Investment Banks begin to demand buybacks for loans that had defaulted from the Mortgage Companies... (Countrywide, Ameriquest, New Century, etc)... and these Mortgage Companies really didn't have clear answers, nor the capital to repay them. So they were beginning to go bankrupt. Investors... who had always seen wonderful returns and performance in the 2004, and early 2005 deals... begin to question the soundness of their investments from 2005 and 2006... and started drawing back in 2007. It took until about mid-August for everyone to eventually lose confidence in what are called the "Non-Agency" MBS. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The entire thing feel apart in 2007, because of delinquencies that were not modeled begin to affect certain low-level tranches of these Investment... that were assumed wouldn't fail. The Investors begin to become unsure about the entire model that had been formed and used. And just didn't want to risk any more money in the market. Now... what a lot of people don't know is... These low-level certificates, often times were not rated at all, or if they were rated, they were noted as "Speculative". The Actual "Original" Mortgage-Backed-Securities & Asset-Backed-Securities, with Senior Tranches rated "AAA" have all been mostly repaid, and less than 2% of them have had ratings downgraded. Because in the pass-through-structure of these deals, they were entitled to repayments first. So... "AAA" wasn't all lies, as people are led to believe. The real problem came from people who held the lower-level certificates, that no one wanted. This was supposed to the be cash from "making the deal" and was supposed to be retained by the Sponsor.. or person who made the MBS. In Essence, it was free money... but impossible to sell on it's own. Many of these certificates did benefit from something called "excess interest".. which was extra cash flow from higher level certificates... but if losses happened, they were the first to take it. Some investment houses begin to package these leftover "residuals" into new securities, that the world know understands as "CDO's". But at first... the structure worked. Many analysts believed, it was impossible for tons of MBS Deals to have underlying certificates all go bad at the same time. And the deals were so diversified.. sometimes containing the underlying bonds of 400 or so Mortgage Deals... that it was just assumed nothing could go wrong. And the Senior Certificates of these Deals, did obtain high ratings. Even though... they contained nothing but Junk-Bonds from residuals of Mortgage Deals. Truth be told though... many of these CDO deals didn't go bad until Late 2007 and the early months of 2008. I might post more later. But.. it's a topic I do like to share when I can. If anyone is curious, feel free to message me or post. :)