Thanks for responding.. to answer your questions.. there are large sections of our lawn covered in those weeds in pic #1.. i thought i uploaded a pic, but it looks like it didn't make it, so i attached it with this post. it's like a field of those weeds.. i'm overwhelmed, since i thought it might be feasible to remove them by hand.. there are also patches of crab grass everywhere. there is a large patch of the tallish weeds in pic #2 as well. we understood that seeding now isn't ideal, but our landscaper said that since we have a sprinkler system we could water it a lot and it might work better because we then could try to control any issues with run off due to our slope. as for dethatching - we were told it would help remove weeds and then that it would help increase the soil to seed contact and loosen up the soil. Of course, they dethatched 2 weeks ago and haven't put down loam or seed since, so i'm not sure what the point was now. as for chemical applications.. i have to say that i want to believe that round up is safe, but even if it is.. the monsanto business practices i've read about just make me want to avoid them. are there other alternatives? i'm not completely against it, i just want to understand if i have other options. i'm thinking we need to halt this process right now and deal with the weeds. with my luck, we'll get a truck load of loam tomorrow though. thanks for the responses.. please let me know if you have any other thoughts about our lawn.

>> Tdegen, Im curious through your readings if they addressed on tankless water heater installs, where the incoming water is extremely cold even in the warmer months, how that effects performance. I know it was a problem in the early tankless days, wondering if it still is. Thanks! Everything that I read indicated that the gpm (gallons per minute) decreased proportionally with how much you wanted to raise the temperature of the water. Assuming that most water coming into the house is around 50 degrees and you want a hot shower (about 105 degrees), you want to raise the temp about 55 degrees. This would give you a flow rate of 5.5 gpm. On the other hand, if you have really cold intake water and you want *really* hot water - and want to raise the temperature by 80 degrees, your gpm would drop to 2.2. Every tank is different, the more you pay for the tank, the less gpm is affected. All tankless heaters are rated in this fashion and you should be able to get the exact figures of the model you are looking at buying. The best thing that you can do for yourself is to try to figure out how many gallons per minute you would like to use on average and how important it is for you to be at a certain temperature with a certain water pressure. That is, I like my showers hot, and I like the water pressure high. So all of my calculations will be based on my shower. If my washing machine takes a little longer to fill up, I don't really care. For things like radiant floor heating or maybe a jacuzzi... that's something out of my purview. On a side note: unless you want to be cleaning the heater every month, you will probably want to buy slightly larger heater than what you need. No matter how clean your water is, you'll still get some calcium build-up on the heating elements. This will lower your gpm slightly. I'd suggest buying about 10% over what you expect to use.

mom - what a delightful thing to find when I check in! Here we are a couple of years later and I'm still really happy with it. I don't know if it's too late, and I don't know what remains of the old postings about lessons learned, so here's a recap: If you're buying less expensive slate, make sure and buy 1/4 more than you need. A lot of it will be unusable. But even with that it's still a bargain. It will also let you choose the stones that you really love because they're gorgeous. If you like the multicolor look buy a few boxes of a lighter color. Most of ours were grey/purple/red, and we added some boxes of green/gold. It really makes a difference. Before the installers arrive open all the boxes and sort through them. I did it in our driveway. One pile for unusable (some had these weird sharp extrusions that I didn't want underfoot, or really sharp edges where pieces had flakes off.) If you don't want to walk on it, put it in this pile Another pile for partially usable, to use when they need to cut smaller pieces. Then sort the rest into special pretty, light colored, medium colored, dark colored, and grey/black. And in my case, green/gold. We were doing an entryway, galley kitchen, and open dining area and decided to put all the grey/black in the entryway. Then I picked where the special pretty were going to go - one on each side of the dishwasher, a couple in the traffic area between the dining and kitchen. Put them where you'll see them Then I told the installers to take one from each pile, then from the next pile, and so on. Once they got it they were really good about not putting two that looked the same next to each other. If you look at my floor in the picture up top you'll see it's nicely laid out. I'd also suggest washing the tiles really well before they're installed. I had to wash them well inbetween install and grouting and some of them - the more reddish ones - had a lot of mud on them. You can also get more of a sense of the color. I used a matte sealer; the next time I scrub it I'm going to add a shinier layer (Holloway House, recommended by people here.) I tried it in the entryway and I like the light sheen it adds. You will not be able to use a sponge mop except for light cleanup (like in the winter when there's salt in the snow.) I still use the Hoover Floormate - pour on hot water and some cleaner, scrub a little with a stiff pushbroom, and then suck up all the water. It doesn't show dirt at all. Sort through all the tiles

I have a large office type desk for my sewing machine.it has 5 drawers in it,then across the room i have a conference table that DH made leg extensions for so it would be counter height.I do a lot of sewing and quilting as well. If money and space was no object,i'd like to have one of the larger size kitchen islands in the center of my floor for cutting,and i'd like it to have lots of drawers underneath for storage.I would keep my machine as is,as it is in front of a large window that looks out over my gardens. When i want to do other work at my desk,i just shove my machine to the back of the desk.I also have my serger set up on my cutting table at one end,and i did this so that i would have to get up to use it,and that way i'm not continually sitting.I always stand up to serge.Of course my iron board is at the other end of the room. I plan to redo my room in the next few months,and have already started weeding it out.But unfortunately i still won't be able to afford the counter.Oh well,i'll survive,at least i have a designated room for my sewing and crafts. kathi