This year, my WOW plantings will be later then in the past - my garden is under 2' of snow (first time ever in Feb). As such, I just started my seeds. Normally, I like to plant in mid-March, starting seeds in mid-Jan to mid-Feb, so perhaps I'll plant at the end of March. With a mid-March planting, I don't quite fill the WOW tubes, maybe fill 3/4 full, so the tubes close more at the top. They rarely seem to totally close, so if a snow storm comes, I take rubber bands and close the tops. When the storm passes, I remove the binders. As the weather warms, I fill the tubes completely so the WOW opens more. I think a tunnel would work better for my use, as I put out about 30 WOWs, tiring on the back!! Seems so much easier to just create tunnels. With tunnels, I could plant ALL of my plants early, instead of only the quantity of WOWs I have. I also lay black plastic near the WOWs. This serves two purposes - less mud to track around because we can walk on the plastic and it helps to warm the soil. Straw also helps retain the heat at the root area. I also think the plants grow incredible roots while sitting in the WOWs, or whatever product is used as a season extender. I have had plants get top growth damage from the cold/snow, but the advance on root development helps the plants recover quickly, once the WOW is removed.

Consult a structural engineer. You will be retrofitting steel to a ancient structure that has very likely done a lot of settling. You are asking the rest of the framing to conform to a very straight unyeilding hunk of steel. The steel will need to be supported at the ends; likely the engineer will want very large footers and steel columns to bear the load instead of the old foundation. In essence, you're moving the columns to the edge of the building, and lowering the ground floor headroom by I would guess 16". Casey

I’m renovating a powder room in an old 1900s house. I took everything down to 3/4” wood plank subfloor. I will be re-tiling with Ditra and doing so will lay 1/2” plywood underlayment. When I removed the toilet, there is a metal or steel plate underneath (see picture below). I googled and nothing comes up. Does anyone know what this is? More so, to install the plywood underlayment, how should i secure the plywood to the metal area? Thanks in advance!

Ok, so apparently big bust for getting any real or helpful insight or suggestions on here, so I’ll start off by saying thanks for that! Next, yes, my company does renovation of kitchens and bathrooms, thanks for noticing, good catch there, I don’t know how I would have done this without you! We also specialize in custom tile design and installation, although i’m not sure what any of that has to do with the soundability of a pre-existing structure of my personal house or how that thought process, pointing out the obvious or sarcastic and ugly comments are helpful in any way?? Obviously I’ve already had a professional out here, otherwise I wouldn’t be asking for any other HELPFUL suggestions, tips, design inspiration for maybe a similar situation or layout. Here’s a tip for all reading, if you read a question and don’t have a legit idea, answer, or anything that may be helpful or of use, you don’t have to answer! you can just keep trolling, I mean scrolling! smh thanks again, you’ve been great! So helpful