When I started out gardening, I bought books. A few very interesting and helpful English ones - look for Christopher Lloyd and Vita Sackville-West. I would also recommend Cassandra Danz - learning all that stuff is difficult enough, why not having a bit of fun while at it? Secondly, sit and think. What do you want - as opposed to 'what does everybody else do'. Do you want an ocean of flowers and fragrance, do you want edibles, do you want low maintenance, do you want an evening garden or a morning garden, is *your* time of the year spring or fall... While you're wondering and reading, ammend the soil: compost, mulch and green manure every inch you can see with the unarmed eye. You have all the time in the world, and a year of doing nothing but reading, ammending the soil and thinking will get you *your dream garden* actually earlier than stuffing some plants into some earth and wondering why they die instantly. The fora at the gardenweb are an incredible source of know-how and compassion - you can find out a lot about almost everything, and sometimes all the questions that you might have are already discussed in depth and your growing zone. Lastly a plea: since you have to learn a lot anyhow, learn the correct things: plants have botanical names, and these are the correct names. Do not, please, neverever, use common names - because common names are neither common nor correct... finding out about the needs of a special plant if all you know is some name that nobody else ever heard is a time consuming and frustrating way to kill a plant. Besides that, botanical names are world-wide and language-independent - so you can read about gardens all over the world and know what plants they are talking about :) Good luck!

I can't answer all your questions, but I can offer some advice based on my own experience. First, from what I can see in the pics, your roof doesn't look that bad. Nothing against the knowledgable neighbor, but if he isn't a contractor, appreciate what he has to say and seek professional advice. Don't give contractors the impression that you're worried about your roof falling in, because SOME may feed into your 'paranoia' for lack of a better term, and no offense intended by that comment. I'm saying this because I've had situations where we obtained quotes on tuckpointing our chimney, and of course there's one contractor out there who tries to scare us into thinking our chimney is going to fall down tomorrow and it better be rebuilt for a whopping $25k. We got it tuckpointed by another contractor for $300 who laughed when we told them about the other quote. I'm not implying that ALL contractors are dishonest, I'm just saying this was my experience with this particular contractor. If roofs weren't designed to support three layers of shingles, there wouldn't be an ordinance allowing this many layers on your roof in the first place. Three layers are the maximum allowable. I would also go around the neighborhood and ask for recommendations for a roofing contractor rather than just pulling out of the phone book. Go to your local church and ask them. Word of mouth, in my opinion, is best, and sometimes contractors who don't spend money on advertising costs have more reasonable, lower rates. Get several quotes, and compare them. The more you do your homework, you'll get a good feel for what the job is worth. ASK your contractor for references, and contact prior customers and ask them questions - would they have done anything differently, is there anything they could recommend that you wouldn't have thought to ask at the very beginning, etc. Submit all change requests in writing. Similarly, our roof was a three-layer complete tear-off, which of course is going to be pricier than just adding another layer of shingles. Be sure EVERYTHING they're replacing is written in the contract - flashing, gutters, etc. I'd recommend a 'ridge vent' for proper ventilation, not sure if this is standard these days?? I'm not sure what you mean by, 'You may as well open up the main ceiling to be vaulted as well'?? This could be a simple matter of adding more vents in your attic when the roof is replaced. Problem solved. If you need gutters replaced, now's the time to do it - you'll get a better 'package' deal, at least we did. I had some ill-placed gutters re-routed. Since our entire roof was a tear-off, we added a master bath rough-in for just maybe $800 extra, as we were only paying for lumber - the roof was already being torn off, so all they had to do was expand the frame. Can you expand the roof anywhere? Now's the time to do it! You can probably inspect the underlayment from inside your home yourself. Go around with a flashlight to check for signs of leaking. We were told our roof needed to be replaced as well, but we also saw signs of leaking and later found carpenter ants in our attic on the underlayer of original cedar roof shingles that were covered over. Not good. Also, for this reason, if there are any tree branches near your roof line, cut them away as carpenter ants will use this as a conduit to your roofline. They love moisture. Be sure to replace any rotting wood. We also used a pesticide in this area of our attic for the next two years just to be safe. From a financial standpoint, I would look into taking out a home equity loan for the roof fund, if feasible. Even if you don't do the roof now, you know that the funds are available in an emergency if necessary. When the time comes, be prepared that when the roof comes off, there will be less weight on your house, the house may have minor shifting due to less weight on the support beams, and you may or may not have very minor surface cracks in the walls afterwards (we have an old 1920's home), but nothing major that simple patching won't cover over. If you use your attic for personal storage, competely cover your belongings with tarps or remove EVERYTHING and store elsewhere until the roof is done, and plan on using a shop vac when the job is done - nails, dust, etc. Prior to the start of the job, clear areas in your attic so the contractor can properly inspect the roof from the interior as a precaution to locate potential weak spots. They'll appreciate that and I'd imagine they recommend it for their own safety. Cover ALL plantings outside. The contractors will do their best to discard all materials on tarps, but it's inevitable that you will find nails and refuse on your lawn and in your plantings. Don't let them talk you into storing a dumpster on your driveway. It will become so heavy you risk cracking your driveway, and residential driveways aren't designed to hold all that weight. You may have to pay a little extra to have a dumpster on the city street, and of course a permit may be required depending on your municipality, but I'd insist on it and pay the extra $. Lastly, be good to your contractors and they'll be good to you. We supplied them with a cooler of refreshments (they were on the roof on the hottest days of the summer - talk about hard workers). They don't like to be watched over, it makes them nervous and you don't want a nervous contractor trying to balance their footing on your roof. Our contractors didn't like the fact that our neighbor plopped himself out there everyday on a lawn chair and watched them from dawn to dusk. Ugh. That's another story! Very important - you should obtain a lien waiver from your contractor when final payment is submitted. This is especially important if you are working with a company who subcontracts their work. THEY are responsible for paying the subcontractor as part of your original contract agreement, not you. Good luck!

BTW, I didn't mean to put you off from trying. Let's say that you do go for it (great!). Presuming you've read about installing it, let me add a couple things to consider: * to get molding up in the proper ceiling/wall angle, you might use a short piece of scrap, hold it up on the wall properly all around the room (flat backs on the wall and ceiling) and mark the lower edges with blue tape. That'll help put up the larger pieces later. Make sure the tape is where the studs are (stud finder). * practise coping (for inside corners) with scrap pieces. It's not that hard once you figure it out, but just READING how to do it is confusing. Just practice and put them together to see how they come out. * when putting together outside corners, at first don't nail the molding anywhere near the corner. this is in case you have to adjust the molding to match up with the other side of the corner. * the mitre angles of outside corners is critical and may not be 45. Use some scrap to make both sides to test the angles and how they match up. When you've confirmed the angles, do the real thing. Fit the good piece against the scrap piece up on the wall to test/see how far over the molding has to be nailed. * cut upside down, of course, and definitely use crown mitre stops on your saw. If you don't have them, you can make your own stops with wood and fasten them with a glue gun (use a good amount of glue, and don't glue to the turntable of the saw) Be patient at test fit (again, scraps are handy) as much as you need before you nail.

Someone please help....I built my shutters I think using 1x4 wood with the cross bar appro. 12 inches from the top and bottom...I made sure that I primed and painted both sides of all the wood that I used...some of my windows are rather tall and the ones exposed to the weather want to worp and curl some I used pressure treaded wood....the really looked nice, I cut a 30 degree angle the length of all the boards and it gave them a very nice look....until the worping started....Someone HELP...fyi I am a 71 year old female and the house I am living in was built by my Grandparents...I was completed in Dec. of 1911, the year my Father was born Dec. 12, 1911 in this house....so the house will be 100 yrs. old Dec. of this year....I am planning to host an open house to celebrate... Patty