Just an FYI about pressure-treated wood: the stuff you buy from Lowe's or Home Depot is not of a grade meant for contact with the ground, or below ground. On the yellow tag stapled to the end is a tiny number beside ACQ (alkaline copper quaternary compound) which will read .25 or .40. The .25 treatment is only for above-ground, and .40 for ground contact. There are also .60 and .80 treatments, but those are more difficult to find and quite a bit more expensive, and are meant for marine use. In the years I've used PT wood in my gh structures, first in Vero Beach, and now in the Panhandle, I've never had a carpenter ant or termite give the wood a second look. (As a matter of fact, I once had termites destroy a piece of untreated plywood attached to a PT 2x4...ignoring the 2x4.) The termites are thick here, and will quickly make short work of untreated wood. If it's treated to a sufficient degree, the copper acts as an effective detterent. I have seen ACQ .25 2x4s begin to swell and weaken when half-buried, after perhaps 7-8 years. BTW, when using PT wood, you must use either stainless steel fasteners or ones that are coated. The ACQ will cause ordinary fasteners to corrode. Depending upon how you've designed your roof, the span, and the pitch, you may or may not need to have it strong enough to support your weight on the rare occasion you need to climb up there. That's why the selection of denser wood grades may be important. -Bruce

Josh: Did you ever finish the cover? I can only imagine how good it must look and work. A small space heater on timers when you know the nights get cold should do the trick! Will you have a auto vent opener for the warmer days or will you just create a small opening each day to let the heat out if it should get to warm and to circulate the carbon dioxide out and let in fresh air? This will also help you avoid the ole SPIDER MITE, disease, and pest issues! Mike: Same to you. Maybe you can find a way to keep your temps stable, at least into the low 70's for the winter. You can avoid some major bug issues and extreme temp swings. Sounds like you have yours all set for the winter too. Great! Dave: I have seen your trees and Palms. Amazing is what I have to say! I hope we keep these warm temps. I would hate to see the Artic cold blasts move through though without giving my plants, the outside ones a chance to rest from all this unusual warmth. Last year it killed a few of my shrubs. Dl: What can I say but WOW. You sure are prepared this winter. I know you had a rough one last year, but not to be taken of guard this year. Nice job protecting your trees and I hope they all fare well. You have yourself a great set-up and put much thought into that. Very nice for anyone thinking about doing the same. Sheesh, I just heard that Texas has had more snow and cold than us way up here! Mine are happy now that I have them protected with a Solar Cover. I only need 1 space heater compared to 2 keeping the temps even warmer than before. I am so thrilled about this and the lack of electricity I will be using. I spent almost 275 one month keeping them warm in a greenhouse, but I hope not this year. So far so good:-) Mike

WOW!!!!!. That is just gorgeous.You have a beautiful home and rose gardens.The roses are beautiful and such a beautiful setting for them.That samariten rose is beautiful,and Ebb Tide is to die for.Dang,Thats GORGEOUS. A lot of work went into that.Thanks for sharing it with all of us. Jean

If you buy a hand saw, the best are the japanese pull saws. I have a bucket full of hand saws that are not worth the effort - they have too agressive teeth and you simply can not get a good cut with them. The pull saws cut as you pull them towards you, standard ones cut as you push, and that is way harder to control. You mentioned it's a bearing wall. Though the wall in the picture is in the middle of the house, it is actually a bearing wall as that was the exterior of the house at one point, then a porch was added and eventually closed in. We had already "fixed" the wall and then after four years decided to swap the den and dining room and opened up a second passageway and made an alcove for the hutch as there was not enough room for the hutch and dining table. This is what the other side of the room looked like after we made changes the first time And after making changes We moved the wall 2' into the kichen to make the alcove for the hutch. Here is the kitchen side of the original wall, after plaster and lath had been removed. You can tell where the exterior windows use to be - This wall now has three headers installed. The main one is 7' wide and then htere are the two new ones, 3.5' wide for the second entryway and about 5' wide for the alcove I put the new wall in place before opening up as I wanted to save as much sheetrock on the back side as possible. This is the new wall - DH was working out of town and while I can demo and build walls, I needed him to put up sheetrock so it stayed like this all last summer. My house is a complete remodel so we've been at this since 2004 - the big problem is I ended up changing my mind a few times so we tore out a wall and patio door we had installed only four years earlier. And just one more picture taken a few weeks ago - we were still using the old cabinets - the new ones are getting final coats of finish and we may get some installed this weekend.