Again, thank you everyone for all the prayers and positive thoughts. Yesterday we spent the day salvaging as much as possible. Lots of photos, my mom seems to have a gazillion, and we're not throwing out any. All the furniture has been trashed as well as the carpeting. We'll try and save the washer and dryer but the other appliances are all gone. The beds, couches, tv's, small kitchen appliances, just too much to remember everything although we are trying to keep inventory. Today was spent pulling out the last of the carpets, sweeping mud out of all the rooms, washing most of the stuff in the kitchen and doing a million loads of laundry at the laundromat. We've got some contractors in who will work through the night to pull out dry wall up to a foot above the water line which was at about 4 feet. They'll be removing all the insulation from the walls as well. Cleanup has been reasonable easy because we were lucky enough to have a lot of help from the local South African and Jewish communities as well as from total strangers. I can't thank enough the people who are helping total strangers, the 10 yr old who gave lunch (an apple, bag of chips, sandwich and homemade cookie) to anyone who wanted one and she had about 100 sandwiches she'd made, the adults who walked up to you and asked what they could do to help or the elderly couple handing out ice water from their grandchild's wagon. My mom's car has been officially written off and it's covered by insurance which is a good thing because almost no-one here, including my family, has flood insurance. FEMA is coming in tomorrow to do an assessment. Laurie, thanks for the links. Thanks to all of you I think we got in early on that one. We're staying with friends n Horseshoe bend which is upriver a bit. Here's a link to see the floods both in Horseshoe bend and River Plantation: http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/category.asp?C=125220&clipId=4751432&flvUri=&partnerclipid=&topVideoCatNo=0amp;autoStart=true&activePane=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage&clipFormat=flv When you see River Plantation, look how high the water came up, almost to the carport roofs. The lower houses in Horseshoe bend were almost half way up the first floor. There are dumpsters everywhere in HSB and driving down Sawyer Brown Rd is like driving between two trash levees 10 ft high and 15 feet wide all made of trash...furniture, lumber, carpets, dry wall, insulation, toys, clothing. It is the saddest thing I have ever seen. These are my pictures: http://s140.photobucket.com/albums/r26/LaniKaye221/Nashville%20floods/ Please continue to pray.

Hi, I just wanted to give a few pointers on spraying... an HPLV sprayer is incredibly useful but please be careful (or do not use at all) to spray a house. While they are far better than siphon feed sprayers, they still create a fair bit of overspray. This is fine if you are spraying lacquer on cabinet doors outside- the lacquer is dry in seconds in the air - its just dust by the time its travelled next door. But when spraying house paint, any wind will end up painting the neighbours house/car/pet/laundry...it can be a tough conversation afterwards (and can be rather expensive.) Use an airless paint sprayer for houses - much more direct spray and a heavier coat. They are cheap as well. Also, for a DIY with an HPLV, you need a decent compressor to get the right flow - the little hotdog/pancake compressors will not normally/likely support the CFM's required by a spray gun. just my 2 cents. Caspian

Thanks Buehl, that was just the info I was looking for. My Mom and sister were victims of the flood in Nashville and their home was destroyed by water. They lost almost all their possessions. Unfortunately only one person in the entire neighborhood had flood insurance - they were not in a flood plain. They did get a payment from FEMA which they thought was very generous and very nice, however it barely covers the demolition and mold treatment costs. They are building their entire house from shoulder height down and money is VERY VERY tight. OK, that was the back story. The wall to the laundry can't be shortened or moved. It's there, it's like a closet with a front wall and bi fold doors and everything. I was too lazy to draw the whole thing into the plan. As to the washer and dryer, they were brand spankin' new, and, along with the water heater, were the only appliances that were salvageable in the entire apartment. None of them seem to be worse for wear despite sitting in flood water for 2-3 days. There is no money to get them replaced. So the laundry stays as is. I like the 12" pantry next to the fridge. The hutch on the end can change from 72" (2 x 36") to 48 (2x24). Here is the kitchen after we got back in the house and started emptying the cabinets and getting everything out. When we opened the drawers they were FULL of disgusting flood waters. We tossed do much stuff. We were all crying for days. The fridge had fallen over in the flood and banged up against the oven. The oven was on even though all the knobs pointed to off. It was like 120 degrees in the kitchen. We couldn't move the fridge to get to the gas for three days!! Designing the perfect tight budget kitchen is my way of helping now that I am back home in Chicago. If you've seen other posts of mine, you will know that a local appliance company is donating $7000 worth of appliances, a Kentucky Amish company is making their bathroom cabinets and a wall unit for the family room and many other local craftsmen are donating time to help victims of the flood, not just my family, rebuild their homes.

Fertilizer plan for pots is tricky, since potting soil doesn't have trace elements like in-the ground soil. Pots leach out nutrients with frequent watering. Pots accumulate the alkalinity of tap-water, and pots become more alkaline in hot & dry climate. The ratio of nutrients is important. Re-post what U. of CA found in rose-tissue: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7465.html For low-ratios, it would be 3 Nitrogen, 2 Potassium, and 0.2 Phosphorus, plus 1 Calcium and 0.25 magnesium. For ppm it would be 50 iron, 30 manganese, 30 boron, 15 zinc, and 5 copper. Re-post the outline which I wrote for Carol in 2015 regarding fertilizer plan for pots. Tomato-Tone is better than Rose-Tone since it has more of the expensive green sand for potassium, plus gypsum for calcium. I always put a couple of earthworms inside my pots, and some organics on top to feed them. Tomato-Tone NPK is 3-4-6, with 8% calcium, contains Bio-tone®, Espoma proprietary blend of beneficial microbes. ONCE A MONTH in hot & dry weather: Tomato Tone NPK 4-3-6 to supply the trace elements of zinc, copper, and boron in chicken manure. Plant Tone is cheaper and works the same. ONCE A MONTH in rainy weather: Pea Gravel & red-lava-rock to supply the calcium & magnesium & trace-elements. That's to fulfill the high-ratios of nutrients in rose tissue in %: 5 nitrogen, 3 potassium, 0.3 phosphorus, 1.5 calcium, and 0.35 magnesium. For ppm it would be 250 manganese, 150 iron, 15 copper, 50 zinc, and 60 boron. Below is Yves-seedling, which I grew from a tiny-seed in 2012, it's 7-months old in 5 hours of morning sun. MG-moisture control potting soil is used. Jobes NPK 2-7-4 is mixed into the potting soil for beneficial bacteria. It's watered 3 times a week with tiny amount of sulfate of potash (21% sulfur at NPK 0-0-50) together with gypsum (calcium sulfate with 17% sulfur) to lower my high pH tap-water. I don't like the high urea, high salt of MG-soluble, so I used a tiny bit of high-phosphorus Bloom-Booster (lower salt-index) for trace elements. Lots of buds (more than 5) on a 7-month-old baby grown from seed. Potassium and calcium, plus phosphorus are needed for solid-root-growth to survive my 5a winter (I transfer roses from pots to ground before winter hit). Below is Excellenz Von Schubert that Seaweed in CA grew In full-sun, fertilized with fish emulsion. Seaweed uses Gardner & Bloom organic potting soil for EVS rose, it blooms lots for her, despite her low annual rainfall of 11" per year: Here's the ingredients in Gardner & Bloom potting soil for the above pot that Seaweed used: "INGREDIENTS: Recycled forest products, bark fines, peat moss, perlite, sand, composted chicken manure, alfalfa meal, bone meal, oyster shell & dolomite limes (as pH adjusters), worm castings, bat guano, kelp meal." http://www.kellogggarden.com/products/gborganics/soils/?s=rose-flower-planting-mix