I think it would be a good idea for you to find out what your own realtor is thinking about your curb appeal--not so you can just go and do whatever she says, but because at present it's her comments to which you are trying to respond. See if she is primarily on the "clean and neat" road; often "we" don't see things as untidy that an agent will. I had to see my dad's house, and though he had let things go a bit, he also had created a lush, beautiful (to me) landscape; but I could see that it would look a bit wild to someone else, so we did much more pruning back than I would ever have done for the yard had someone in our family been living there and enjoying it--including doing some pruning that might not be in the plant's best interests long term, but looked sell-worthy at the time. I'm fine with door paint and flower pots, though I have the same peeved reaction as bahia to the endless articles in current paper about how many things we homeowners oughta do so the agent doesn't have to work too hard to sell our homes. It's true in a way, especially with regard to time on the market vs. will sell eventually and especially at right price. I've had agents tell me, oh, you should put down new tile floor in the kitche, or what about some granite, and of course never care a whit that to me the very act of tying to fit in time and decision-hassle of picking out granite or tile for someone else, let alone myself, is worse than a root canal and I'd rather just tear up U.S. paper money in fairly large denominations (meaning compromise with the buyer) . But agents deal with volume and turnover, much more even than the selling price, and aren't as concerned about how much $$ and work you might be putting into your home right before selling at what might be the same price as if nothing had been done. Anyway, find out what's on your agent's mind--hopefully not advice to plant new trees and shrubs or take on any major re-design. You'll find that "curb appeal" advice and plans for selling are much different than same for the homeowner's own pleasure, not because design and appeal is so vastly different, but because a homeowner is trying to do some things specific to his own tastes and needs, and can justify costs for his own use and enjoyment as well as can wait for things like plantings to reach maturity, whereas it is much harder to know which if any of those things will click with a prospective buyer, out of all the many things that could potentially improve any home.

Ok, more reading done and it seems that a better solution is to open the existing 1st floor wall and run a new vent (for existing 1st floor fixtures) parallel to the existing 2". New 2nd floor fixtures can use the existing 2" for drain/waste. The new parallel run can revent into the existing 2" above the new bathroom. Am I on the right track here? Thanks, Tom

Sounds good. Here's a thought. Pick up 2 (or 3). After you've eaten one, wrap the others and stash in the very back of your freezer. They heat up really well, and you'll be prepared for your next croissant emergency!

When and how do I separate these? I want to sow the seedlings into a raised bed in my hoop house (probably in the next 2-weeks of so). That looks like a lot of densely sown seedlings! Depends on how much work you want to do. If I was given this tray of seedlings to tackle I'd try to do all the work at once -- meaning rush plant-out time or 'hold' them until you can plant out. In any case, they look about large enough if you want to separate them now. I'd separate something like that by slightly drying the soil, then gently prying out small chunks of seedlings (e.g., a 1" square) -- I use a long slender pickle fork for this! Once you have the small chunk out, you can handle gently to pull or tease individual seedlings apart -- or just plant the small chunk and deal with separating that again later. HTH.