Thanks, Mad, that's what I needed to understand. I'm in zone 6 and it gets pretty darn cold but winter is our driest time of the year so I don't have that problem. Even the snow is dry as weird as that sounds. The thing that is worst for my roses is the fluctuating temperatures. It can be 40 in the daytime and below zero at night. Or we can go a week or ten days in the teens and then have a week in the 30s and 40s. The roses get confused, try to bud out, then freeze, then thaw, back and forth. I've found that they can only do that so many times before the stored energy in the roots and canes just gives out and they die. Mulching them insulates them from that yo-yoing effect to some degree. I look for a hard freeze to get them dormant and then winter protect to try and keep them dormant until I know the temps will stay warm enough for them to start growing. Yes, Natural, you can winter protect pots. I have 30 (it was as high as 60 last winter) in pots that I've been winter protecting for 6 winters now. If you have a garage, and with only two to protect, I'd say put them in the unheated garage for the winter. Put them up on pot trolleys or blocks off the cement floor (Michaelg thinks I'm nuts about that BTW, lol) and remember to give them a little water every month. It's doesn't have to be a lot but they're dormant, not dead, and need some water. Desiccation will kill a rose quick too. A lot of people I know who garage their pots will take a shovel full of snow when they shovel their driveway and put it on the pots to water them. I do that with the one and only rose that will fit inside my shed, the tree rose. It gets the prized spot because I can't winter protect that top graft in the pot ghetto. All the rest of my pots winter outside on the back, south facing, wall of my house. I group them all together, drive in wood stakes, surround the whole thing with burlap and then pack it with leaves. In 6 years I've lost way more roses in the ground than in the pot ghetto. And those were usually sickly going in. And don't do it too early. I don't do mine until after Thanksgiving usually. Like I said you want to make sure they're completely dormant and then keep them dormant until night time temps are consistently above freezing. So don't get itchy in the spring (a bad habit of mine) and pull them out too soon either. Hope all that helps and if you have any other questions, ask away! Through trial and error I've done most everything you can do wrong but eventually figured some things out, lol!

You could, it's up to you. I usually keep my containers in full sun until they sprout and keep them there afterwards too but pay attention to moisture on warm or very windy days. If, for whatever reason, you need to delay transplant, you can move the seedlings into a shadier location which slows their topgrowth but doesn't slow the root growth. I usually transplant the seedlings into the garden once they have they're begining to show their first set of true leaves, but I must protect them from slugs and birds so I add a cover made from a water bottle that I've cut away the base and tossed out the cap. Once the seedling grows so much that the leaves touch the sides of the bottle I toss the bottle away. I will repeat again, because it's so important, the cap is off all the time. Fresh air goes in and sun heated air goes out. In the link below are photos of the whole procedure for the bottle prep and transplant. Here is a link that might be useful: Transplanting Tomatoes

Thank you, everyone, for your help. The beveled edge 2" foam brush worked best. It did get "mushy' the longer I worked with it which caused the sealer to spread onto the tile and have to be wiped off, so my "note to self" is to buy several and rotate through them next time I need to seal this grout. Done!!

Thanks for the info on the recliners, golfergirl. My dad is redoing his apartment and we looked at those recliners on Tuesday. He fell in love with them and will most likely be getting one. It's nice to get a real-life review. Btw, you have a fantastic space to work with! Beautiful fireplace wall. I agree with someone above who said don't put everything against the walls, pull them in to create a sitting area . And the table under the TV is a great idea, but you are correct in that you need something much bigger, "heavier" in order to anchor them together. There are some very talented people on this forum. You'll end up with a beautiful space with their help. Good luck!