I am so tempted to rip this up just to check if the roots/rhizomes are viable....I posted earlier a few weeks ago...it was bought and planted in mid january or so, but we've had some freezing temps....Its supposed to be a P. Nigra, but its fadiing in color..there is some tinge of green towards the base....its not much of a picture, but all my other bamboo have give me a shoot or two, so..... The first shot, sorry, I didn't flip it, but you get the point... http://s179.photobucket.com/albums/w287/utuss/?action=view&current=DSC00557.jpg http://s179.photobucket.com/albums/w287/utuss/?action=view&current=DSC00555.jpg

Can you still link to a thread that is beyond page 67? Yes there is. I see pages all the time when I search that "cannot be found" when I click on them.???? hmmm...could you maybe give me an instance? The search feature is 'broken' on some forums, and should be reported. For instance on The Seed Saving Forum one can bring up several threads when one does a search on zinna yet when one clicks on the first one, Saving Profusion Zinnia Seed they will get Whoops! I could not find that message. What one can do then is go to the URL of the Whoops message, and remove the 2 found behind http://forums and then hit enter. The post will then come up. The problem is with the 'forums2' servor on some forums. Here.... is a thread that was at The Test Forum, and it dropped off the one and only page there. Try it. Click on the link, and then go to the top of that page and click on Return to The Test Forum. As you can see, the thread is not listed there, as it dropped off earlier this month. Magic? s

Well, you've learned one lesson: Don't ever register your domain through your host. It's a pain in the behind if you want to transfer it. I always recommend to people that you use a plain old domain registrar like gkg.net or godaddy.net (I prefer gkg.net myself). You can then point the domain to wherever you eventually host the site. Lesson two would be, do your research when getting a webhost. There are lots of bad ones out there. And plenty of good ones. The problem is finding "real" reviews of hosts (a lot of the review sites have fake reviews on them). I use www.webhostingtalk.com as a resource a lot, and search there on any potential hosts that I'm considering -- you generally get the straight scoop from people posting there. Lesson three: you get what you pay for. $2.00 a month web hosting is...well, frankly, a joke. That's probably why they get generally poor reviews. To get decent service, customer support, etc., you really need to be paying somewhere in the $8.00 - $15.00 a month range for shared hosting for a basic site, IMO. As for what to do now -- personally, I would try to move away from this host. I did a search on 1and1.com on the forum I mentioned above, and they seemed to be a pretty mixed bag as far as reviews. You can definitely do better than that. There is NO reason they should fight you on letting you take your domain with you -- you just need to be very upfront, and don't take any crap from them. On the other hand, if you don't want to deal with the mess of trying to move, you can try them for a while, and see how it goes. Some people do seem to like them just fine. Maybe you'll be one of the lucky ones!

OK, I am sorry that I have to be so blunt here, but the present placement of the porch fireplace and required chimney stack really bugs me! I'm glad you posted the elevations but I think you need to ask your architect to do a more accurate one of the porch side. The front drawing shows the porch chimney stack sticking up above the ridge of the house (as it properly needs to do for good draft and safety), but the elevation of the porch side doesn't show it sticking up anywhere near that far, perhaps because if it is shown correctly you will have the same aesthetic objections that I do. I have looked and looked at the porch elevation to see it is just a perspective problem, but I don't think so. If it was shown correctly the chimney above the porch roof surface would completely dwarf the part below the porch roof. It will assume a smokestack appearance. Frankly, having the FP there just doesn't work for me anyway. Can it be moved closer to the house (which will improve the spatial relationship between the parts of the chimney above and below the plane of the roof) and place it where it will not block the center view of the porch and second floor window? Perhaps closer to the DR and Game room intersection? That would also balance the chimney locations a bit better. I think your drawing shows that the fireplace may be two-sided which will have to change if the FP is moved closer to the house wall, but the disadvantage of where it is now is so extreme it seems worth it to me. I can see from your inspiration pics that the TX Hill style orginated from German immigrants' stone houses which have distinctly balanced, almost 18th c. proportions, with evenly spaced fenestration and lower roof profiles. It's a very attractive interpretation of a vernacular style and I find it very appealing. Is one reason to have the porch FP where it is to keep the radiant heat away from the main building during the outdoor grilling season? If so perhaps a different, more projecting porch pattern could be designed that would move the FP even farther away, reducing the need for the chimney to be so high. If not, maybe it could be joined to house near the game room ell, making it convenient to kitch and DR? I think you loose so much of the very attractive open veranda feel of that fabulous porch by having it where it is sited now! If you are quite dedicated to the FP placement where it is now, please feel free to assume I just don't get it! But if what I've written causes you to review the placement while it's still on paper (and cheap to change), perhaps you'll come up with an improved design that you'll like even better. L.