Hi Joanna, sorry no one has came in to help you. If you go back about 3 to 4 pages, where I put "My pacific Pearl has changed" Its white with yellow center I think, I had one come out all different colors, so neat. One of the comments made was c-star nurserys plants, very often have color breaks. My solid pink playful now has red purple edges and med pink in the center..suppose to be a solid pinks..One message said her playful had pretty color breaks. so playful, pacific pearl, cancun dreams and lavender splash are c-star nursery products. Perhaps someone else might come in and give advise.. But on the other forum they told you to destroy, they may not be aware of c-stars plants..is a CA nursery..Now this is my opinion, worth a nickel..ha Now if you have a virus, don't know anything about that at all..Put on another subject..do I have a virus? what is that? Karen B.

I was pricing some out from Walpole Woodworkers and suffered similar sticker shock. A lot of online searching and I found Mayne Posts for less than half the price. They're a really hard/thick plastic of some sort, with nice details. Unless you're touching the thing, you'd never know it wasn't a wood post. I got the "Signature Plus" model. Install was a snap. It slid right over the old 4x4 post I already had in the ground. a Few screws to secure it and the mailbox and it was good to go. Here is a link that might be useful: Mayne Posts

I dreaded, dreaded, DREADED being without a kitchen, and I scheduled our reno to the T so it would be quick. Needless to say, it didn't happen that way - last-minute changes, contractor getting really sick, another contractor's family tragedy, and various other unforseen issues. We had our tear-out the end of October and we still aren't finished yet. But we are actually okay with it. I think the main thing, as others have mentioned, is being set up near a sink. You don't realize how much you miss water until you don't have it handy. I don't have a laundry or utility sink, so I am set up in our upstairs bathroom where we have a big counter with double sinks. Across the hall I have our food and microwave set up in a spare bedroom. It works out very well, but I wouldn't be able to wash anything large. I originally intended to use my crockpot, but I don't because I don't want to wash it. I also don't do anything that involves real prep or cooking because for me personally it would be too much of a PITA. But like others also mentioned above, we have discovered the prepared foods. I never really looked in the frozen food cases, but you can find just about anything to microwave these days, even brownies! So we are eating bagged salads, fresh fruit, canned soups, sandwiches, supermarket chicken, cereal, instant oatmeal, ramen noodles, and all kinds of frozen stuff. I feel like a college kid again! On the rare occasion we eat out, we try to order a lot of food that can be good the next day too. The biggest downside is that DH and I have gained probably 10 pounds each! So I do look forward to having my kitchen back and cooking and eating more healthfully again. One last thing I would do differently, I would have gotten a small fridge off Craig's list to keep in the bedroom if I'd known how long this was going to be. It is a little inconvenient (and cold) to run down to the garage where our fridge is now. But all in all, it's been pretty painless. We usually eat at our desks or in front of the TV. Now, you didn't mention if you have kids in the house, and I think that would make a big difference. If that's the case, I'm sure others will have better tips for you. The last thing that really helped was making a mental decision to not let things get to me. It wasn't easy at first when things starting getting off track, but I made a mental decision to be okay with it, and that has helped me be comfortable living this way. So my advice is prepare yourself mentally to go with the flow, prepare your physical surroundings so you don't feel too disorganized, and know that life will be back to normal one day, but with a beautiful new kitchen! Here's my set-up: the bathroom/kitchen: the bedroom/pantry: That's how we're surviving. Hope this helps!

We keep our landline, and it's fees that are huge.... in the rural area, or our local provider will not give us fiberoptic DSL line for the computer :(. The other rationale was 'oh well, if the power goes out, at least our little flip cell phones won't be our only contact when they loose their charge.............well WRONG. With the cable/DSL line......one gets this 'box' in the garage that the wires come into the house in and than to the office in. For the first time in 3 decades we were out of power for 3 days after a storm. First time since the new fiberoptic cable/DSL service was in the home. After 24 hours our landline did not work !!! Really. It works thru the 'box' in the garage..which works on 'a battery', that maintains charge through.....an electrical outlet. So if this is your situation, go ahead ..install the landline during construction .........but give serious consideration to not using it unless your home will have a generator to keep that cable/DSL/landline phone in the loop of generated electricity. Also, if you are able to have that installed during new construction, you won't see the wires on the exterior of the house, have a hole drilled in your brick wall and see an external line inside your home walls either. They will be able to make it all a less visible eyesore, in the event you do want that landline for a couple of years as you move in.