Mia, You've already seen than your plastic panels offer virtually no heat retention and glass wouldn't give you any more than they do I don't think. If you go to a greenhouse supply store (one place to start online would be to google and find the greenhouse megastore) you can find the kind of bubble-wrap insulation manufactured for use as insulation in greenhouses, or go to the Greenhouse forum here at GW and you'll find many discussions there. Many of the folks there use a specific brand of swimming pool cover like John described, but I can't remember the brand they buy. So far this autumn, my greenhouse, which is only covered with 6 mm greenhouse plastic and Aluminet shadecloth, has stayed barely above freezing, but I consider that a victory because for the last 4 nights our overnight lows at our house have reached 28, 28, 26, and 36. Sadly, our forecast was for 33, 34, 36 and 44. lol With the forecasted temperatures, I didn't expect the greenhouse plants to freeze but with the actual temperatures I did. Last year, my greenhouse's overnight temperatures generally went exactly as low as the outdoor temperatures, but I didn't have the Aluminet shadecloth on the greenhouse at that point either. This year the greenhouse's overnight low temperatures are just a tiny bit higher than the outside air temps so far, and I give partial credit for that to the 18 molasses cattle feed tubs in the greenhouse that are filled with water. I put them in there hoping they would serve as solar heat collectors during the day and then would give the greenhouse a little warmer at night. So far, it seems like that is working. However, I am not fooled into thinking they will keep it warm for long. Right now, the daytime temperatures are high enough that if I close the greenhouse vents and doors around 4 p.m. on a warm, sunny day, then the heat inside can built up to about 85-90 degrees before the sun begins to set. If I closed the doors and vents earlier, it likely would get hotter, but I can't let the lettuce get too hot or it will bolt. Between the built-up heat, the warmish water in the molasses feed tubs, and the aluminet shade cloth, the greenhouse has stayed just warm enough to keep the plants in there from freezing at night. The plants mostly are tomato plants, peppers and herbs in containers and they are fine as long as the air inside the greenhouse stays above freezing. I don't have anything tropical in there that prefers warmer nighttime temperatures. I do have lettuce and cool-season greens that tolerate colder temperatures. If the tomatoes and peppers produce another week or two or three, I'll be happy. They would have frozen last week if they weren't in the greenhouse. My tropicals are either on the patio during the day and the garage at night, or in the house. I don't think it would be cost-effective to heat a greenhouse the size of mine throughout the winter. We built it as a season extender, expecting it would help us keep some things going a little later in fall and get some things growing a little earlier in spring. If I had intended to overwinter plants in it all winter, I would have used twinwall 6-mm or 8-mm poly panels. You can find them at most greenhouse supply stores or at Farm-Tek, and I still would have known I'd need a heater to overwinter plants in there. From the minute we finished building the greenhouse (in fact, before we even finished it), Tim and I both found ourselves describing things we'd do differently next time. One of the main purposes of this simple, hoophouse-style greenhouse was to learn from it so that when we build our "real" and larger greenhouse, we'll know more about what we want and how to achieve that objective. From that standpoint, I know that what I want in the next greenhouse is (a) good walls that hold heat in as well as possible, and (b) a heating system that is cost effective. Because we have a large woodland on our acreage, I think we'll likely go with a wood-burning greenhouse heater. Dawn

When exterior materials of different coefficients of expansion are rigidly attached to one another, they will eventually fail. Therefore, the attachment detail of veneer materials not only needs to allow water to drain, it must allow the materials to move independently. This is why the original "brick veneer" system had a cavity between the structural wall and a wythe of brick 4" thick and the brick was supported on a ledge and attached to the wall with flexible ties. A stone veneer wall was the same with 4" thick stone. I've designed and built many buildings with this system. Designing a tile-like cladding for a wood framed wall is difficult even in warm, dry climates. Some good systems were described in this thread 5 years ago. I'm not sure why cultured stone would perform worse than natural stone except that it absorbs more moisture, however, the joints do that anyway and in the photos above, the cultured stone doesn't appear to have cracked.

Hi guys, I can't thank you all enough for your help! The cake came out beautifully, I'll see if I can get pics uploaded tonight. The starburst was a big hit and the starburst balloons were great, and easy. I used scissors to cut them into the shapes & then piped the strings on. Then scattered colored sprinkles over the whole top of the cake. William was delighted with his cake, the cake itself was delicious. Stacy- I made the strawberry filling from frozen berries and used your friend's cream cheese frosting recipe with twice as much cream cheese and butter but only the 1 lb of sugar (mainly because that's all that I had) and it was just the right amount of sweetness for the cake. The starburt balloons prompted lots of discussion on what other candy would work...things like fruit roll ups (or do they still make those square sheets of "fruit leather"?) or airheads (which are supposedly like starburts only already flat). So now, if I've got to make another balloon cake for the kid's party on Saturday I'm not afraid! This sort of cutting out shapes as decorations will work out well for me because while I have a steady hand for drawing, painting or glass cutting I seem to be having some sort of fit whenever I try to decorate with icing. Kathleen- I think that I'll try to get to the WS outlet this Sunday. I wonder if Woodbury will have them? And thank you all for the compliments on my little guy. I can't believe he's 4! Still every bit as cute, just a lot bigger. Nna

I fall in the more-is-more style of decor so layering is arranging several things on a table or other surface in a harmonious way. For example I might use a runner, a lamp, a plate on a plate stand, a plant, a statue, and a decorative box all together on a buffet or hall table. Or I might use several candles in candlesticks arranged in a group perhaps on a silver tray. Another example is using several pillows of different sizes or shapes on a sofa or bed with some arranged in front of others and a throw as well. One thing I like to do is overlap framed pictures on my mantel. Using an area rug on top of carpet is more extreme layering. I think layering has to do with embellishing, textures, as well as patterns. The layered look, while the term may be fairly recent, goes way back. Victorians decorated this way with the layers of window treatments and doilies under every tschotske and ornament. There are some styles in which layering works better than others I believe. Contemporary style would lend itself to less or even no layering whereas English country cottage, Victorian, even Traditional almost require it.