Being a 61 year old born and raised Okie, from my view, I've seen the interest in storm cellars change over my lifetime. Growing up in the 50's and 60's, our family always had a cellar ( or a " fraidy hole " ) as my Grandmother called them. And we spent a lot of time in the cellar. My Grandfather worked for the Carter Oil company in Seminole ( which eventually became Exxon ) . He moved there around 1930 when the Seminole oil field was booming. Back then, the oil companies would build camps for their employees to live, because there was no housing, and the Carter Oil camp had two big concrete cellars installed by the company. One of them right next to my Grandad's house. But everybody had access. Then when he retired and moved into Seminole, he had a cellar built . On stormy evenings, my parents would take us to Grandad's and we spent the entire evening there, with my Grandad watching the clouds. Our warning system consisted of the men of the Seminole Civil Defense, who would take positions out on the outskirts of town and watch for tornados and would give word to blow the sirens. Some neighbors would show up and it became a social event as everyone chatted and passed the time. Around late 70's , my parents built their own cellar, but also that was the time when TV warnings were getting much better. They started using radar. And in my adult life, up till now, I'd never thought a cellar was a good investment because the warnings kept getting better and better. From other people I've talked with, they did the same, and houses with cellars become fewer than back in the 1940's and 1950's. My plan had always been to leave the house and go to a sheltered place, like Crossroads Mall. But after the debacle last May 31, when I got caught in traffic because everyone else had decided to get out of the storm's path, I then decided I needed a shelter. Its like we've come full circle, from a time that lack of any warning made a cellar almost a necessity, to warnings making cellars less important, to a time when the warnings are so good, we need a shelter again. This post was edited by LCDollar on Thu, Jan 23, 14 at 20:16

Not being the worlds most partcular person has it`s advantages. I love the surprise of seedlings, what is true of plumeria is true of most plants. I really am not all that fond of ordering plants on-line, it`s hard to have plants shipped here because of the heat. I try not to do any trades in the summer, then I run into the fact it is too cold in the north. I really prefer local growers, local nurseries, plant sales, swaps. Luckily there are multiple people in our area to buy plumeria from IE: Emersons. You can get a much bigger plant for less than a cutting. I think every plant society raises money through sales, the bromeliad society has a great sale every year in Houston and the daylily socieity sales must be avoided to prevent draining of the bank account. To feed my other addictions I have a friend who raises bromeliads-Jimbos nursery in Santa Fe, amaryllis co-ops, a plant co-op, Cactus King on the north side of Houston, Josephs nursery in Pearland, Houston Garden center (70% off) for citrus!, plant swaps and of course the gardenweb forums exchanges, Maas nursery in Seabrook....I need a 20 step program! Tally HO!

My Sea Pearl had bluish tones that turned greenish once in my home. Will they give you a sample? My stoneyard did not so I took a chance. Did you see the chart Karin_MT made up? Maybe you could go by her description of the various levels of quartzite. Will they let you do a water absorption test? The crystalline quartzite is easy to spot. Look at the names on the right, find one in your stoneyard and look for the grains, cross bedding, crystalline structure to see which one comes closest to looking like your stone. You might try either lemon juice or vinegar on a small paper towel in a zipper bag or maybe you could use an extra small empty hand sanitizer bottle. Don't ask...don't tell??? Don't forget to test it in different spots on the stone, not just one spot. Same with the glass test...use different spots. Read this article that Karin wrote about telling white stones apart. https://usenaturalstone.org/telling-white-stones-apart/ https://usenaturalstone.org/how-to-be-your-own-stone-sleuth/ And this one is excellent. https://usenaturalstone.org/properties-of-quartzite/

A month of so ago, I started getting emails from Zillow (have no idea how). They show a picture of a kitchen, the total cost, and then, when one scrolls down, they show a breakdown, by category, of materials and labor. It was a HUGE eye opener for me as I thought cabinets were a MUCH bigger part of the budget than they appear to be. One can subscribe to "budget", "mid-range", and "luxury" kitchens. I think the biggest price I ever saw for cabinets in a HUGE kitchen, was about $30-40,000. Appliances? Often $20,000. Countertops & backsplash were another high ticket area. And labor clearly varied, based on whether there was extensive electrical/plumbing work or blowing out walls. I asked my KD about this (he owns the company and also supplies the labor for most of the work), and he said that in the nearly 40 years he's been doing this, he has seen the cabinet percentage of a kitchen remodel go down substantially. He said this is due to many manufacturers doing semi-custom which cuts cost dramatically. He said it's a rare client who springs for total custom as they rarely need to be able to spec things to the 1/4 inch. He said there are so many ways to work around this and then do NOT involve "filler strips". My own kitchen is going to come in at around $25,000, $13,000 of which is cabinets. But my kitchen is an anomaly as I am reusing my kitchen counters/integrated sink, all the undercounted lighting can be reused, ceiling pot lights were done over a decade ago - only 1 new one added, existing hardwood floors are being used (finished on site 13 years ago), and we're even reusing the Perrin & Rowe faucet - it's still made and now twice the price it was when I bought it. So, in reality, I'm doing a $40,000 kitchen, I just paid for much of the high cost stuff over the years. Did I make some compromises? Of course! I wish the cabinet interiors were wood, not a thin veneer of maple melamine (they will be painted wood on the glass doored cabinets), but it was not worth several thousands more to get this. No one sees them but me and they will be easy to keep and clean. Am I getting every single thing my little heart desired? Again, no! But this is due to the fact that I have an 11 x 15 kitchen and there is simply no room to build in the microwave or get other appliances off the counters (without sacrificing valuable real estate which I was unwilling to do). Is it going to be a show piece? What kitchen that size is! No island, just a $99 Ikea 17" wide cart. I hope this helps you. Try to subscribe to the Zillow kitchen emails - they are invaluable when pricing things.