No cutting! The plant needs all the leaf it can get. Only water with no salt distilled water and the browning on the leaves should clear up.

Tipped each $40 and bought them lunch. They did an exceptional job. They were also the templaters and fabricators. Let me supervise each step. I spent hours at their workshop watching and advising what i wanted. In the end I tipped them for doing exactly how I wanted things done and they did not complain once! My floor return counters are somewhat complicated to get right :)

Bill, thanks so much for mentioning that floor installation may also include removal of old flooring - forgot about that - too many things to think of! Well, I think the deal is probably dead. The bank, or someone representing them, came back with a counter-offer for all parties of $115,900. I'm not budging. My first offer was $101,990 and was told to put in my best and highest offer, which I did at $105,900. I wrote a letter and wanted to include an attachment for pictures but was told the bank will only look at faxed papers, so had to forego the visual. I wrote the problems that I'm aware of, trying to keep it short and to the point and told "whoever" that with all the problems there was at least $40K worth of work that I know of, at a price of $115K I didn't feel that the price was warranted and asked that if they reconsider my offer to let me know. Hopefully, the listing agent will submit it. If it's meant to be, it's meant to be - maybe they'll come back to me if no one bids any higher or makes a better offer than I did - otherwise, it goes in foreclosure. Thanks all!

Some other advice... Do online shopping. There are so many options and great deals available, especially for fixtures I would advise using online pricing to negotiate better prices at local supply houses and shops. It is rarely worth the trouble to return and/or get warranty service on items purchased online. An installation of a defective item can destroy all your savings from online shopping. Many supply houses will match or give you some discount to make them a better choice. For items that are easily replaced such, such as lights, online shopping can be great as a defective light will have little collateral damage. Talk to local stores for bargain, discontinued stock, deals, clearing sale, etc This is great advice, but you must be ready to purchase when the items are available and have a means to store the item. I purchase closeout items for my rental properties that I don't currently need in anticipation of needing them. I have replacement faucets, toilets, etc waiting for breakage or lease end. Talk to the builder and get builder-discounts at some stores This should be nearly automatic. I get my painter's discount, my plumber's discount, and my electrician's discount for projects they are working on even when I buy the stuff (supply houses will usually just give me the discount even if they are not doing the stuff). Use basic standard stuff and upgrade later, especially appliances This is incredibly common bad advice. This is essentially the same thing as put your money in the toilet, but wait a few years to flush. There is only a marginal cost of upgrading today. Why in the world would you want to not only ignore the reduced cost, but increase cost by buying stuff you don't want? If you can live with cheaper stuff indefinitely, then buy cheaper stuff. Don't make your financial situation worse by buying cheaper stuff that you don't want to live with so that you can buy more expensive stuff later. Current mortgage rates are barely above inflation rates, you are not going to be better off by having a lower mortgage and deferring costs. A wild suggestion from a co-worker: Use no -interest-for-2-years credit card to buy some of the stuff instead of charging it to construction loan. Once you finish the project, then you get some time to make the credit card payment. This is not really saving anything for me. Just a suggestion to defer the initial burden. This is actually solid advice. In fact, for the last 10 years I have been carrying a zero percent credit card balance. I just balance transfer it to a different promotional card before the interest period kicks in. Interest free money is great. Even ignoring my investments over that time, every dollar I financed at zero percent interest back then is only 83 cents of purchasing power to pay off today. However, that debt should be factored into your loan app when you apply for credit. You can get in trouble increasing your debt while working out a mortgage loan.