I just received a plant from David Austin--moistened plant wrapped loosely several times in a somewhat heavy plastic. The instructions were to not soak the plant. Leave it wrapped in plastic in a place where it wouldn't freeze (the garage, in my case) and check occasionally to see that it is still moist. It recommended planting the rose fairly soon--though I've forgotten if that was within a few hours or a few days. However, most of the other places I've ordered from in the past have said to soak the plant at least overnight to several days or a week--which is what I usually do. However, I can remember a couple times in the past--for one reason or another--having to leave the rose soaking for nearly a month. I planted those plants and they grew, but they never were the strongest plants--kinda weakly. I probably should have been more careful about changing the water (and/or adding a drop of bleach) if I had to keep them soaking that long. My advice: try to plant the rose within a couple day, or at least no longer than a week, if at all possible, but if life interferes (or Mother Nature decides to send a rip-roaring storm for a couple weeks), don't panic--the roses will probably survive even if they have to soak for several weeks. I only soak up to the graft, but I have sometimes sprayed the top canes so they wouldn't dry out too badly. Kate

The approved procedure gives you 2 choices so I am assuming this is what you are referring to, right? Procedure: Place dried beans or peas in a large pot and cover with water. Soak 12 to 18 hours in a cool place. Drain water. To quickly hydrate beans, you may cover sorted and washed beans with boiling water in a saucepan. Boil 2 minutes, remove from heat, soak 1 hour and drain. Cover beans soaked by either method with fresh water and boil 30 minutes. My personal preference is the long 12-18 hour soak - much better hydration. But then we are old and don't chew things as well. ;) Seriously, we find they absorb which ever flavorings are used better. The quick soak is more of a plain bean with a coating taste...if that makes sense. Dave

No, you were right first time on the Mariposa with 66". We were talking about changing the walls by flipping the relevant studs so give a little more room, or moving the whole wall out a couple of inches which we could do.... for a price. I think the problem is we are doing too much at once - kitchen, bathroom, a ton of painting and stuff in other rooms, painting the whole outside of the house, about to have a baby, deal with a pool for the first time and just moved in. I am probably not on top of the details in the way I should be. There are just 10 million decisions that have to be made all at once. Really struggling with tile decisions too. I am trying to stay as on top of it as I can but it's hard to catch all these details. Do you have any comments on the size of the vanity? We need to decide between a 60" or 72" vanity. For reference this is a big house - the master bath is surprisingly small for the sie of the home. The other two bathrooms both have double sinks.... and both will be bigger than the master bath sinks, no matter what we do. The guest bathroom has a 92" vanity (which is a bit big TBH, we need 2 of everything we share because we can't reach the other side), and the small bathroom has a 77" vanity. We've been looking at these 3 mainly: These are 72": and this one is 60":

Plastics and synthetic fibers have made a fortune for that industry since they’ve stolen their way into every aspect of our life including the towels we are trying to get dry with after showering ! Old fashioned cotton towels with zero additives are the only thing that will successfully dry us off. And we used to take it for granted that when we whipped a fresh towel off the bathroom rack it would get us dry ! Forget that - now days it’s all about the plastics and synthetic fiber industry making a killing with their snappy salesmen talking every conceivable products producer into somehow incorporating their toxic substances into every conceivable product on the market today - and yes that includes our food now in the age of GMO fake produce..