Thanks Florence! I got real brave a few years ago and painted a big Mexican clay pot cobalt blue. When I put pictures of it on the Texas Forum not one person commented on it ... LOL. But when a friend came over and saw it in person she said, "That blue pot looks better than I thought it would." Hahaha! After all this is a hot climate so hot colors 'go'. Hence, I've gotten more and more bold with paint and really enjoy the effects. I don't think I've overdone it. For one thing I tone the pure color down with some antiquing in most cases. There is a yellow section in the yard with various yellow toned flowers and a couple of light yellow painted pots you may have noticed above, a purple section, the aqua, a little acid green, plus there is some overlap. So when flowers aren't blooming there is still color. Thanks for noticing!

Its about halfway between Des Moines and Indianola, Its east of the highway, I think they have a web sight, I must admit I haven't bookmarked it since my old PC died :( You will probably NOT find it on accident as it is way off the beaten path, down a dead end dirt road, and way back on a private acreage. The really nice thing is their SHOWROOM is their private gardens up and around their beautiful home. They have adult plants of hundreds of types labeled. You can walk through with a notepad or one of their lists. And TRY to decide what you want. The place is good just for a trip to visit. Found there web site with directions http://www.flyingfrogfarms.com/ oh also, if you go down to the DesMoines farmers market on Saturday mornings they used to sell plants there as well. I believe if you call ahead they can even bring custom orders to the farmers market.

Thank you Carla. Much appreciated. Last year Joseph's Coat was a major superstar. It's best year ever. I think it is four years old now. This spring it had really bad canker and I did not think I would get on top of it but in the last few weeks especially it has improved. Cutting off some of those long cankered canes was hard for me to do. I'm glad I bit the bullet now though. I do like Gruss so far quite a bit. Nice looking plant. I have it out there in pots with Marie Pavie so I can't wait for them to bloom in tandem. Kate

Thanks dixie and sue for your responses. I appreciate your information. In the end, I paid the interest charges and all the invoices that he has provided. I didn't agree with all of them but we decided it was worth it to just pay and get him out of our lives. The anxiety of having to deal with him just became too much and I need to focus on other things like my family who have lived in 5 different places (3 hotels!!) in the last year. We just need to get settled an move on. The only outstanding items are the 10% hold back which we will pay when the 55 days is up and the lien is removed. There are a few things that need to be completed on the house but we have arranged to get done. There were 10 outstanding items noted on the Oct 25th inspection but no safety issues so the city inspector allowed us to move in. The items were things like completing the tile tub surround, caulking around the tub, installing a range hood, inspecting the attic and installing a timer on a bathroom fan. We still don't have a CO and he is blaming that on us but it is because the cabinet guys haven't shown up to install a piece that is required before we can install the range hood despite us contacting them every 2 days. Everything else is done but only because we arranged to have it done. "Your GC must have been a delight to work with through this experience..." The fact that he cashed the cheque for final payment and then filed a lien against our house 3 hours later because we held back the legally required hold back is a good example of the sort of stuff we were up against. But to be fair it was a learning experience for us too. I wish I had found this board before we signed the contract. Our last build was easy and not stressful at all so although we did a lot of research we should have focused on different areas. For example, he has built a number of different homes but we discovered after the fact that they were all spec homes that people had bought while he was building. We were the first cost plus contract he has done. Looking back it is so obvious that it was a question that we should have asked but we didn't think of it. We were too focused on the quality of workmanship etc. Guess we will be smarter and more prepared if we are ever silly enough to build another home. :-) The most important thing is that over all we are happy with our house and in a few months I am sure I will be able to laugh about what an ass he was/is. I did tell him that I could not and would not budge on the holdback amount and if he wanted to sue me over it he could fill his boots. I pointed out that it would cost him money and the holdback funds would most likely be tied up until the spring due to court scheduling. Until I pointed it out I don't think he even realized that he was arguing about a date that would be long over by the time we went to court. The money would have been sitting in trust all along and the judge would probably ask him why his was wasting his time.