Try Mulch Masters ...... www.themulchmasters.com ... or just google mulch masters raleigh. They're on Durant and deal in lots of differing mulch types and more, pick up and delivery. I live nearby and find myself constantly in line at a light behind a MM truck, so they're definitely on the road in force! Their rotted leaf stuff is tops. My yard was initially done professionally and mountains of the rlm was tilled in to amend the soil. Every spring my 'garden elves' re-mulch with the same and my yards have thrived (I prefer to let them do the heavy lifting!). Compared to the bagged stuff some of my neighbors use, the rlm has staying power thru the seasons and makes for super rich soil as it breaks down. Ok, commercial over :o) ...... no, I don't work for them! Just the humble opinion of a satisfied customer/user!

Summerfields plan is awesome and could easily be updated to meet your needs. Just change the entry to the reading nook downstairs, re-arrange the upstairs room closets - great to have closets and you can open the walls up there for a more dorm style. I think for re-sale being able to make separate rooms would be ideal. I know you said you won't be moving, but you are moving now and you never know what will happen. For the downstairs there appears to be so much more room in the main living areas and the open dining as compared to the original will be so much more flexible and you could easily fit more people in that dining space and nobody has to squeeze by others to get to their seat. It also allows for expansion if ever needed. Have you considered what you'll do when you have kids grown up and married and grandchildren coming home to visit? I think summerfields floorplan makes the house so much more flexible and not just stuck at one point in time of your life. In that plan you can have a separate bedroom for guests if needed (future in-laws/grandchildren visiting), but still have room for all the kids now and a little room to grow in case you have more. Having 2 separate girls baths is also a good thing - the older girls can be responsible for keeping theirs clean and stuff not needed for the younger girls are separate. Having 3 separate baths also provides some guest possibilities, if you have somebody visiting - girls still got one to use and boys another and you could have guests use another. Summerfield has done a great job of placing most plumbing areas near each other too so it will cost less to run the plumbing. 2 baths next to each other. Laundry/Bath by each other and above the kitchen/powder room part. About the only thing not really meeting what you said you needed is the seeing the tub from the bed. You can see it, but not directly I guess. Although I don't really understand the need for this one. I personally would rather not see into my bathroom at all from the bed, tub or anything. Not something I consider a nice view, but I'm sure you have your reasons so wanted to point that one out.

Hi Rudo, hope you are doing ok. Yes, you really need to get up every now and then, even to just go to restroom and take a stretch. I work with a computer a lot and my shoulders get so tense they hurt if i forget to stretch. Once I get home I have to do a little bit of tai Chi and that helps a lot. Any slow, measured movement will do, you dont have to know Tai Chi. But on the other hand, it sounds like you have something else going on, do you use a lot of salt in your diet? Seems your body is retaining water a lot, which can be normal if you sit a lot but I see you also have elevated BP, so that could be the culprit, is BP under control?. Lay off caffeine and try herbal teas. I know you said you walk a lot but don't overdo it, take a break sometimes and do different kind of exercise, like bike (recumbent one is great for leg circulation and nice cardio, plus saves your back). Key word is moderation. :) With our messed up metabolism its very easy to overdo and I find that is never a good thing. Strenuous exercise is as easy to bring on anxiety attack as any other kind of stress so we have to find a way to mellow. :) let me know if I can help with anythign else. Have a wonderful day, hugs :)

I agree with Popi's post. Our relationships with our adult daughters is quite a dance. We have so much loving advice to give them, and we want so much to help them all we can. Sometimes it's easy to forget that our daughters need to feel free and confident to find their own way and make their own mistakes. I'm assuming your daughter is a good mother. If so, then think about what you're saying in your post. We have advised her of keeping her daughter warm arriving in 17 degree weather with no jacket or hat .She started saying I'm just going to the car but all we wanted was to keep her daughter warm. Each time any thing that is said to her about taking care of her daughter she gets very defensive and angry which makes us feel incompetitent. Probably you are making her feel incompetent as well. You say, "each time anything that is said to her about taking care of her daughter", but are you considering that each time you are telling her she isn't taking care of her daughter the *correct* way, you're telling her she's incompetent to make that decision? I told her you make me feel like a irreresponsible teenager. Probably she feels the same way - that you make her feel like an irresponsible teenager. When your husband calls her husband lazy, he's basically calling your daughter incompetent to choose a husband. And of course she's going to tell her husband what her dad says. You mentioned in your post that you are overprotective. I think most mothers would sympathize with you about being overprotective. Our daughters are so precious, and we love them so much and want to protect them as we raise them in safety and love. I think a lot of us, if not most of us, could be called overprotective. I was raised by overprotective parents. If you were an overprotective mother, it's quite possible the dynamic you've set up all these years between you and your daughter has a lot of bearing on how she relates to you. Some of us daughters of overprotective parents have our adult boundaries set in stone. Mine are. My daughter and I had a rocky road together during her teenage years. One thing I did was to take her to lunch once a week at a place she liked. That was our "safe" place. There in that place I bit my tongue off. We talked about what she wanted to talk about. I tried not to give advice or criticism or ask questions about anything she didn't want to talk about. Sometimes when a relationship gets rocky, it helps to have some healing time when you just enjoy each others' company. The other advice I would give is to try not to mind so much about some of the things you mention. Not mowing the grass is not the end of the world. Mowing the grass is VERY important to me and it would annoy me and grate on me to have one of my children chronically not mow the grass. Trust me, I feel your pain. But it's not the end of the world. If he has a job and loves his wife and daughter, not bringing in firewood or mowing the grass might be small potatoes to her. And it's her opinion of him that counts. Not having a coat and hat on the baby - maybe that's small potatoes, too. My son got hot easily as a baby. Older people frequently said something to me about not keeping him warm enough, but the pediatrician specifically talked to me about not keeping him too warm. If I was just going back and forth to a close parked, warm car in 17 degree weather I probably wouldn't have put a coat and hat on my baby, either. Not letting a dog owner keep a baby - there are a lot of mothers like that. I hope you can work something out with your daughter. Sometimes it's hard to work out those mother/daughter relationships.