tammymn Glad to share and glad you enjoyed. That was the biggest garden that mom ever raised..kinda my fault..first time for me so I went a tad overboard. Mon always set her plants in front of windows so I made the grow lights. She had a make shift greenhouse behind the house to harden the plants so I built her a greenhouse. We're cutting the garden in half this year. She canned enough jars to last 3-4 years and besides, it about wore me out every weekend and she is not getting around to good this year, she is 88 but thinks she's 50. I went through over 1000ft of yarn alone just to tie the tomatoes. We had so much stuff that I had to take her roadsiding. That was rather enjoyable and relaxing though.

Had a similar situation with them. Bought a fridge - new, with warranty, came with all the paperwork, but a scratch & dent unit. It stopped working within the first year. Long story short, we had a manufacturer's service tech out & we discovered that the unit was not under warranty. According to factory records it had been "scrapped" (manufacturers term) and was never intended for sale. DHS did give us our money back, so that's a good thing. But the whole situation was a hassle to deal with and we were out the $75 service call from the manufacturer. Maybe the solution is to get a serial number & check that specific unit with the manufacturer in advance to make sure your unit is covered. We learned that another thing to look at that might tip you off to problems is the power cord. The molded, factory plug on our unit had been cut off & replaced with an after market plug. The service tech said that he had seen this before (not saying the other units were DHS supplied) & this was a dead giveaway that the unit was scrapped. Again, had an issue & it was solved, but would have preferred to avoid the problem from the get-go.

Thanks again for all of your comments and ideas - the give and take of your posts provide us with great insights and ideas which will help us eventually choose the right system for our situation. Hubby found the DYI attachment interesting, but as an overworked aerospace engineer he just doesn't have the heart to tackle a DYI project of this size. (Over 1000 hours of overtime last year, similar amounts for the previous five years, and no end in sight! We joke this is our dream house money.) We did a major remodel of our own master bath four years ago, which included installing electric radiant heat, and it took two years, partially due to hubby's lack of time and partially due to the fact his engineer training meant every thing had to be perfect! Slows everything way down! :-) (Our current plan is to have the shell of the home, plumbing, and wiring done for us, and then we'll tackle as much of the interior work as we can ourselves, over time.) The JAGA site has some beautiful options (I love the scrolled radiator), but had my heart set on in-floor heat since this will be a small home with small rooms and would prefer to keep our wall space open. Just out of curiosity why is clay soil considered not good for geothermal? (I can't remember where I had read clay soils were preferred over dry, sandy soils.) I want to make sure I'm fairly well informed if and when we start to talk to geothermal installers. We may rule that option out entirely if it appears to be a problematic option for our property. Right now I'm really leaning towards the soapstone/masonry fireplace idea, and a combination of electric radiant in-floor heat (in tiled places where we might like heat year round, like the bathrooms) and hydronic radiant heat in rooms with wood flooring. Just need to figure out what will be the best way for us to heat and circulate that water. (If we use the fireplace to partially heat the water will we need a boiler or could a tankless or regular water heater handle the load?)

If you are in fact in an area controled the the Los Angeles County Dept. of Building and Safety, you can, against mine and others advise, permit the project yourself. The permit application contains a paragraph, requiring your signature, in which you assume all of the liabilities for assertaing the validity of any persons performing any trade related funtion of the project. You can affirm that you and your immediate family members, ONLY, will be preforming all of the trade tasks. However, government agencies have a low tolerance for repeated failed inspections and will asses additional fees. You can elect to permit and act as the general contractor, hire subs with the requirement that they permit their specific trade. This will insure the validity of their âÂÂCâ lic., their city lic, and insurance. Hiring subs will require numereous sets of the plans, to conduct a comprehensive bid process, as well as the review of those bids to insure their cmpletness. When you act as the general you can require the trades to schedule and stand their own inspection, or you can schedule and stand the inspections. As the general, you are required to schedule the trades, some of which will have a low tolerance for delays and mis-scheduling, IE. wasting their time.