I live near San Francisco, in California , which also has one of the few Med. climates. We have 3-4 months of continuous drought, each year during summer, so water preservation is a concern. Any plant i list here regarding water use, is a mature sized plant. Drought tolerant: I've never watered any of the Mexican Sage, which were on my property when I bought it, because they never need it. Long flowers of a deep lavender hue attract hummingbirds every day. c. 5 feet tall by just as wide. There are many forms of salvia that are drought tolerant. - It took me a long time to take to Succulents, but after I remembered my grandmothers growing ' Hens and Chicks' in her cottage garden, I added a dozen or so to my rose garden. I have several growing in a low bowl shaped container to show off their growth habit. I find their smooth texture adds interest to a rose garden. Pomegranite I keep mine to c. 5' tall by 6 feet wide, by never watering it. Since reading that the climbing rose, 'Sombruiel' is drought tolerant in our area, I plan to move mine so it is in the same bed as the Pom. Mexican Primrose, pink flowers that bloom nearly constantly through summer. plants are about 2 and 1/2 feet tall. can be invasive if given the right conditions. -Allysium, the white form has longer roots and needs less water. -Many of the native Med. plants are drought tolerant, allysium, lavender et cet. Shrub;'Breath of Heaven' has a great scent, and can be grown as a fragrant hedge. Last year I decided that any plant in my garden was going to receive a minimal amount of water during our drought and those that lived could remain. This did, to my great delight. Snow in summer' sorry I forgot the Latin name which begins with C... a low growing plant that spreads over an area of c. a yard. silvery green foliage and small white flowers. Rose Campion, another med. native that has silvery gray leaves. a flower that has been growing in cottage gardens for hundreds of years. I have it growing beside 'Westside Road Cream Tea' I do like herbs planted amongst my roses: smaller forms of rosemary, oregano, there's some fancy forms 'Kent Beauty ' is one of those, mother of thyme makes a deep green carpet and the flowers keep the bees happy. Lemon verbena near a path gives off a lovely and refreshing scent as one walks by and touches it. Poets Jasmine, again on a north facing wall so the shade lessens its' need for water. I'd plant it by a pink remontant rose as the jasmine does not re-bloom. Nasturtium. The hummingbirds love 'Empress of India', a red nasturtium. Forget-me-nots, I plant them on the sides of rosebushes where they only get half a days sun, and need less water that way. Average water: Scabiosa, there's a mauve form and a purple form that are very pretty. Violets and Parma violets give winter interest, Parma violets are water wise plants when grown in partial shade. Pelagoniums, I grew up calling them Geraniums, I have 'Roxanne' and 'Electric Blue'. Lilys. I prefer the scented Oriental lilys to the scentless Asian hybrids. I had to move all my 'Casablanca' lilies to a pot on a pedestal because snails ate an entire bed of my lilies. Water Wise, (Not quite drought tolerant, need to be watered twice a month in summer here) Lavender. I water French Lavender 2-3 times during a summer and Spanish lavender once a month. I find the shorter forms of lavender need watering more often so I don't grow them anymore. I plant any of my largest rosebushes which don't need support furthest out from the faucet, because they get watered only once a month in summer, and rarely in the other seasons because we do get some rain (usually) the rest of the year. Large self-supporting rosebushes: spray 'Cecille Brunner' I've seen this grown so it has one large basal cane and been pruned: -Into a large balloon shaped shrub. -into a hedge. Each plant makes a wonderfully fragrant hedge with good re-bloom, c. 8 feet long, by 3-4 feet tall, depending on how tall the person wanted it. My neighbor grows hers on the side of a shed. Mme. Alfred Carriere, this is drought tolerant when mature, in our climate. I only watered it twice this summer. I keep it to c. 6 feet tall by c. 5 feet wide, by shearing it 2-3 times back, each summer. Monsieur Tillier, can reach 10 feet tall by nearly as wide. In general the larger the canopy of a large rosebush, the deeper the roots grow, and are able to access levels of water that shorter rosebushes cannot. Susan Louise' a marvelous Hybrid Gigantea that blooms from February through December locally. Produces large roses in profusion that are a fresh hue of pink. Can be grown as a self supporting shrub, c. 18' tall by 9' across, which has the sillouette of an apple tree if limbed, I've also seen it grown as a 25 foot long climber on a 4 foot tall fence. A nice but light fragrance. - since your sister loves Lady Hillingdon, perhaps she'd like 'Anna Olivier' a shapely honey hued Tea rose with an intense fragrance, it's more richly hued sport is called 'Lady Roberts' and I envy her having such a sublime rose given her name. -Mrs. B.R.Cant' big pink roses on a big plant. I water this only half as often as I do my smaller rosebushes, such as my Hybrid Teas, and it doesn't seem to mind. Clematis; I plant them on the North side of the house so they get shade, and therefore need less watering. c. jackmanni is easy to grow. Best wishes Luxrosa

We got our "girls" from some kids who raised them from chicks. These chickens were used to being picked up and carried around as well as being hand fed, so they are extremely tame chickens. They are three rhode island reds and four araucana hens. They come around to see what we are doing when we are outside. They want to see if you have food in your hands. They are always around your feet when you are trying to carry something somewhere. They sneak inside when the wind blows the screen open. They peck on the dog's tail when he's trying to sleep. They are more of a "pet" (or is it "pest"?) than a farm animal and they are fun to watch, too. Their diet is pretty much the bugs and things in the yard, although one cleans out the catfood dish on the front porch every morning. Most mornings when Grace gets on the porch (she was named that because she occasionally misses what she tries to fly somewhere), we pick her up, carry her to the back window and toss her into the back yard again. The rest of the chickens are usually there waiting since we then toss a bit of scratch feed out as well. Sometimes they try to fly in when the window is opened to see if they can get to the food first. When we first got them, we kept them in their coop for a couple of weeks. Now the coop door is always open. They lay their eggs in the coop, wander around the yard during the day and then go back to their coop at night all by themselves. They are very fond of bananas, papayas and avocados. They will eat just about any table scraps, too. As well as dog food and cat food. We just feed them the scratch so they will come when called, they much prefer fruits and table scraps.

First of all - YOU should NOT have to be going through all of the CRAP!!! In a perfect world - this whole process should )actually) be FUN - However, since this is NOT a "perfect world" - there MAY be set backs, delays and/or cost over runs - but generally speaking (IMHO) this process should still have a reasonable amount of "fun" still in the contents.... Zeebee said what I was going to say too - red flags with your present KD.... Also - there's TONS of wisdom being put out here by the likes of Cheri 127, Zeebee, Live Wire Oak and Kitchenconfidential 2.... I'll add my own .02 cents on this as well - There are MANY people who will pretend to be KD's - maybe because they did a whole ONE remodel of THEIR OWN kitchen, or have watched some TV shows on remodeling, or are really good at researching stuff on the internet - THESE attributes DO NOT qualify folks to be real honest to goodness KD's. The folks that actually ARE the "real deal" (real Kitchen DESIGNERS - NOT "decorators") ACTUALLY have CREDENTIALS, KNOWLEDGE & EXPERIENCE to back up the "talk they talk - with the walk they walk".... Sounds to me like you have "gotten in bed" with a "pretend" KD - a "decorator" (IMHO) that may know "pretty" - but does not have clue about how "looking pretty" gets executed into BEING pretty - the actual application of each trade and the materials that are used - along with how things go into place, and "the order of battle" - TO MAKE A FINISHED PRODUCT THAT IS YOUR KITCHEN PROJECT. Most "decorators" are really good with color, and can pick out drapes, but when ot comes to laying out a kitchen in CAD for cabinets AND countertops - they're "looking like a scared deer in the headlights" :-o They're clueless when it comes to "what gets done first, then what, and so on. I despise "decorators" they make guy's lives (like mine) in the trades - A LIVING HELL, and.... There's days where I'm sure that other guys like me fantasize about - "if MERCY KILLING were LEGAL" - "decorators" be the on the TOP OF THE LIST!!! But alas - as the saying goes: "Decorators - Can't Live WITH 'em - Can't KILL 'em" HA!!!! Anyways - all playful kidding aside........ It also sounds to me - like (from the amount of time that you are waiting on two or three other bids - that EITHER the other GC's don't want to work with you beacuse of your current KD imposter - OR - business is really good in your area.. I hope it's the latter - because here in AZ = GC's are breaking the sound barrier to get bids back to customers - so they can get more volume of work. Your in a tuff spot, but if you stay cool and READ everything that gets put in front of you to sign - and UNDERSTAND IT - you will be ahead of the curve..... I'd be looking for a REAL KD in the mean time - contact NKBA to find some other prospects in your area.... a link is below for you to check out... hth kevin

Bravo Dotmom! Good for you. To me this friend would quickly become friend. Although I should condition that by saying that real friends *can* disagree on things, even heatedly, (sometimes it's healthy for the relationship) but I think the test of the friendship will be her response now. She will make the decision whether she'll be wanting a continued friendship or not. Stand your ground! You had a valid position and have no reason to apologize - it's HER mindset that needs to change. Although appropriate here, I despise the politically correct term "enabler". "Abuser" is more appropriate isn't it? This woman is a child abuser, plain and simple. I can't come down on the "kid" because the parent was incompetent and should not have been allowed to raise her this way. I'm so tired of all the spoiled kids you see these days but it's the parents' fault usually. This kid is taking advantage of what's being given to her. She has no incentive, no drive, no goals to try to achieve. It's how she was trained. I look at it this way, if you give a monkey a gun and the monkey shoots someone, you can't blame the monkey (or the gun). Your friend brought on her own problems and now wants sympathy and wants to blame the world for her woes. I can't deal with people like that. I'm glad you took a stand (for which I agree with you 100% btw!) I can feel sorry for these situations. Nobody likes to lose relationships, especially long-term ones. Perhaps she was saying the comment about one less cop as a frustration but regardless, your response Dottie was totally appropriate and kudos for giving it to her! Maybe she will think a bit, who knows. But it doesn't matter. If she comes around great, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Pat on the back and a hug to ya my friend! It's sad when this happens. A good friend of mine kept on with his radical oddball political diatribes and I laid down the law that I was sick of hearing it and stop with the emails and garbage. Quite a few response emails were sent and he didn't like it when I expressed a different view and cleared up the misinformation being sent. We seldom communicate anymore. But it happens and I couldn't live with myself to keep taking it and not say something. One of my favorite songs, Caledonia, has lyrics with a lot of meaning to me and the following lyrics are especially pointed in situations like this: I have moved and I've kept on moving Proved the points that I needed proving Lost the friends that I needed losing Found others on the way... Sometimes we have to sort though things. That apple was good yesterday, but rotten today. Sometimes there comes a point you just gotta toss it out to save the rest in the bag and yourself!