Well it's my turn to return a compliment and I now completely understand this post. I got a chance last night to visit Beverly's garden and Princess Mimi's gardens too. The last time I was out there it was cold, rainy, snowy, sleety - I could tell it was the start of something big, but still a bit early. They have the most beautiful flowers - Beverly has a killer heliopsis bursting with blooms and a Lizzy phlox that is a knock out. All this with herbs, grasses, a beautiful shade garden, water interest, vegetables and fabulous perennials. I think my favorite was the most vigorous blue platycodon clump I have ever seen. About a foot tall and loaded with blooms. Also the burgundy and gold USC garden - it's such a lovely color combo. Both gardens show their owners delight in garden art and it really works well together. I don't have that talent, so I sincerely admire it in others. Mimi has put in the beginnings of a brick edging that looks darn near professional and will be a nice clean edge to her colorful beds. It really was a nice breath of fresh air to see beautifully marked beds full of healthy well cared-for plants. Good job you two and keep going! Karen

Sure, Build.com and other sites sell them. Found one in about two minutes. Here But they are not going to work for a sloped ceiling. No one probably makes one that swivels like you would need for that application. Heat in a radiant form, as in a light bulb heater, travels in a straight line and you will be heating whatever surface the ceiling pitch has the bulb pointing at. You need to build out a triangular box to put the fixture in. You can drywall it so that it is not as obvious as mine was. It is not a great picture, but in the upper left side of the photo you can see the maple triangular box that gives my light fixture a level surface to hang on.

Hi, I'm new here. I've been looking online for ways to cope with living with a very sloppy person. It seems nearly impossible to change a slob. I found one site about living with a sloppy partner. I have read such sad accounts, couples that marry (I guess totally unaware of how the other really keeps house), and end up divorcing. I notice that mostly, the tidy, organized person, the one who prefer to live in a sanitary and orderly house, ends up having to change, ends up having to relax their standards, ends up having to back down, and having to live in silent frustration. It seems so unfair, how slobs are able to have/take such control. They dictate how things are going to be, how things going to look, smell, etc. Slobs don't see a need to change how they are, all they have to do is drive the clean person crazy. My daughter and her child and I share a rental since she split up with her bf. Every day I wake up and cringe, dreading what the day will hold. It starts with my daughter never waking to my gd crying and screaming. I have to go in her room to wake her and I dread it because I just know I'm going to have an out of body experience. The smell of her room hits me as I open the door. This sets me off. She doesn't bother to flush her toilet. She lived in poverty with her bf for several years and developed some really bad habits, like half the time they didn't have tp, so she doesn't always bother to use it. Her floor always has junk thrown about, clothes all over, clean mixed with dirty, who know which is which, dirty silverware and drinking glasses she has repeatedly been asked not to take to her room, pop cans spilled or half full and just waiting to be spilled by her child. A big stinky mess, squalor. And there she is snoring away, none of this bothering her, not even a bit. Sigh She makes a mess in every other room, has to be reminded to clean up after herself, or she won't do it. Her cleaning up after herself barely qualifies as cleaning. She works full-time and goes to school, so she is busy, but she uses this as an excuse every time we get into it over her piggish ways. We get into some big screaming matches, and I'm always the loser. Nothing ever changes. She might go to her room and make an angry attempt at straightening out, but not really cleaning, slamming things and yelling so I hear her. I feel like I'm living with a child, not a young adult. I'm having to parent her, and should not have to. I'm near retirement age with my many joint pains, it was a struggle to keep up with my own chores when I lived alone. and now I feel like I work nonstop and get nowhere. I'm sad and angry over all of this, and when depression sets in, it really affects how I feel and what I'm able to do. None of this filth bothers her. Her brand new car, the new car smell has been replaced with the smell of rotting food. She is so gross. I sometimes lose my mind, especially when the smell from her room makes it's way downstairs. I have simply lost it and have started cleaning her room while she's at work, because I just can't take it anymore. I have found dirty diapers tossed in the cabinet under the sink, pads with dried blood thrown on the floor by the toilet, scum with hair, dried toothpaste and makeup on every inch of her sink. I can't understand how someone can live comfortably in such an unsanitary environment. Disgusting. Thanks for reading my long vent about what I'm living with. Thank you for your comments.

Hi PondNovice The 4500 for me has been ok so far. This is my 3rd summer and it has seen 2 winters. I hope I will not bombard you with info, but here goes.... Definely use pond water to clean the sponges as it reduces any determintal affect on the good bacteria within the filter. The fresh tap water you have been using will contain chlorine which can kill the friendly bacteria. The bacteria forms a 'biofilm' or slimely coating on the plastic shapes right at the bottom of the filter below the sponges. Don't clean these bits of plastic, I think mine are blue. This will ensure the levels of toxic nitrites (given off as waste from fish) are converted to nitrates which the plants use as fertilizer. I might have got the -ites and -ates round the wrong way! long time since A-level biology! For maintence basicly buy a new full set of sponges every year ~£13-15, they clog up quicker the older they get. BE CAREFUL: There are 2 versions of bioforce 4500, they revised the model design slightly around 2001-2. The versions have different sponges with respect to the hole in the middle of them. I think the later version has a bigger hole to accomodate the UV section. Also, replce the UV light bulb every year. They only have a 12 month useful output. Keep the quartz housing clean hrough the summer as only 60% of the UV gets through a clean quartz so a coating of algea makes it almost not worth having it on. BE CAREFUL when changing the UV light bulb. My unit developed a leak in March when I changed mine. See my last post on this thread. The only reason I noticed I had a leak into the electrical wiring of the UV unit was the RCD device light. Which was off. I tried powering up but it kept flicking off. DEFINELY have a RCD for both the UV light and the pump or anything electrical that is in contact with the pond water. I could go on for ages. Please ask if anything is not clear. May the force be with you. Groan Mark