I honestly don't remember where those 2 little trees came from - it is 2 3-prong trees in 1 pot... HD has never really been one of my haunts (none in the neighborhood until just a couple of years ago), so probably they came from Fred Meyer (our "local" W coast grocery/dept chain, AKA Kroger), the Grocery Outlet, or an actual locally-owned nursery or hardware store, but I've had them for years & couldn't tell you their current availability....and according to Nancy & my googling of the image, they're different than what are currently being called "candelabras," in that they are straight, not curled back on themselves. If you were feeling brave, or picked up a couple of plants on the cheap, maybe you could probably achieve the look at home by cutting out the growth tip of a single-stem plant & pinching off all the back-buds you didn't want? Just guessing, as I've never pruned a Dracaena before! I'm still mystified how they get the new growth going so perfectly spaced & close to the top of where the tip was cut out! Nancy, thanks for sharing pictures! Those are just funky looking little trees & I agree with you: I can't imagine them growing into anything but a snarled glob in a few years! But, I suppose many people don't keep their plants for that long anyhow, to address the original topic of the post ;) Toni, I cross my non-heart-shaped marginata to fertilize only *very* lightly for at LEAST the next 6 weeks, then move up to lightly & maybe, after re-potting, move up to 1/2 strength for a couple of weeks before top pruning.

Sorry about the double post guys!!! I'm a putz somedays, and it looks like today I am...HA! Karen - There are various grades of Carrara, and the spots would be visible regardless if this was in slab form or tile - remember that the only thing that differentiates the two is the thickness of the slice. WHERE is this application located in your home? Is it by chance a floor on a concrete slab - perhaps a basement application? Without pics (hint hint....) ;-) it's harder to diagnose but my hunch is that it's a quality of the Carrara that you have and not a defect or a stain. AND... are you sure that your tile is indeed "Carrara"? There are many varients that can be "sold" as "Carrara" when in fact the stone might actually be a varient and NOT the real McCoy... Tell us a little more about where the stone is installed, how long it has been in place, if you just recently had it done, what kind of cement or adhesive was used to install it (if you know), where in the house is the work, what is the material that it's adherred to (like concrete slab, wood flooring over joists, "mud", etc). Hopefully, my good friend Bill Vincent will chime in on this too as he is awesome on the knowledge and experience level for a situation like yours. Bill's a THIRD generation Tile and Stone guy (he's got me beat by one generation, but we've both been getting paid to do this line of work for almost the exact same amount of time... However - working with each of our Dads out "on the jobs" when we were "young little whipper snappers" under the age 18 doesn't count - except for pride.... HA! those were good times in spite of the fact that I kept getting busted for not having a Union Card when I'd go with my Dad to a job for the day to "get some experience"... HA!) sorry to ramble there - I'm sure that Bill has some good stories to tell on those days too!!!!! :-) Anyways - Karen - help us out with some more details.. until you can post some pics ;-) HA!!! kevin

I grew up with painted cabinets. White ones, even. After a while (several years), the paint didn't looks so good. So they were repainted. Each time took a few coats of paint and the paint started building up. The inset drawers started sticking and the molding details lost their crispness. Later I bought a house that had cherry cabinets. They must be twenty years old and still look great. Moral to this story was that factory finish is much nicer- smoother and more durable- than hand applied. The pics posted of painted cabinets is typically just after painting-not 3-5 years later. One time I do advocate painting wood cabinets is if the cabinet finish has deteriorated beyond repair or yellowed and would need to be completely removed to revarnish. In that case, it's much easier to paint. The other time is if the cabinet is a really cheap grade of inferior wood. (Your cabinets look good in the pic, but I realize it could be different in person.) Whether you paint white or blue depends more on the rest of the house. I do think white has a more generic look to it than a color like butter or sage. I've seen pics of great white kitchens but they've also been expansive with lots of detail. I've also seen several pics of ho-hum white kitchens that are lacking "something". Wood graining does add a subtle texture that standard paint doesn't. Since you're going to paint the walls anyway, why don't you do that first. Then reevaluate whether to paint the cabinets white, a color, or not at all. Maybe photoshopping would help show how possible changes would look.

Is the picture above the foundation crack in question or is it a drywall crack? You said there is a diagonal crack in the foundation. When you say diagonal do you mean a stair step pattern? "Usually" this is not a crisis but could be the cause of the drywall cracking. Horizontal cracking in a foundation wall is the biggest concern. To me that picture shows a drywall crack, and the fact that the drywall has been repaired multiple times means they are fixing the symptom and not the problem. Cracks appear when there is movement. The structure of the house is moving causing pressure on the wall which makes it crack. Cracks do appear over doors and windows most often, I would look at the structure supporting this wall and see if there is any indication of movement. Maybe the structure is not strong enough also. Is the foundation crack below this wall in the picture? The foundation crack should be fixed with hydraulic cement they inject into the crack at high pressure. IF (and this is a big if) the hydraulic cement does NOT fix the problem then they need to beef up the foundation wall and possibly the footing of the foundation in that area, the wall is beginning to fail. I hope that the hydraulic cement fixes the problem though, start with that.