Hi bigoledude! I agree with your comments on others "help". In my opinion, "do it yourself" is not very helpful! Now I'll offer my two cents worth. But... I still haven't even gotten my hands dirty and made Anything yet!!! I saw a pic in a magazine where they used bubble wrap on the outside of a trough. I suppose they used the "on top" method and pressed the bubble wrap in the wet mix. I know you're looking for rustic, but this is cool looking too! Thought maybe you'd like to try this way too. I'll try to find the pic of the finished pot. But for the look you're going for, I have a painting stipple brush, which has long stiff plastic bristles (5-6inches long) for stippling paint on walls. I think this or a large stencil brush would allow you to stipple the outside of hypertufa also!!! Or maybe find a piece of tree bark and press that into it. p.s. I'm going to try making my first one this coming week. We just had 5 inches of rain so it's been a little too humid to even think about making them. Good luck to you and please post pics when you are finished with your first pots!

Beach - are you ribbing Jeff about the good ol' days of the Jade-gone-wild he enjoyed in his yard? (That wall-o-Jade was in your yard, wasn't it Jeff?) You southern folk got it so good! Jeff, your Jade looks like it's on its way to being a bushy fella. I've been known to whack them until there are nothing but leafless branches. Had one (of the sports) that got beat up in a bad wind/hail storm in June 2008. After two months, it looked like this... By this last May, it had filled in nicely... I don't have a current photo, but it's looking pretty great! I love the way the trunk thickens with each serious pruning. I have two big standard Jades that are in dire need of a serious pruning that I plan to whack at as soon as they're done flowering. And I agree with Josh - I'm a little nervous (even after all the pruning I've done) the first few cuts, but it does get easier. The fun part is waiting to see those cute little leaves emerging from those tough barky branches! Denise in Omaha

My DD informed me this morning that a long stretch of counter at the back of the kitchen would look "weird" and just get covered with stuff, THE NERVE! It's like she knows me or something. It's weirder to have a long, useful counter cut in two by a vertical element. Show her the NKBA guidelines--a budding kitchen designer is never too young to learn. ;) Guideline #3 (In part): A major appliance and its surrounding landing/work area form a work center. The distances between the three primary work centers (cooking surface, clean-up/prep primary sink, and refrigeration storage) form a work triangle. Guideline #4: A full-height, full-depth, tall obstacle should not separate two primary work centers. (Examples of a full-height obstacle are a tall oven cabinet, tall pantry cabinet, or refrigerator) If the oven cabinet is directly adjacent to the fridge, it becomes part of that work center--you move items from the fridge to the counter beside the ovens, then have a clear field to the cooktop. That long counter would be useful for staging baking trays for making cookies, lining up and landing multiple dishes going to/from the ovens for large holiday meals, and assembling school and work lunches.

I assume that you get a payheque very two weeks and the first proposal was that you divide your current monthly payment in half and pay that amount every two weeks, i.e. at the time of every paycheque. You say that they are setting it up to pay twice per month, which is 24 payments per year but your broker spoke of every two weeks, which is 26 payments per year. Are they dividing your current monthly payment in half and having you pay that amount twice per month? In that case you'll be paying the same amount per year as now, in 24 payments rather than 12. Is the arrangement that you pay that amount every two weeks? At 26 payments per year, that will be two payments per year more than now, equal to a 13th month. Are you paid monthly, or each two week period? If you continue as set up, 24 payments per year, as the earlier responder said, make sure each payment pays the interest on that half-month first, which will be less than the interest cost for the full month, the rest will be a payment on principal. Then at the end of the month, there'll be slightly less principal on which interest is to be paid, so a slightly smaller interest fee, leaving a slightly increased amount to pay down the principal. That'll mean that at the end of the first month, the remaining principal amount owing is a smidgeon smaller than it would have been. But that difference of principal owing will increase, month by month. As the amount owing on the principal shrinks faster, month by month, the amount of each payment going to pay interest will shrink, allowing a slightly larger amount going to pay off the principal. If you are paid monthly, that may be the way you'd prefer to go. Which might be fairly easy if you are paid every two weeks - but if monthly, consider carefully whether you'd be able to come up with half of your current monthly payment, every two weeks, when next paycheque was a week or more ahead. If you pay half of the amount of your current monthly payment every two weeks, that's 26 payments per year, two more than currently. If you prefer that route, you'll need to change the current plan from 24 to 26 payments per year. If you are paid monthly and choose to make mortgage payments every two weeks, make it a really high priority to accumulate some cash on hand so that you can for sure have the needed cash in the account to make that payment and have enough left to float your boat till the next payday. It's tough enough to be so short of essential cash to make your hair stand on end ... ... but a lot worse to have you sweating blood! ole joyful