Pouring diesel fuel all over the place? What a nightmare! Applying a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide like glyphosate (Roundup, etc.) or triclopyr amine (Brush-B-Gon, etc.) to the freshly cut cambium should produce excellent results. These products should be applied without adding water (for instance Roundup is commonly sold as an 18% concentrate, which would work great). Herbicide applied to the heartwood (either in holes much deeper than the cambium or applied to the inner surface of the stumps will not help to kill the tree's root system. The chemical mush enter the tree's vascular system to be effective. A single application of these chemicals, done right, is usually enough to completely kill a tree. For really determined stumps, a second treatment to the sprouts (before they get very large) may be needed to finish the job.

teeka you can get this consultation for free. In Florida the utilities companies do a free energy audit and advise on insulation. You can often get a rebate for installing insulation. Your water company will also advise on rain barrels - our local company sells wonderful rain barrels at a very low price. About pavers - the term to use is "permeable surface". Your building department can give you ideas on what materials qualify, and how to calculate your "square foot" needs. Then price your choice of materials, plus installation. Your building code allows so much of a percentage of your property to have "impermeable" covering (slab and driveway/sidewalk) Switching to permeable driveway can actually allow you to add on to your house....

Hi All, I've gotten some great insight reading this. I too was thinking of adding on a sunroom off of my Kitchen and Diningroom basically just to gain some space. I live in a split-entry type of home so my Familyroom is on the lower level. Being one of those people who like to be around the kitchen I wanted to add something off the kitchen to eat in, view tv, etc. Like a familyroom in a sense. I was thinking it would be a great selling point come time to sell because people with children would have the luxury of either familyroom to use. I am having second thoughts however. I truly do not have a great deal of money to spend right now and I have a kitchen remodel ahead of me as well as two bathrooms. I have considered just "bumping out" the one side of my diningroom to gain more space so that I may extend my kitchen in to the diningroom because both my kitchen and diningroom are small. This will not give me another familyroom of course as it would be just a bump out..not to mention it is on a totally different wall...but it will possibly allow me to at least make my kitchen larger. The back and sides of my house are not ground level and I am in the process of getting estimates for a deck off the back where I now have sliders from my diningroom to a very small deck that doesn't have steps to the yard . Holly Spring mentioned in a post this: " You could add a couple of $400 Harbor Freight 6x8 greenhouses for a lot less money and get a lot more usable "sun" space." I'm not sure what this is but it sounds interesting. Is this a bump out of sorts? I am looking to just add bump-outs to my dining room and possibly a bathroom and was wondering if anyone knew the cost of such a project. I was wondering if the Harbor Freight thing that was mentioned would do the trick and also not sure where you would purchase them. thank you all

My son who is entering 9th grade next year & my daughter, who is soon to enter 10th grade, are both homeschooled. If your child plans to attend a 4 year university right away after HS, as parent, it is your job to do a little investigating. In the HS years they should take all the college prep classes that the colleges require. For example for CAL States: Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, 2 years of science with a lab, 4 yrs English, 2 years Foreign Language, 3 years of History, etc. Then you as the parent should put together a high school transcript documenting all these courses & years of study. Your student should take the SAT or ACT. Then with a parent issued diploma, they can apply for university. The Cal States state that homeschooled highschoolers can be admitted on the same grounds as traditionally schooled students. Which means they must have completed all necessary prep classes with a high enough GPA and score high enough on the SAT. Now if your homeschooler does not plan to attend 4 yr college right away (just like many public schooled kids) you can forgoe the SAT prep and some of the college prep classes in HS. Many kids in public school do not take the college prep route and plan to attend a community college before transferring to a 4 year & this route is fine for a homeschooler too. In the end both routes end with a 4 yr degree. Community college courses are just as rigourous as 4 yr college classes and transfer students do just as well as those who started at university from the start. There are some benefits to attending community college first as well. It is less expensive. It also gives kids two extra years to really plan what career path they are going to take and to choose the correct university. It is a great option & definitely not a "backdoor" way into college as others have so rudely and wrongly called it. There are plenty of people who are accepted into great 4 year universities every year and yet choose to go the community college route for a variety of reasons. The mother of your neice sounds like she just misplanned a little. She should have prepared a HS transcript & made sure her daughter was taking collge prep classes. But it's not too late to construct a transcript and then she can choose one of two options: 1) complete the missing college prep classes at home & add them to the transcript, take the SAT & apply OR 2) go directly to community college and begin the next level of her education right away. It's not a big deal at all and is exactly what many public schools kids with public school diplomas do! They will place her in the correct classes for her level as far as English & Math and she can begin enrolling in the classes she'll need for a nursing major. After successfully completing her 2 yrs of community college work she can transfer to the nursing school that is right for her, provided she does well, and from what you say about her, I'm sure she will. Also remember that 3/4 of homeschoolers go on to college. That number is higher than what public schools can boast.