I am a bit late on this. You can start fertilizing the tomatoes if they look doing good and not stressed after the transplant. I am sort of against any contraptions such as weed guard. It does not really help and in the longer run they are a pain. You should be fine with your raised beds on mulch. A weed here and there is OK. A while back someone told me this: you have two pile of dirt - one with weed and one without - which one you will select. The answer is the one with the weed since the other pile is so bad that even weed does not want to grow in that. Anyway, that is just an anecdote.

We have hickory treads. This is a new construction home and my husband built the stair case and laid the hickory flooring and treads for the stair case. We ordered the treads and starter step online and are really happy with the results. I think we spent somewhere in the $1,500 range. The quote that we received for the newel posts and balusters is for either hickory or white oak. They stated that there was not a price difference between the two. I am going to try to get another company to provide an estimate just to make sure that we are in the right price range. Ignorance is not bliss for me in this case:)

This is the price for just labor itself. I narrowed it down to two installers but having a hard time on deciding on the two. One's been in business since 1992 and is licensed and bonded with workers comp the other's been in business since 2005, bonded but no workers comp but he does have people that works with him. I'm leaning towards the guy with workers comp.

jdb52: My new 3 speed air handler has an 8 second blower time delay from when the compressor kicks on to when the air handler fan kicks on. This is supposed to help "cold blow" on heat pump start-up. There is also a 65 second turn off delay wich allows the air handler fan to run longer after the compressor kicks off. My old Trane heat pump did not have a delay, and I never noticed it. My decision to get the 3 speed fan motor instead of the variable speed was made after I researched the 2 options and decided what was best for me. I am happy with my choice. If my blower motor goes after the 10 year warranty, it's less than a $100 replacement that I can do myself. $1000 for a blower motor (part only, no labor) is just plain insane. Take care.