And sometimes those "wanderings on the web" will take you to amazing places! About a year back I was looking to I.D. some piece of primitive kitchen ware....not sure what it was....maybe looking for the age of a butter or cheese print....and I googled images.."dairy+cheese+butter+mold" and got a bunch of hits....and one contained the words "Maytag Dairy" and my eye caught it ( my late husband was born and grew up there) and that lead me to a blog of someone from California who had visited a college friend in the northern part of this county and they visited a farm that was part of the Maytag Dairy complex....and from what she said I suspected it was someone I knew....upon reading further, it was clear from mentioning the first names of the children that it was one of the pastors of our church she was visiting. Never did zero in on butter vs cheese molds!! LOL! Linda C

morpheouspa. Gloves down here for a moment. What claims are you referring to that I have made about mechanical aeration? Granted, I do claim that there are purposes for which the employment of mechanical aeration can be useful and it irritates me to no end that people peremptorily discount mechanical aeration as being without any use. (in the past couple of months, I've seen were you have suggested? that plug aeration might be an aid in pursuing some outcome.) Are you saying that I have advocated mechanical aeration as a necessary continued lawn care practice? (Do you advocate the application of a surfactant as a necessary continuing lawn care practice?) Is it necessary to spam this site with links to hundreds of university turf programs that recommend home owner lawn aeration not only as a continuing lawn care practice, but for the prevention of disease, thatch LDS etc.? For what purpose? They are just conclusory statements, No more valid than anything you or anyone else can produce. What you linked to, rather than belittle you, look at the facts: First some of what they call aeration is plowing (bad for me) but anyway I counted 13 studies and of those, the majority showed some improvement to crop yield, none showed a decline. They do,make a conclusory statement that aeration will cause increased weeds. OK fine. Based on what? No ancillary evidence even? Did they atleast credit dchall for the quote or maybe daniel? So even though your site actually supports that aeration results in slightly greater % crop production than non aeration, I say irrelevant and useless for any support for either of us. This argument has been going on forever, but if you take the time to understand and observe, there are logical conclusions you can come to and when applied either work or don't. If X then Y, put it to the test, and if it repeats, then continue, whether it is surfacants, aeration, corn meal or Bayer. So recommend on your experience and give your rational when challenged. Caveat emptor. My goal for my lawn, and for those I give advice to, is to obtain a turf that in the shortest time possible will only require mowing, watering and fertilization. I endeavor to employ the least expensive, least labor intensive, but most effective methods for a healthy turf AND soil and those are the ones I promote. My questions were for the reader and therefor need no response from you . I will no longer joust this windmill with you or anyone else, but I will call out anyone who "make [an unsupportable} claim... or [spew} any other blatant lie"

I often get people using indeterminate or non specific words to indicate their design style, or even, "I don't know". The phrase I most often use when I encounter that is, "Show me a picture that illustrates what you mean." Or, "Show me some pictures that appeal to you." It can mean more expense up front to a customer for me to explore their style together. But I have sat down with clients and created Houzz idea books based on a few key phrases that they have uttered, and then we analyze them together to figure out what they are responding to. That means not overwhelming them with too much at once, and watching their facial expressions and body language. Designing is a lot of psychology, actually! Between that, looking at their existing home, their wardrobe, and their leisure activities, I can usually dial it in close enough to limit 1000 selections to just 3-4. But it takes time to do that up front getting to know you before beginning the actual design work of pulling together selections. The hardest clients are those who don't know what they want, but aren't willing to trust me and let go of some control for me to help them. We both end up frustrated.

+1 Architect Below is our experience. YMMV... This is our second time using an architect. The first was for our previous 1917 home. We wanted to renovate the kitchen and add a powder room. We started off with design-build, but found them to be very cookie cutter. They wanted to add the “box” to an already large space and have the powder room open directly into the kitchen. We were presented with a design we felt didn’t work (we had lived in the house a few years already), but were told we would love it once it was done. We disagreed and started looking elsewhere. It was an architect who came up with the design to create a butler type pantry separating the kitchen from the powder room as well as utilizing an area (where the previous owners had removed the back staircase) to create a mud room. We have since moved to an even older home and are once again using an architect — this time for a larger multi phase project. Different architects, but each time we have enjoyed the process (even over Zoom). Before committing to plans, we have collaborative sessions with the architect. They take out their yellow tracing paper and scale ruler to draw out ideas so we can quickly run through a number of iterations. The architect can then easily sketch an elevation or detail so we can quickly see if it works. Nothing is designed in a vacuum. While there is certainly an additional cost from using an architect, they add value in a myriad of ways. We definitely don’t have an unlimited budget, but have found that employing an architect saves us from making expensive mistakes. As for an architect being out of touch with regards to pricing, we haven’t found that to be the case. A hands on architect is talking to contractors and seeing the bids coming back on their plans. Communication is key. Be clear about your budget.