Not all areas have the same laws concerning trees, but in my area, any of my neighbor's trees that are close enough for their branches to grow over my property, those branches become my responsibility. Any damage such branches do to my property, or to anyone on my property who get hurt under those branches puts me at risk of being sued, or responsible to pay for my damaged property. A few months back we had almost a week of off and on freezing rain that collected on the trees, and broke at least some of almost everyone in the area's trees. At that time city officials reported that if a person's tree fell on his or her neighbor's house or other property and caused costly damage, then under our local laws, the owner of the tree did not have to pay for the damages or even have to pay to have the tree removed from the neighbor's damaged house or other property. That seems totally wrong, to me. If that indeed is true, then it's my opinion that, in such a case, any neighbor should also have the right to cut down, or prune more of his neighbor's tree than just the parts which are spreading over the property line.

Welcome aboard Jeana. I was certain I had posted to this thread but didn't see it yesterday or this morning. So not sure if the GW gnomes ate it, I forgot to submit it or Dawn removed it as I'm sure I had some warning in it about her being an enabler and being our "Elite Gardener. Or maybe as I''m waiting on new glasses that are late arriving I may of overlooked it. I'm sorry to hear about your grandfather. You will be blessed with his memories everytime you read his notes and go out to garden. I got my love of gardening from my Mother. She is failing now and can't do much but still has beautiful flowers every year. I'm one of the lap landers mentioned earlier in the thread. Sleep next to the state line and like a tumble week blow back and forth. I agree Ilene Dawn should write a book and you need a chapter on gardening fashions in it. All terrain crocs, bee costumes and whatever the new the fad might be. Diane mentioned the enormous brains and stores of knowledge. I just have an enormous inventory of seeds and have no clue why. LOL. Keep asking the questions. The only bad one is the one not asked. Wishing you a great gardening year in 2010. Jay .

Hello Lori, Welcome, and I understand your situation. Although cross country from you, we have a 1918 Foursquare and are also only the 3rd occupant. The builder and his son lived here before us. They did a 1954 remodel and small add-on on the back of the house and built new cabinets then. We were going to put in new cabinets but I didn't want them to look too 'new' either. As it was, our slight remodel was delayed over a year and I decided to keep these all wood well built ones and try to blend the two styles a little. At least we put the trim all back to the original and not the 50's rounded trim. I am not a purist though and know the reason they remodeled in the 50's was because the kitchen did not work for them. So form did follow function for me. I was in an older, turn of the century Victorian farmhouse near me where there also had been an addition and closed in back porch to make the kitchen larger. The current owners knew the newer Maple cabs did not go with the dark stained woodwork of the rest of the house and wanted to do new ones or try to darken the stain. The funny thing is, the current owners also redesigned the kitchen and put in polished granite counters which would never have been done in this area at that time. The kitchen functioned for them but looked quite modern---which is ok if that is what they wanted. But I think you are lucky possibly with oak cabs and not maple, as maple is harder to do darker stains on I believe. If it were me, I would research the possibility of darkening your current stain if that is what you want and your DH won't allow them painted. The problem you might run into is whether they have the harder conversion varnish on them. I would probably use an inconspicuous spot and try working on that first. But try to find pictures etc. that give you the idea of what you are going for and maybe then work from there. Also adding free standing pieces that would fit the period you want, or maybe moving the table to the middle of the room if possible (I did both) would also help in restoring that older feeling you sound like you want. Sorry I have no technical advice I can give you:( and also no pictures, but if you do succeed in making the changes you want, hope you can share pictures with us!

Welcome Lyn :-) They're a great bunch of people here and very helpful. Don't feel bad about not having as many tomatoes as some of the tomatophiles around here, LOL, I only have 14 and have 7 different varieties going this year. I took my cue from people's best and worst lists on this forum and all but one of the varieties we're putting in are new to us. As for planting out, Melbourne Cup Day is the traditional tomato-planting day as that's when you're likely to have passed the last frost. After the last few weeks and the cold snaps we've been having, our tommies are enjoying the life of riley in small pots sunning it on the patio getting the reflected warmth and light from the northern wall of the house. I'm not taking any chances, LOL, so we're going for Peter Cundall's treat-em-mean-and-keep-em-keen approach to force them into flower prior to planting out in the ground. We'll see how that goes, but so far they are very healthy (pics in the baby pics thread). We also have some eggplant started - a bit early but they'll stay in pots to keep warm for a while yet and we are about to start our cucumbers, capsicum and chilli. Corn is also about to be started in the other end of the bed with our potatoes. Thinking of trying the climbing beans on the corn trick. Apparently they're great companions. Umm what else are we planting this year... butternut pumpkin, and scads of basil which I've just started so they're ready to transplant around the tomatoes. Lots of herbs, and garlic which is going great guns thanks to advice from someone here to give it a regular liquid feed. I've learned heaps form others here, so post away, and this year I have some lovely baby toms courtesy of another member who sent me seeds when I couldn't source them :-)