Much closer to Ventura Co. is a place in Van Nuys that was recommended a year or two ago, here, and where I found my mythical green soapstone. They have an amazing selection of marbles, as well as some of the most interesting granites I've seen. Marble Unlimited is near Saticoy and Van Nuys. They only "sell" to fabricators, but are very nice to the public, will show you around, and they'll handle the sale on behalf of the fabricator so that your stone can be moved to the fabricator's shop right away. Marble Unlimited www.marbleunlimitedinc.com 14554 Keswick Street Van Nuys, CA 91405-1293 (323) 873-4243 All that said, you don't really need an amazing yard for Calcutta or Carrera. Everywhere should have them. You need an amazing fabricator/installer. Find your artisan first. He might have a yard or three he does business with regularly who will go the extra step for you because you're his client, and may give you the better price because you're getting it at the commercial rate. Unfortunately, I don't have any recommendations for fabricators. I can put you in touch with my tile setter (also in the Valley) who has some fabricators who do amazing work but take their merry old time. If you have patience, and can't find someone good nearer to you, send me an e-mail.

For those who want specifics, here is the response I wrote to an article published several weeks ago by the L.A. Times, an article focusing on water usage in L.A. County: While the article's title is accurate vis-à-vis the facts presented, the information is misleading because the water problem is a statewide one--L.A.'s water sources are principally non-L.A., and, because the state water sources are statewide (and beyond), they are impacted by statewide use, not just L.A. use. Yes, just in L.A., the principal use of water is by single-family households; but this approaches insignificance when you consider that, statewide, approximately 50% of the total water used in the state is for environmental uses, 40% of the total water used is consumed by Agriculture (these figures are given in this Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_in_California). The remaining 10% is for "all other uses." It is patently unfair that the residential water user is made the whipping boy during droughts when all the reasonable savings a committed homeowner could conceivably make would make no effective difference in relieving the drought. Using figures supplied by the EPA for the nation as a whole, I've been checking some other figures. The "average household" uses (not wastes, but uses) 320 gallons of water a day, which is 116,800 gallons per year (in a 365 day year). They specify that 30% of this represents the household's "outdoor uses." The late Sunset Blvd. incident wasted approximately 20 million gallons. That would have been full water usage by one average household for over 171 years. And yet the water department officials scoff at the significance of this incident (while still scolding residential water users about their habits). Considering outdoor usage by the average household (the 30% mentioned above), the EPA says "as much as" 50% of this is wasted. That would be 48 gallons a day of wastage by the average household, which, in a year, would be 17,520. Let's say that our average householder managed not to waste that 17,520. That's very nice; but it would take over 1141 householders saving that amount to equal what was wasted in the Sunset Blvd. incident. To put it another way, the Sunset Blvd. incident wasted a whole year of strenuous efforts at conservation by over 1141 households. The EPA also supplies a pie chart, dated 2005, of "freshwater withdrawals." Here are the percentages of water usage, in descending order: Thermoelectric power, 41.5% Irrigation, 37% Domestic, 8.5% "Other Publicly Supplied Users," 5.4% Industrial, 5% Aquaculture, 2.6% (They note that mining and livestock account for 1%, which I suppose is part of the Industrial category.) Look at the above, and note that the top two line-items, Thermoelectric Power and Irrigation, account for no less than 76.5% of water usage. Even if one would say that the water used by Thermoelectric Power is then still available afterwards for other uses and so eliminate that category, Domestic (household) use still trails far behind the "final" (i.e., not available for other uses afterwards) usages for combined Irrigation, "Other," Industrial, and Aquaculture. And yet, it is us, "Domestic," with our little 8.5%, which is made the whipping boy during a drought. The Times article about L.A. water use perpetuates a false and unfair perception. Please publish an article presenting a full and more accurate picture. Thank you.

My friend in Los Angeles did this and in many areas of Los Angeles are being renovated in this manner because the land is so valuable and the houses built were extremely modest relative to their value now. Obviously this kind of tear down and extensive renovation only makes economic sense in places like the West Side of desirable part of the Valley. Anyone driving down any street can see the hordes of dumpsters :-) Based on what my friends have done, you hire an architect to draw up the plans based on your providing what you want to achieve. To the extent they need a structural engineer, they would then hire the structural engineer as part of the process. I don't know anyone who used a design build firm. The trades in Los Angeles are incredibly busy - you need to hire the architect and have the actual plans drawn up with exact specifications - and have them permitted. This provides the basis for getting actual bids from GC - generally the architect or architectural firm will have recommendations and leads but in the meantime you network among friends and colleagues trying to get your own personal recommendations as well.

Totoro, we'll bring some of them to the new abbey for sure...others it's not possible. I've got a Miss Atwood that's about 14' high and maybe 16' wide. You'd need an earthmover to get it out, and I don't know if a rose that size would survive a transplant. To be honest, I'm burying my head in the sand about this moving to the new place. It's going to be a bittersweet experience: our current site is woefully inadequate for our needs, but it's been home for 33 years now, and it will be very emotional leaving it.