So, from the beginning. I have a dedicated underground sprinkler zone for my flowerbeds around the perimeter of the house. +A 3/4" tube feeds into and out of the value. +From there the 3/4" tube makes a 90 deg turn up and reduces with a 1/2" pvc reducer. +Above the reduced, i installed a 25-30 psi regulator (good for 10gpm to 300 something, and for pressures up to 80 psi) (Before installed in the regulator, i tested the pressure at the end of the 1/2" tube and read 40 something psi, that's why i installed the regulator) +Above the regulator the 1/2" poly tube has a tee and heads to the front and back of the house. +At the back of the house, about 50' from the valve, I punched a barbed connector for 1/4' drip emitter/soaker tube rated for 0.9 gph / foot @ 25 psi. The barb connector does not regulate flow. After the drip tube was spraying (rather than dripping), I figured the flow rate was still to high, so I replaced the unregulated flow connectore with a 7 gph emmitter for the 8 feet of 1/4 drip tubing. That essentially equals the 1/4" specified 0.9 gph / ft flow rate. At this point the water was still spraying out of the drip tube holes, so i decided i'd shoot really low. I installed a 2 gph emmiter in lieu of the 7 gph at the 1/2 to 1/4 tube interface and it still doesn't dribble out and thats is only allowing 0.25 gph / ft to pass thru the drip tube. (2 gph / 8 ft = 0.25 gph/ft) I do not know my flow rate. I will try to measure it at the end of my drip line at lunch today and post that info here soon. Thanks for the help.

Thank you all for your thoughts. A nursing home is something we were beginning to seriously consider earlier this year. It is getting to the point where we know we may not be able to maintain his health and while it would be far from the first choice for he and my stepdaughter, neither really have an inkling of the emotional and sometimes physical toll it takes. I was to the point where I would give him his bedtime pills, tell him it's time for bed and thinking "Now if he only goes to sleep, we made it one more day." He generally will stay up during the night and I generally stay up until four or five to make sure nothing happens with/to him. Realistically, we don't feel he has much time left. We were talking with our neighbor about him today and I mentioned maybe five years and Vicky just shook her head no. I got to thinking and realized we had barely helped him squeak through the last four years but it feels like so much longer. This year really blindsided us. He got through basically all of 2007 without a problem for the first time in years and then all of a sudden, the bottom just dropped out. He has literally been on his death bed the last three times he's been in the hospital. Thank you for your thoughts Linda. That history is in a nutshell, the true tip of the iceberg. If I itemized everything it would turn out like War and Peace and that's just the last four to five years. Carolyn, we're not quite sure what type of set up he'll be using. They've got him on the one that has a series of wheels that rotates and kind of massages the liquid through the tube. They put a semi-permanent(As it was described to us) one in during his last stay in the hospital because he kept pulling the nasal type out and they couldn't maintain his nutrition. My sympathies to you and your husband as well as my thanks to him. I have two brothers that are also Vietnam vets and one had throat cancer seven years ago. I know it can be a difficult time and I hope you're both doing as well as possible. Shambo, that's basically his situation and they're still trying to pinpoint why he's having the swallowing issue although we're fairly sure it's mental. He started having an issue with it back in November when he stopped eating as much and we were reduced to giving him primarily soft foods and Glucerna, etc. When he had that ulcer, he bled out into his stomach quite a lot and his blood oxygen levels were the lowest his doctor had ever seen, 2.8. It stayed that way for hours so he wasn't getting normal oxygen levels in his brain as well. It's hard to tell with him because his mental state hasn't been "normal" for quite some time. His blood pressure stayed low at the same time as well as his heart rate. The time after that when he had the first UTI, they had trouble with his cardiac system again and actually ended up putting a pacemaker in. We do serve as his round the clock caregivers. I stay up until four or five or until he goes to sleep and she wakes up at six. I generally sleep until noon or so unless something happens with him and she needs help. We know that a nursing home is something that is almost inevitable, but if we can have him home, home is where he'll be. The only thing that will change that is if he falls into another cycle of illness like this year. If that happens, it isn't in his best interest to be here although we know he'll be unhappy away from home. We hope it doesn't come to that. Again, thank you all for your thoughts.

You will be able to find polished nickel towel bars, lights, etc., but they will cost a bit more, and selection may be a bit limited. Rejuvenation and Restoration Hardware are two sources that seem to always carry lots of polished nickel. Some fixtures mfrs -- Grohe, for example -- have limited selections of faucets & showerheads, and others have lots of polished nickel. I'm doing the same thing with polished nickel. I had to use chrome for the under-sink plumbing S curve and such; my plumber told me that if I wanted the plumbing to be plated in polished nickel, it would cost $250, and I decided that I just didn't care $250 worth. I also have chrome grab bars in the shower because my choices were brushed nickel/slippery finish and chrome/easy to grip finish, and obviously practicality is far more important than precise color. Good luck! Blue

I agree Cyn - we need to think of our future generations. I live in a rural area, but I've never heard of having your own dumpster. Not that I would want one on our property anyway, but never heard of it. We've rented one when cleaning out a house, or due to remodeling, etc. but here you can pay for garbage pick-up or do like we do - go to an area garbage/recyle center. Where we live (uphill) it would be a pain to leave garbage cans/recyle items out to be picked up. We actually have more recyle items than we do garbage and keep it seperated and it's easy to take each group of items to the proper place at the center. There is now also a small Goodwill shed/pickup center where you can leave certain items (nothing large). So, how do you recyle Oakley with the dumpster? Where is the dumpster located? tina