My husband and I just got a plot in the community garden. We are gardening together, and noticed that we are the only couple doing so; all the other plots are tended by only one partner. I am excited about the garden, and the hopefully delicious veggies and TOMATOES we can grow, but my husband is EXTREMELY excited. He just loves it. So, we weren't too concerned about the expenses, because we are doing this for fun and for tasty veggies, and we have plenty of money to support the hobby. In fact, the garden is MUCH cheaper than any of my husband's other hobbies. And unlike his other hobbies, this one is close to home! We decided to follow the system in All-New Square Foot Gardening, with the upfront costs of raised beds, soil mix ingredients, and trellis and protective structures. If we manage to keep gardening for several years, these costs should of course be amortized over their lifetime. I think we've spent about $600 this year, mostly upfront costs of things that will last for years, provided we keep gardening! $140 - lumber, screws, weed cloth for raised beds $80 - electrical conduit/netting trellises $30 - tomato cages (concrete remesh bought on CL) $150 - peat moss, vermiculite, high-quality compost $80 - seeds; some packets will last us for years $80 - tomato & strawberry plants; strawberries will last years $40 - yearly plot fee So, about $600 this year. But subsequent years with this method, we will only be buying a few seed packets and 10 tomato plants, so we should be spending less than $100 in subsequent years. Our plot neighbor said, "You'll never buy lettuce again!" and as I contemplated the zillion little seeds in the $3.89 packet, I thought that just growing all our lettuce will save us some money. We are BIG salad eaters, so I buy a lot of organic hearts of Romaine and gourmet leaf and butterhead lettuces at Trader Joe's. In the summer, we buy pounds of the best-tasting tomatoes we can find, around $3/pound. So, good yields from lettuce and tomatoes will save us some money. Another factor in our financial favor is that here in Southern California, we can garden all year round. So, if we amortize the structural costs over their long lifetime and get decent yields from what we grow, we should save enough on our grocery bill for the garden to at least pay for itself, maybe more.

When it comes to trash compactors, people are definitely in the "love them" or "hate them" camp - nothing in between. Count me as one who loves them. We have trash compactors in our urban home (weekly curbside pick-up) AND remote vacation home (take garbage to the dump ourselves). I find that having one greatly reduces the number of trips I have to make out to the larger outside trash receptacle, and that makes me a happy cook. You have to exercise common sense about what you put in them, but I find that about 95% or more of our waste goes straight in. Packaging for poultry and meat tends to stink quickly, so I carry it directly outside to the larger receptacle. By doing this, I find that I usually only have to empty the compactor once a week. But there are only two of us, so your experience may be different... In over 20 years of using them, I've only had one that I didn't like. It was a round barrel and hung on a door that you would swing open. Maybe it was a GE? It was awful. The others (Kitchen Aid and Kenmore, maybe?) have had rectangular containers and slide open, usually with a foot pedal. All of those have been fairly reliable and trouble free

@ sshrivastava: Regarding the animated display: I'm not saying it can't be done but I think it won't be done. Miele does not even sell washers in any other color other than white (besides that one Chocolate Edition in Canada). Even their fanciest products have the same orange display. The only item, it seems, where Miele does allow several different colors are their vacuum cleaners. Their newest S6 line even comes wrapped in velvet. It's not only Miele that uses water softeners in dishwashers. Every single dishwasher manufacturer in Europe uses them. Again, not saying it can't be done or that it wouldn't be a good/interesting idea - I'm just saying that I don't see it happening any time soon. @ livebetter: Bosch makes some good appliances and very efficient ones, too. Even in green Europe, they are continuously bringing out appliances that are a little more efficient than all the others. Technically, the fill and drain hoses on the Miele washer are no problem as they should really be long enough to reach behind the dryer. The dryer, however, can be a problem because you will obviously have to add extra venting to connect the dryer's vent to the opening in the wall. This should add two more elbows, which can be problematic if there is already a long vent run to the outside. The Bosch washer is .24 cu.ft. larger, which means roughly one lbs. more capacity. Bosch calls it AquaStop - Miele Waterproof. Same technology. Unfortunately, there are very few videos of the Vision online. This one shows Miele's venting process on the Comforters cycle. How much more or less water the Bosch uses - I don't know. Regarding the max temperature: well, my washer can go up to 203F and I never use it. 140F is the highest temp I use, so 158 would be hot enough for me. Both washers will heat the water whenever needed - except for Miele's "Normal" cycle, I think. Both washers have cold-only rinses. The Bosch dryer does not reverse tumble. 100 rpm won't make much of a difference. "Spin Speed Optimized Drying Time" just gives you a better initial estimation of the time left to dry the load and that "DynamicAir" technology... Miele also has a very powerful blower but it's just not given a special name. Miele probalby makes the better washer/dryer but those doors and the venting... HTH, Alex

Thanks again everyone. So here's my update. I had no luck getting In touch with the agent we had used originally, and wasn't willing to drag my two kids along to go to the office. So I passes the issue off to dh who walked into the office without an appointment and asked to speak to someone. ( he makes a good squeaky wheel lol). The agent I had been dealing with was not available so he got someone else. She gave him the same song and dance about "a cabinet is a cabinet, a door is a door" etc. except having looked closely at our policy we knew we were covered for the option of "similar construction" for replacement cost, not standard construction. (It's extra). So, he pulled out receipts and photos etc. finally she agreed to open up the software they use, and spent 20 minutes with him going over the details of the house and the material used. That brought the replacement value up $60,000 (as opposed to the original $17,000). Quite a difference. We will be photographing and storing receipts just in case. So, the moral of the story, your agent should be thou rough, not lazy. Know your policy. And make noise if needed. Thanks again for all the advice!