Tell me how you built your house—from the beginning.
mcothic
7 years ago
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Pensacola PI
7 years agoRelated Discussions
Photos of Your Beginnings, Tales of Your Past Mistakes?
Comments (18)This is my second major garden, and I learned a lot of the basics with the first one. I didn't have the forum with my first garden, but I did have my horticulturalist sister, a keen gardener herself, who gave me lots of information, encouragement, and plants. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of either of my gardens; words will have to do. Things I learned: My first garden was in the Pacific Northwest, and I learned to love the old once-flowering roses there. At first I wanted repeat-blooming roses, but the more once-bloomers I grew, the more of them I wanted. They don't work everywhere, but in the PNW they're fabulous. I have and love them here as well, but they come into flower right when it's getting really hot, and so aren't as well suited to local conditions as in Washington. So the other thing I've learned is to grow roses suited to your local conditions. I'm gradually allowing Bourbons into my garden here: they did poorly in my first garden because they didn't have summer heat, while here they're great. I learned to plan for succession of bloom, rather than roses that bloom all year long (this is still a characteristic of temperate climates): here this means, more or less, spring bulbs, lilacs, tall bearded iris, peonies and roses, clematis, lavender and buddleia, dahlias, roses again. I found out that roses are drought tolerant plants that can happily go weeks without water; in fact, I found out that a lot of plants are more drought tolerant than I had supposed. Western Washington and the Italian foothills are both dry in summer. A lot of my mistakes in my first garden involved not siting plants correctly: not exploiting walls for warmth; putting shade plants in shade, sun plants in sun. For some reason, right from the beginning I gardened organically and didn't use the various poisons available to help the gardener; and I also believed in mulch and soil improvement from the start. I've never seen any reason to change this approach. I started gardening as a non-pruner, and have slowly learned how to prune as I went along. I think this is the healthiest path of development. As Henry Mitchell said, often the best thing the gardener can do is nothing. My gardening philosophy is minimalist: I do only what I think is necessary, always working toward a garden that will be relatively self-sustaining (I still have an enormous amount of labor, don't worry!). My sister introduced me to the writings of Henry Mitchell, among other things, so I read about garden design and plant selection from the start. I think this helped me avoid a lot of mistakes I might otherwise have made. I've learned here in Italy to be very wary of doing anything that might provoke a landslide. About roses, I've learned to look at the whole plant rather than at the flowers, and to take size estimates with plenty of salt. It's really hard to get an idea of what a rose is like without seeing a well-grown specimen at first hand. This is also quite terribly true of flower colors: photographs are untrustworthy. Melissa...See MoreTell me how you use your BS or CC grill
Comments (3)I have a 48" CC with a grill/griddle. The grill is great, to the point that I should have skipped the griddle and gone for a 24" grill. I have cooked chicken, veggies, burgers, lamb chops, thick cut bacon, steaks, you name it! The best part is clean up is easy- I hit it with a regular grill brush and put the cover it- done! Every month or so I take the grates off and put them in the DW. They reverse so you can cook delicate fish with the very wide flat side or everything else on the thin side (which has built in grease channels that really do direct the grease to the front). You do need to make sure you have a large exhaust fan to take care of the smoke that occurs when grilling. I have also seen people use them as additional burners when you need a lot of burner space......See Moretell me how you use your rotary iron?
Comments (3)I got one early last summer -- also a deal I'd never see again. It's a bit of a mixed bag IMO. It's impossible for DH's shirts because it's way too hot to get your fingers into position to do details on a shirt. No idea where they came up with the instructions for that -- some home economist with not enough to do -- but I find it easier/faster to iron shirts by hand. It's OK for pants legs but the roller isn't designed to smooth out things like pockets and waistbands, which get crumply. If they're too thick -- chinos -- the top lifts and doesn't accept them. I could do without the swing out bar -- would rather have both sides of the roller open. Anything with elastic is problemmatic because if it's hot enough to get the fabric smooth it's too hot for the elastic. I hook the fitted sheets over it and roll up to the edge. Otherwise, the elastic will be dead after 2 rolls. I have mostly percale but it has a funny quirk with fine sateen sheets -- one set wraps around the roller. It works best for flat stuff -- bed and table linens, things like pajamas, nightgowns etc. It's easy to set up and folds away. Built like a tank. No one at the company knows anything about it. Couldn't even tell me how to get it out of the crate. I also suspect it's an energy hog -- not sure -- but our electric bill was crazy high last summer vs the previous year. OTOH, I left it out and on. Basically, it's designed to be set up, used and turned off. That said, it reduces ironing time by 3/4 and there is no other way I know to get the amazing results it gives on sheets and table linens apart from a very expensive hand laundry....See MoreTell me about your built-in refrigerator, please.
Comments (1)I grew up with SubZero (36"). The 60''s version had a door on the bottom freezer and a swing out basket. The pullout drawer basket in the 80's version was an improvement. I assumed I'd be getting SubZero, but when I was shopping I never settled on a configuration for fridge and freezer that suited me, and I didn't like the way the ones with full overlay opened--they only went to about 90 degrees and I don't like that. I got special cabinet hinges to avoid that too. I ended up with 30" Miele all fridge and all freeezer. The 30" sizes were better for me, I like the shallow door baskets and deeper shelves and drawers (including some that go the full depth of the fridge instead of being recessed for the door basket--good for platters. I like the shelves: sturdy, adjustable and a frame on the glass, wire in the freezer. I love the lighting--pairs of halogens on each side in each section. Amazing lighting. And I super love the hinges which open out and away. They haven't been installed for long enough for me to say more and the kitchen isn't finished. 30" is a little tight by American standards for fridge and freezer, so make sure the layout for storage will really let you use the whole space. The Liebherrs are actually well laid out (though I think some people don't like the height). Is there anywhere you can see the GE in person? Rattle the shelves? Feel out the space for yourself?...See MoreBT
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agoVirgil Carter Fine Art
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7 years ago
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