Some form of nitrogen will generally help trees in average soil establish more quickly, but a quarter pound of actual N. for a small tree could be damaging to the tender roots, I'm guessing. However, I am not speaking from the experience of this particular mistake- I have only damaged more sensitive plants with surface applications of excessive N- never fruit trees. Depends in part on texture of soil, in sandy soil your are more likely to scorch the roots- especially if the tree isn't mulched. Heavy watering can leach out the fertilizer in a hurry.

I doubt you will get any kind of stain to permeate with "uniformity" across such a surface with such non-uniform permability. It will probably look much worse than it does now. Then to top it off, I doubt it will stay up for the long term against the chemicals. I tried to stain between my tiles because the PB used tile cement between the tiles instead of grout...its white and ugly. The stain could not hold up to Muratic acid wash by the plasters and its not standing up to the chlorine either over the long run. I'm probably going to have to muriatic acid wash the rest of it off or just let the chlorine finish it off over time. Since the tile is a natural looking sort of brown slate look, the non-uniformity between the tile look actually still looks better than the solid white so I was able to chance it knowing it probably couldn't get worse. Paint or replaster is the only way to go IMHO.

I appreciate the compliments! I hadn't even thought of the heirloom aspect. So, I asked the kids who might want the table when they grow up, and the only one that said, "Me!" was my 5-year-old. The rest of them looked at each other as if to say, "Not me!" They just don't understand yet! ;D I do let the kids help and encourage them not be afraid of power tools, but they haven't built anything with me from scratch. Also, my "skills" are very limited to things like this table, shelving, and trim molding. I am working SLOWLY on a built-in bookcase, so hopefully that will turn out well. Trailrunner, we'd love to see your gardening table!! Please post!

I suspect the double hung windows have a locking latch at the center of the sash. the rubber stops prevent pushing the sash all the way up and hitting the lock at the top. The larger plastic stops are just that, plastic stops. Double hung windows are typically not intended to have the sashes pass each other under normal use. The best one can get the window open would be with sashes immediately in front of each other. the stop assure that there is always room to push the window from one end back to where it started. Just like the stops on the slider. the doors are not typically intended to completely nest with the egdes matching. I assume that the picture with the "wavy" (privacy) glass is your bathroom. The top sash has a lip to push/pull the sash and the lip extends over the inner sash. The larger stops likely prevent one from opning the inner sash and contacting the lip on the outer sash. Looking at Amerimax's website their replacement window photos all show the stops that the installers put on your windows. You can modify them if you want but I suspect the assembly instructions direct installers to put them in to minimize the likelihood of sashes interfering with each other during typical operation. Without the stops the user needs to really pay attention to the potential interferences to avoid physical contact / damage. Stop are likely set to avoid conflict when tipping windows out for cleaning as well.