Has anyone used either MS International Crema Ivy Bamboo Stone Pattern Mosaic Polished Marble Floor & Wall Tile, which we saw at HD, or Jeffrey Court Egyptian Forest Mini Pencil Marble Mosaic (12x12), on bathroom walls? Thanks! Robin

Well, lets see: a heat pump IS an A/C that can run in both 'directions'. You don't need extra electrical wiring for that (the heat) to work. It would be good to know if the unit requires both the neutral and the ground. It would also be nice to know how you connected it at the unit. Scenario 1: It requires two hots, neutral and ground. You connected two hots and neutral but no ground. It runs happily. But it is not a safe installation since the unit is not grounded. Scenario 2: It requires two hots, neutral and ground. You connected the two hots and ground but not the neutral. Then it would depend on whether the indoor unit uses a 120v blower. This probably would not work. but it might. Scenario 3: It requires two hots, neutral and ground. You connected the two hots and neutral. There is an internal jumper between neutral and ground. This is similar to how older 220v appliances used to be connected. It runs happily. IIRC, new code does not allow this type of installation (for appliances). The best long term solution will be to run the 14/3 from the box to the unit. Run it outside if necessary.

soivos: Stonescapes is availble through NPT. You will find many people on this site say that you should only use Pebble Tec because only PT will stand behind the installation if you have any trouble. A good reason to go with Pebble Tec. That aside, our PB has said that there are plently of competing pebble products that are just as good. It comes down to the expertise and abilities of the applicators... as long as the workmanship is good the actual product used doesn't make much difference. Our PB is one of the best in our area and is currently building his own pool and will be using Stonescapes Tropics Blue. I've been in a few Pebble Tec pools and was turned off by the roughness so we were not going to use pebble until our PB showed us samples of the Stonesscapes mini pebble. We REALLY like the mini pebble but now that I'm used it I would probably like the Pebble Tec too :o) Sorry to be so wishy washy but you will probably like either equally. I don't know if Stonescapes was started by former Pebble Tec people. Best of luck with your build! Here is a link that might be useful: Nation Pool Tile Group (NPT)

I bought a beautiful dark red mini at Walmart after Valentine's last year, marked down to about $2. It had about six little plants crammed into the pot. I separated out the plants and potted them up in their own small pots, about 4" size. They grew and bloomed very well last summer. I just potted one up into about a 3 gal. pot. They don't need great big pots while they're small. From a 4" pot I'd pot up into a gallon pot. Then when the plant roots fill the gal. pot you could plant in the ground or in a bigger pot. They do very well in pots. I think your thought about snipping a bud on a tiny plant with poor roots is good. It might help the plant direct its energies more to growing roots.