I was hoping that you all would tell me to rip them out, but to make hubby happy I was entertaining the idea of salvaging some of them. We are in zone 6, Cincinnati. I appreciate the compliments...it is a cute house. It's actually a tri-level sears roebuck-you don't see too many of this style. The proportion of the windows etc keep throwing me off but I just don't have the money to throw at structure right now. I would love to add a small pergola (like this https://www.houzz.com/photos/over-window-pergolajpg-phvw-vp~743169-Window-Pergola-jpg---) over the window to try to balance everything out. I'm a hydrangea, hosta smoke bush kind of girl. I love a relaxed cottage style garden and I feel like it will compliment the house well. Any specific holly suggestions?...I noticed so many beautiful hollies over the winter. I'm so looking forward to getting my hands dirty with this project....I'm still petrified of the bald house look though!

Please join us for the plant swap at my house. It will either be the last weekend in May or the first weekend in June. This will be the 3rd year we are having this and there will be lots of plants to take home and everyone can give you some ideas. It is very laid back..... There is a thread already going on this. As far as your question.....IF you are planning on putting out annuals...then ususally after Derby. The soil needs to be warm. If you are thinking about perennials then it is fairly safe now.

Oh, missed a question! My KD uses a CAD (Computer Aided Design) software package. In her case, it has cabinet styles by maker as well as all of the options available from that cabinet maker. My KD drew up our kitchen w/actual dimensions of walls, doors/doorways, windows, ceiling, appliances, etc. and then designed the kitchen w/cabinetry in that "space". While she is doing this, she uses the elevation view (the view where you see the actual cabinets as if you are standing in front of them) to see how it "looks". I'm sure our KD already has a pretty good idea how things will look even without the elevation view, but she used it anyway. E.g., our KD drew up our kitchen and selected the Omega/Dynasty cabinet maker with the door we had originally selected (Danville). She then presented it to us. It was VERY helpful for me b/c I realized I had all slab drawers and didn't like (OK hated) the look. So, all she had to do was get into the program, change the door style (Artesia and later Anson) and the elevation was automatically redrawn with the new cabinets. When the design was finalized, the program produces the list of items along w/their costs. Granted, it's not quite as easy and quick as it sounds (if you've ever worked w/computer software it always takes tweaking, etc.) BUT, it's much faster and usually more accurate than hand-drawn designs. There is nothing wrong w/hand drawn, it's just a matter of what you're used to and how good you are at it. As with anything, however, the accuracy of both hand drawn and CAD drawings is dependent on the person entering the data/drawing up the design!

Unless you get lucky and get one of the very few Culligan reps with any real water treatment knowledge, Culligan likely won't do a very good job for you. You need pH adjustment (which will make your water even harder), iron removal and softening. Culligan people and equipment aren't generally set up to handle super-bad water. I would call local hotels as well as any food production plants (dairy, vegetable, etc.) to see if they will tell you who they use.