There are different types of peat depending on whether the peat formed from grasses, mosses, or woody material. The consistency varies a lot too: from a jumble of still recognizable fibers and woody particles to completely decomposed muck. I live in the midst of forested "bogs" (swamps) in a network of extinct glacial lakebeds and pitted outwash drainage valleys where today there is a creek, a river, seeps, springs, and nice little bakwaawong on my property. Yesterday I was out digging in the peat making a channel. I'm always hoping to dig up mastadon bones. My peat has a wide range of types and consistencies depending on depth and where I dig. In places there are trees and shrubs growing. In other places my bog has sphagnum moss growing on the surface. I consider sphagnum moss to be that living green layer and the brown moss under it. The peat is deeper and looks more like dirt or mud. The moss you can tear out by hand. The peat usually need to be dug.

Debbie I am sorry for the loss of your mother. I know how you feel. I lost my mother 2 1/2 years ago and it took me some time to get over her. I am not an attorney, so I cannot give you advise. I am sure your attorney will be able to give you the advise you are looking for. My mother was 60 years old and September 24th was the day her and my father were married. My mother had kidney failure, strokes, high blood pressure and diabetes. I remember her telling me a few months before she passed that she was tired of suffering and wanted to move onto to the next life. I cried with her and told her that we needed her and I did not want her talking like that. A friend of mine told me that if I were in her shoes what would I want? I then decided that I was being selfish and I would not want to live my life that way. My mother had a living will and she made the choice for us to not have her on a ventilator. That was easier for us. We were all in the room encouraging her to move on to the next life and believe me it was tough. Tears are running down my eyes as I am writing this to you. I miss her and love her so much. Set up a shrine somewhere in your home and decorate with things she enjoyed in her life. My pain was shifted about 2 1/2 months ago, Dec. 1st, 2006, when my 20 year old son was killed in a construction accident. Dominick was my baby boy. He was my Christmas baby, because he was born on Christmas. This past Christmas he was to turn 21 and boy was he excited about that. I ask the Lord every day why he took my son and not me? Again, there is a reason for why things happen and we never expect it to happen to us. Keep your father occupied and bring the family closer with weekend gatherings. That seems to help us with our loses. I will pray for you and your family. Ascencion

I enjoyed reading this very much even though my experience of planned communities in Ontario is light years away from those in Alabama, and yet strangely familiar, if you understand my meaning. I've spent most of my adult life in these spec communities, getting progressively larger and more customizable versions. Currently, though part of a community, the home we are in has shed most of the internal telltale signs such as those one piece fibreglass tub/shower enclosures and prefab one size kitchens. (no disdain here just making an observation). I agree that the claustrophobic feeling of tight halls is awful and so spending money on opening them up or adding nearly invisible partitions (half walls, spindles, wide openings) is a really good idea. In my own house I incorporated the halls into the rooms in many cases, making the pathway a suggestion created my furniture, which I prefer. I have seen and lived alongside these front facing garage free homes and do enjoy the street scape more that way. But like you, question whether form is really following function here. Mass produced suburban homes, to me, can often look like an expressionless face, because they design them (at least in my part of Canada) with the family spaces all in the back and the front reserved for lesser used formal and work spaces. Maybe that is an age old design, but the with more uniform facades it can leave communities feeling cold. Walking down the street and being presented with 2 sealed garage doors, and a dark office can make you wonder if the armageddon has come and you missed the signs. I think a viable solution is something I've seen more called 'the widelot'. Which encourages the houses to be wide rather then deep. And backyards shallow but long, across the back of the home. That might help change the landscape.

What a nightmare!! I feel for you so much, I can't imagine going through all of that for so long of time. What stress you must be feeling! Go after the guy and get what is due you, he has made your life miserable. Find a qualified contractor to make it right like you dreamed. Good Luck!