HY, you are not alone! We've all soooo been there. And time after time, we go there again. And again. We persevere and find joy and beauty in our gardens before the next infestation or plague...which occurs right before another frantic forum post and more pest eviction or disease fighting strategies and then more joy and beauty. We gardeners are nothing if not resilient. For the record, your garden looks 1000x more glorious than mine during its low points. PAOK is gorgeous! Somewhere, I have a stack of really embarrassing photos of my garden at its worst. I'll see if I can dig it up so we can all shudder together. Ha, ha. I'm firmly in Jeri's camp where chemicals are concerned, but I also know that sometimes, one-big-hit before organic methods can produce immediate practical and psychological relief. IF I hit a few plants with something toxic, I'd be very selective and then water thoroughly after success. These days, I'm more likely to cut something way back, douse with the strongest but least damaging environmentally friendly solution (Safer products and others) and repeat while bulking up natural predators and plant nutrients. My current antagonists are cane borers that I'm battling with Elmer's Glue All. For #%}€*&$! aphids, I use insecticidal soap. For squirrels, I cage small plants and rose starts. For years of persistent blackspot or rust, I rip out the rose and choose a resistant variety. I (almost) never use toxic chemicals in my garden, but once or twice, I've been cornered into the unthinkable. There was once a ground wasps nest in the parking strip and under our sidewalk where oodles of kids run by and strollers roll by all day long. It couldn't be easily or safely removed, and the situation was looking very risky. My husband and I resorted to chemicals. I mourned each time I saw the straggling wasps trying to return to their poisoned and blocked nest. In TX, I know that fire ants can be a real danger in a garden. I once stepped in a nest. Enough said. I hope more forum members from your region join in with suggestions. I wish I could offer more in the way of advice, but my climate and my pests are temperate rainforest ones. In the meantime, know that you are not alone, and you and your garden will survive and thrive! Carol

I think your bathroom looks very pretty so far and I like your countertop choice. I don’t see a pink tone on my monitor. Is it possible that the lighting in your room is not upgraded to daylight LEDs? That makes a huge difference. Before you judge paint samples, make sure your lighting is already installed because paint will look really different in different lighting. I’m sorry I don’t have a specific color suggestion except to say that it helped me to think of my favorite colors, and then to pick a very light gray or griege that had my favorite colors as undertones. My favorite colors are green and blue. But for paint colors I don’t want bold greens and blues all over. For example in my bedroom, I chose SW Silverpointe which is a very light gray that has a green undertone. For my family room I chose SW Monorail Silver, which is a light gray with a blue undertone. Make sure your lighting is all installed and then bring a few paint samples home. Good luck!!

Start by conceiving of what benefits/results you'd like to have -- not how you think you need to achieve them. Can't figure out from your photos how your yard fits together. You need to stand where you can see it all, looking outward from the house, and take a series of slightly overlapping photos that show it end to end and where the house shows in the first and last picture. You'd be standing at one spot and pivoting.

You guys are all full of good tips! Hope it's going well ATK. We have four cats. Although we are pretty tidy, and have gotten rid of stuff as a results of a few moves over the last 16 years, it's crazy keeping up on the cat hair, dust and litter boxes, so I totally get where you're coming from. I recently bought a stick vacuum and I love it. I didn't spring for the Dyson, but it was another one recommended here somewhere and I found it on Amazon. It probably doesn't work as well as a Dyson but it works pretty darn well and has been life changing when it comes to cleaning. I no longer have to get the central vac out or lug our full size Dyson around the house. I vacuum up the tracked litter more often because the stick is so easy to carry around. It's super each to grab each day or a couple of times daily to hit the higher traffic spots. Another thing I did is created "cat designated" spots around the house so they don't sleep just anywhere. It took some experimenting to find out what they each prefer as far as pet bed, quilt, blanket, etc., In the winter I use heated beds or put heated mats under their cat quilts. So now they sleep on only those spots and I no longer have to clean cat hair from non-protected spots. I also throw a light quilt or sheet over our bed so I'm not constantly washing quilts and comforters. I also began using Dr. Elsey's Ultra litter just recently - while it still tracks, it's not nearly as bad as all the others, and it's less dusty, too. And believe me, I've tried them all. One other thing that has helped is that once everything has a place, I have to take care of items as soon as I'm done using them or come across them. When I'm done with laundry, I fold and put away - I don't save it for later anymore. When I find an oddball thing, I go put it in its place rather than stash it somewhere to try and remember to deal with later. I got sick of trying to remember where I stashed those things when I finally needed them, or frantically cleaning before someone was coming over. It's nice to have kitty cat company, and I love our cats dearly, but I do wonder (and fantasize!) what it's like to have a house with no pets in it. We have probably 6-7 more years at most with our current cats, and then may just foster. A friend of mine is a single woman in her 40's and she loves fostering one cat at a time. She has fostered three cats for the local shelter during this time of Covid.