That’s around the going rate. I work with an ASID designer. She charges $95.00 per hour and buys the products at her cost, then marks up 33%. Sounds like a lot, but you are still getting the product for less than if you went into the Design Center on your own. Have your perused the designers here on houzz in your locale? Give it a try…under “Find Professionals” choose decorators, put in your zip code and see who pops up. A profile and the designer’s reviews should give you an idea of what’s what. One caveat: you probably will be asked to sign a contract, with all its provisions. Just keep that in mind.

Make sure (I don't know this for a fact) that even if your accounts aren't linked, if your debit card account is overdrawn by something fraudulent that the bank won't take funds out of your other accounts to cover it. I would think you could recover that, but I've heard nightmare stories of problems with debit card fraud recovery, vs pretty painless recovery for problems with credit cards. Like others have said, you can only be held liable for $50 of fraudulent charges on a credit card, which is almost always waived unless you did something like let the fraud continue after you knew about it. The rest of any loss would be on the bank/credit card company. That's why they call you about any suspicious charges on a card...not to protect YOU but to protect THEM. If they don't reach you, they can just freeze the card so there are no more charges until it's straightened out. I use my debit card on an account that carries a high balance because it's interest bearing and pays way more interest than I can get for cash anywhere else. But I have to make 10 debit transactions per month to receive the high interest. I only use it at stores I trust, like my food co-op, Starbucks, Tj's and maybe the bird food store. Never at gas stations or restaurants or online. I think using a debit card many places is playing with fire. Much more dangerous than linking a credit card to paypal.

Thank you! I have most of the tools (not the cat’s claw or cleat - will have to google those). I do a lot of finish work. The foundation is piers. Under the house in the crawl space are several concrete cinderblock stacks that support the first floor. That is all inside the brick skirt, which I believe is about 3” thick (clay bricks with holes). The floor of the crawl space is dirt, but it has been covered with a thick ”plastic-ish” vapor barrier and the crawl space sealed/encapsulated with dehumidifier. In other words, the crawl space is now clean and climate controlled, but the base is soft (dirt). The 2x10s appear to sit on top of the brick skirt. So I assume the brick skirt provides support for the frame. When I take pics of the crawl space, that may become more clear. I probably have to remove more subfloor to see everything that’s going on. The roof shingles were recently replaced (full roof replacement) and they did not charge me extra for decking, so I assume the roof structure underneath was in good shape. It is a steep roof (guessing 57 degrees) so it was not subjected to a lot of wear. With regard to the subfloor, I think the crawl space installer was mistaken about what was damaged. I have to spend some time in the crawl space to test all the subfloor. I think most of the damage is along the back edge of the house behind the deck. If there is other damage, it would probably be related to plumbing leaks. I do know that the bathtub drain leaked and that probably damaged the subfloor underneath. The good news about the subfloor is that it is 2 layers: 5/8” plywood over 1/2” plywood, with a black vapor barrier in between. I plan to patch it with 3/4” advantix and 3/8” plywood underlayment inside the house, with any necessary blocking between joists to stabilize. At most, the damaged subfloor to be removed is within 20” of the exterior wall. I’ll be adding a 1/4” hardiebacker layer and porcelain tile planks. With the piers cinderblocks supporting the double subfloor, I feel pretty good about the stiffness of the floor. It feels solid. (I removed the carpet months ago and covered it with plastic sheeting until I can get it tiled, so I have been walking on it.) The upper window is an issue, but again, I think that was flashing-related - there is a flashed metal platform under that window and the backsplash from that probably eroded the siding and trim around the window. I plan to replace that damaged wood with water-resistant trim. The window is directly above the middle of the kitchen ceiling, and that ceiling appears to be fine. I’ll go over these suggestions and do more research this week. Thank you so much for the leads!

I have a few boxwoods that have been trimmed in more of a square shape. I would like to learn to trim these in a rouded form. Is there a template I could make to accomplish this or should I just start trimming and hope I can get the form I want? I see beautiful rounded boxwoods in magazine photos ad would love to reproduce this in my garden. Thanks for any help.........