Well, first thing you want to do is check the soil moisture daily and hand water as necessary..remembering that over watering is worse than underwatering. Water the soil, not the plants..especially the roses and after you have trimmed off the leaves and collected up the dropped leaves from the soil (and disposed). Go back to that high-end nursery and give them your complaint and get their advice. They are local and know how to establish plantings in your area. Honestly, the prices you paid for plants and labor seem in line with costs here in Charlotte area. The dripline components seem high priced but small companies tend to do that. Usually, labor to plant is equal to the cost of the plant. That's been my experience over the past 50 years of gardening. And, I have never been satisfied with the quality of labor provided from any commercial landscaper. I usually wind up pulling and repotting all the plant material and mulch (I hate mulch) and resetting them myself after loosening the soil better. The harder job of clearing out lawn areas to establish the beds has been done by the laborers and now you get to personalize the job. As for that mexican petunia..don't worry. They are tremendously hardy. I've divided and root pruned the remains intending to move it ..never got around to doing it and with it half out of the ground it resettled in that position to bloom happily. They have alot of fibrous,cord-like roots and you can divide them anytime so long as it goes into a spot with lots of sun and decent drainage. Those loropetalums are likely to get huge and know that you need to trim them at least once a year, if not twice in your area. They may broaden to overrun your beds so keep that in mind. I have the big ones, one on a trellis and a row of the fastigate form which I've decided is a hoax..just a regular form trimmed and trained to upright growth. You can get control of your situation and personalize with some of your own labor but I wouldn't get too upset about the knockouts. They are easily replaced. Take lots of photographs so you can work from those to visualize what you want in color and form. In the meantime, you can tuck in some large red geraniums in lieu of the knockouts for the instant gratification of color you seek. Just be sure to clear out the dropped,blackspotted leaves as you pull out the knockouts. Come back and keep us informed with description or photos. We'd love to see what you've accomplished and I love to applaud others efforts to overcome a bad situation. You can do it, we know you can and you don't have to do it all at once (in this heat). As I said, tuck in some heatloving annual/semi perennials to your zone like geraniums and enjoy the sparkle of color.

Can you put a description of the problem you see under each photo? And are these problems all on the exterior of the house? Also, it is possible to post more than one photo in a posting. You need to use html coding to do that. If you are having problems doing so, you can post each photo in a different posting under this thread, just don't make each photo a separate thread. This post was edited by dekeoboe on Sun, Dec 1, 13 at 23:22

Amberley- We are going for an unfitted look in our kitchen and have had a pine work island table an 2 jam cupboards custom made and because of budget the rest of the cupboards will be Ikea Tidaholm. We're doing alot of customizing ourselves so although they might not be our first choice in doors they are a simple shaker that we think will blend in well with our other period pieces. I would really like to have the doors sprayed but cannot find a single place in Toronto who will spray them in F&B. Most places like to use their own brand. I know you can't color match BM to F&B and thats why I don't want to waste Old White on the cupboards. I thought it would be easier to pull off a cream/off white color in BM and use Old White on the walls. We're putting on a fairly large addition and doing all our own work so having someone else paint the cupboards is a gift we decided to give ourselves.I guess the other alternative is to break down and just do it.The problem with that is that they have to be sanded as well, my least favorite job, I think I recall that you were going to go with Ikea doors as well or order from Shers(spelling?) Did you paint your own and if so what kind of a finish did you get? Your kitchen is going to be gorgeous and your house looks beautiful as well. It's old is is not? Theres nothing like old American Architecture.

"If they get approved for the loan those far more educated and experienced in evaluating finances will have made the decision." The problem with those far more educated and experienced... is that the risks to them are spread out and will likely have little impact on their day to day lives. The person who locks themselves into a loan (or situation) that they cannot handle, is likely to suffer much more. I agree that a 50% down payment is wonderful and if you were talking about somebody who knew what they wanted out of life and had demonstrated the means of getting it, the risk would be lessened. However, somebody who is still in the midst of trying to figure things out and whose income potential is limited, even a 50% down payment is not optimal.