What I'm currently buying with my garden money, real and imaginary, is stone dust. After years of doing other things, last fall I finally started laying the dry-stone patio in the middle of one of the gardens. The area underneath Darlow's Enigma is done, so I don't have to worry about measuring and weeding that edge any more. The big problem is I'm not sure I've got enough stone for the entire thing, and don't know where or how to get more. The stone so far has come from the back garden, near Applejack, but the easy stone is pretty much done. There are a couple more pieces I'd very much like to get out before backfilling the whole thing, but then a very long, intricate project will finally be getting done.

CEF- I keep waiting to see a picture of the living room, pretty please with cookie dough on top? ;) So glad you are able to sell the doors and make some money back. Also, yay for having a properly working car!! Pinkelephant- I am so intrigued by your old school house turned home! I'm curious, do you happen to have any pictures from when you first bought it? It sounds like it has already been through a lot and now you are renoing it again. Your little girl is gorgeous!!! Sorry I couldn't help more with layout, it must be b/c of the time of year it is, the board seems kinda dead. You might try posting another new thread asking for layout help. There are some amazing layout guru's on here, you just have to be lucky enough to catch them. Good job though on shoring up walls, getting window openings set at this time of year, I know I don't want to be outside working right now!! OB2B- I.e. refinishing wood floors, I don't envy you. The first place hubby and I bought was a 60 year old house, remodeled in the 80s and they installed wood paneling and carpet over the wood floors. When we bought it, the first thing we did was pull off the paneling and pull up the carpet. We ended up refinishing all of the original floors ourselves before we moved in. I can't imagine trying to refinish wood floors in a house while living there! The dust and fumes are so pervasive!! Good luck! Also, on a personal note? Only 10 lbs?!?! You are doing much better than I am with reno fatigue!! Terri- I really want to see the before/after pics now!!! From the pic with your son, those trees were massive!! It must have made a huge difference to remove them! Annkh- I'm not a skier but those views look amazing!! I'm glad to hear you had a wonderful time on your ski trip. Schick- I, too, have all our taxes done, just waiting for a few forms to come in before submission. Are you good with electrical or are you going to have to hire it out? Our first house had to have the main replaced to bring it up to code, we were able to do it ourselves. When we added my kitchen last year, we added a sub panel for the new addition and, once again (thankfully) we were able to do it ourselves. I have only, in the past few years, come to realize why renovations are so expensive for the average homeowner. I was raised with a dad that taught me plumbing, electrical, car work, etc. (Yes, all work was done with a permit and passed inspection) No wonder others reno budgets are so high!!! I would have never been able to get even a fraction of what I have if I had to pay others to do it. I hope you are able to replace the main without eating into your bathroom reno too much! As for me, we left Saturday afternoon for them to spray insulation. We came back Sunday night with a vomiting kid and I spent the next few days trying to tend to her AND get work done. She was well enough to go to school on Tuesday so when the baby was napping, I pulled (what used to be) the window in the master bedroom which will now be a doorway to my closet. I also went in my "closet" and pulled all the decking off of what used to be the outside of the house. Just need to finish running electrical in there, build a header and install a door, and get drywall up and I will be able to start planning the design of the closet and planning the reno on the master bath. The bricks were delivered yesterday and the brick layers are supposed to be here tomorrow to start bricking. My dad is the one calling the shots on the reno since it is his (and my moms) place and I think he is honestly just ready for it to be done. We hired out pouring the slab. We hired out the septic (necessary since you have to have the proper licensing, etc. for it to pass inspection.) Hired out some framers to do the HIPP roof and now hiring brick layers to come and do the brick work. Most of this (except the septic) we could do ourselves but he is ready to be done and I don't blame him one bit!!

Here's some of mine... ALABAMA - A pretty rose that gets big blooms and grows about 5ft x 3ft. Decent disease resistance; fair repeat. AUTUMN GOLD - Very pretty rose. Mine is an own-root from Vintage Gardens many yrs ago. Blooms pretty decently, altho it could repeat better.. maybe if I fed the roses more often... It stays about 2-3ft x 2ft. BABY TALK - One of my favorites of the "Talk" series. Beautiful light lavender shapely blooms that occasionally get some "oddball"undertones... beigey. Stays very low. like not even 2ft x 2ft. CALICO - One of my favorites. Unfortunately it doesn't bloom as much as I'd like, but when it does, it's gorgeous. Grows about 4ft x 2ft. DISCO - A lovely red with white reverse that blooms really well. Unfortunagtely it fries in the hot summer sun tho. Grows about 4-5ft x 2 1/2ft. INK SPOTS - A gorgeous dark black-red that's hard to accurately photograph. Grows tall... up to 6ft x2-3ft. PILLOW TALK - My favorite of the "Talk" series... Gorgeous orchid-y mauve with yellow reverse ruffled blooms. Good repeat. Grows about 3ft x 2-3ft. SMALL TALK - A nice yellow shorty. Grows about the same as the other "Talk" roses. Not more than about 2 1/2ft x 2ft. Great repeat, lots of blooms.. WILD HONEY - a gorgeous light pink blender that I wish would repeat better than it does. Grows about 3ft x 2ft.

I'm with you, Cori Ann. I love the Delbards and I've been asking Pat at Roses Unlimited for Claude Monet for some time now (no mother plants of other Delbards, sadly). Another place to check for Delbards is Long Ago Roses, since Linda occasionally has some. I sent her cuttings of Edgar Degas, who is truly to die for, so she might have some of him in the future. Back to the OP, Roses Unlimited is the best as far as the combination of variety and quality of gallon plants goes. Their boxes can be a pain, but my trick is to take the rose out of the box, rather than box out of the box. If you slit the tape off those mini boxes in the boxes at the corner, I find you can pull out the pots without ever removing the mini boxes that are stapled in like there's no tomorrow (one more reason they arrive in such good shape). When you buy as many roses from RU as I do, speed is essential. Speaking of which, in case there are other truly insane people like me, Roses Unlimited does bulk orders of roses. If you buy 66 or more roses, you get a price reduction on all the roses (I think 10%) plus dramatically reduced shipping (I think mine drops to $4/rose rather than $7/rose). Maybe you're not insane enough to order that many roses for yourself, but if you can talk your friends and neighbors into a group order it's a great deal. Cynthia