mkeister: Well, the first thing that I would recommend is to read Eleanor Perenyi's book: "Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden." It is still - by far - the best garden book ever written. Read the chapter on "Failure" and take heed. This book should be available at or through your local public library - either on the shelf or through their interlibrary loan system. It would be better to have this book added to your own personal library. As for the 'value' of this book, I'd also recommend that you read the reviews of this book at Amazon.com. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/037575945X/qid=1130287922/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-8113067-2564903?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 Copies of this book in used, but excellent to fine condition can also be found at either of the two sites below. http://www.abe.com or http://www.alibris.com The second recommended book is the "Color Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses: Sedges, Rushes, Restios, Cat-Tails, and Selected Bamboos" by Rick Darke, who also wrote "The American Woodland Garden: Capturing the Spirit of the Deciduous Forest." In addition to the sources noted above, you may sometimes find this and other excellent books at bookcloseouts.com or at overstock. A more condensed, but very excellent version of his "Color Encyclopedia" is "The Timber Press Pocket Guide to Ornamental Grasses" also authored by Rick Darke as well. I have his "American Woodland" garden in my own personal library and will soon add the "Timber Press Pocket Guide". Hope this information is more than useful in your gardening endeavors. Bill

YYour systems need fresh air to be efficient. If units blowing up a tree do not need to block air flow or it with return back to the system MFG rule of thumbs if units is 36" tall at less 36" from ANY plants ( but being a service tech. We love dirty unit and lack for air flow "SERVICES CALL" OF DIE SYSTEMS. UNIT THAT CANNOT GET FRESH AIR TAKE AWAY EFFICIENT. COST YOU MORE MONEY ON YOUR LIGHT BILL. TREE SHADING UNITS MEAN ON RAIN TO HELP CLEAN THE COILS. COVER UNIT NO ROOM TO WORK ON OR TO WASH THIS UNIT WILL PUMP THE OIL OUT OF THE COMPRESSOR :) MONEY :) TO MAKE. PS IF NEW SYSTEM THIS WILL VOID ANY MFG WARRANTY.

Blufish, The helpful part of it is that the house has a character and nature all its own, even if it isn't particuarly appealing to most people. Without massive amounts of money it's never going to be anything other than what it now is - a modular home. Essentially, Kennebunk said the same thing I said -- you can't make it an "old" house without major rebuilding, and major amounts of money. It would, in the long run, probably be a lot cheaper to either remove the existing place and build a new "old looking" home on the current site, or move. The Roanoke area of Virginia has a plethora of homes that are authenticly old, and likely about the same price as what the original poster would have to spend wrapping the current house in a cacoon of "old," combined with the current mortgage. I live in Northern Virginia, and over the past few years I've seen many people attempt to take homes from one period and magically transform them into homes from some other period. Uniformly they don't look right, they cost a ferocious amount of money, and the owners find themselves living a construction zone for months or years. But, just so that I'm "helpful," I'll offer this advice if the owner wants to proceed with this project. 1. Repitch the roof and put in two or three dormers. 2. Clad the exterior in brick, or wood clapboards. 3. Install larger windows. This is perhaps the most probelematic issue of all. Modular homes generally follow very tight design parameters, and changing the window openings will likely require major reconstruction of the entire front wall -- not just a new header. At that point, it's time to call in an architect. 4. Put a deep front porch on it the whole way across the front and around the side. Congratulations. You've just recreated this: A deep south style plantation style cottage of the kind that is more at home in coastal Georgia or Louisiana, but certainly not at home in south west Virginia. At its heart, though, it's still a modular home with all of that system's inherent strengths AND weaknesses.

Actually I think I just found the way. In Europe we use lime very commonly. It is very inexpensive. Environmentally friendly. Easy to use when we get the right consistance. And it is ised for that purpose! It seems to be complicayed to find in the US. Or very expensive! But from my research the equivalent is type s lime to mix with water and eventually pigments or paint if we want to add color. I saw a house the other day with the same stones and I am pretty sure that what they did. I took a picture from the car. (The stones around the door). Quite a few houses on that street have the same stones as mine. So my guess is that these people made a white wash on theirs H#me d#pot nd big stores like that do not carry lime (except the kind for gardening purposes). I'll try the "around the corner" store. If not I found some On amaz#on but very expensive with expensive shipping! But overall still way cheaper than anything else (just I find silly to pay $40 for a 50lb bag when it really cost $10) My father is still here and he has already used lime many times so he knows how to mix it. But I will do the work. The wall is facing south. It is 90 degrees . Even I will have to work early in the morning. Can't have him to that in the sun!! PS I am not talking about hot burning lime here. Simply hydrated lime used in construction. Can't wait to do it!