rhizo, absolutely good points and thanks to you and Barbara for your concerns about my safety and of others. I will use my pump although it gives more of a jet, to get a dinky fan you only pump a couple times, too hard on my back. I will try to use up the Sevin in the pump, put up with trying to get good coverage, the Hudson is not such a good one for me. Still take certain precautions but easier to clean out, makes sense. Am thankful you and and Barbara warned me, and I don't think it was intended as a guilt trip or to frighten me. You know whereof your speak. Early in the season, people are using Merit. Sure it works, but it kills bees. I can't do that knowingly. I'm willing to try the Neem, some say it is not helping at all. Also Bye Bye Beetles, but that is repellant only. Have to ship, probably expensive. I'll read up on Neem and try to have some more benign backup, prepare to try some at least early next season if I get through this. For some reason, this is close to driving me over the edge, a week a nuisance; 6 weeks or more, exhausting and so much gets put on hold. I don't have buckets full of them, just seems like a lot for this early. Will pick again this evening, need to go to the store. Just got in, emptied my rain buckets and watered with it already after the rains, couple new plants drooping. Bye bye mosquitoes, try to be a good steward of the environment. So, they're swarming today. Evidently they don't like the Sevin, just saw one on one of those plants, wasn't acting normal. So it definitely works, hate to kill beneficials though. What are they swarming on now? My gorgeous crazy daisies! And some yellow rudbeckia blooms. The good thing is that they are easy to find. The bad thing is that too many missed the soapy water. In front without rose blooms to attract them, I found them on plumbago, monarda, several on my Stargazer leaves, my once bloomer, my clematis, well a few on those last year, too, when I tried to save my blooms. Those perennials are all I have left for now, no way will I spray anything still blooming w/known beekillers and hate to cut off the blooms of those. Daisies will bloom out shortly, guess those will be the sacrificial lambs. Ruds will bloom til fall. I'm too tired to run around and look for any more products today. Still need to hose off my suit from last night, haven't eaten yet, not much appetite, too much worry, family stuff as well. Maybe I can use the dial sprayer for something not so potent, it's pretty nice really, but not any more with Sevin. After researching on the web, they say Sevin can be used on pets. I would never risk that, presumably in lower doses. Fortunately we have Advantage now, pros and cons to that, but I'm down to one short hair cat so haven't had the flea problems I've had in the past, will watch for them. Imagine working for a company that makes this stuff! Should work in hazmat suits which get too hot. I feel sorry when any of those people or firemen are called out on especially hot, cold or bad days. Thanks again.

I can tell you about our KA and Miele experiences. Got the KA built-in (SXS) right after they came out with the/an updated model (June 2007). We chose it (vs others)for these reasons: Cost: better price than the Thermador (?) which was the same fridge (at the time) just different cosmetically, and obviosuly much less expensive than the SZ. Shelves: we liked the shelving configuration/set-up better than any others we'd seen--closest to the Whirlpool, with which we were used to (also liked that it was the same company, sort of; since Whirlpool didn't make built-ins, this was the next closest thing). Ice maker: the KA was the only one (besides Thermador) that had the ice bucket/dispenser in the door, rather than inside the freezer itself. This freed up valuable freezer space. The trade-off is fewer door shelves, but those aren't nearly as useful in our opinion. We did have to have the ice maker repaired twice. First time was within first year (or two?). Parts were replaced under warranty--might have been a recall on those??? Second time, last summer (during a long stretch of unusually high humidity--according to repair guy's wife, everyone was having problems with dripping). Our dispenser door wasn't closing tightly and it would pop open slightly whenever either door (fridge or freezer) was opened or shut, allowing warmer room air to get into the ice bucket (which melted the ice a little and then drip, drip...). Repair guy adjusted/tightened it and knock on wood.... Despite the needed ice-maker repairs, we are very happy with have it. One other thing, I do think lemons stored in the bottom crisper go bad far quicker than they ought--haven't tried storing them in the upper one yet to see if that helps, but should. Everything else stays fresh as long as I would expect. Miele DW: We have the Optima, circa 2007 (they've made changes in the past year or two). Very happy with it. Love the cutlery tray and love that things come out clean! We did have trouble with our glassware clouding. This past winter, a Miele sup'v came out himself to check our DW. Apparently, the water softener sensor wasn't functioning properly, so he replaced the water intake unit (which also contains the sensor). We got new glasses in April, so we are cautiously optimistic that the problem is behind us. Knock on wood and all that!!! HTH!

We have a large family too (not quite as large as yours though :) ) We have the Duet and have been extremely happy with it. There have been no issues whatsoever with it besides having to replace the drain pump because a pocketful of BBs went through the wash. We have found it to be extremely reliable. We have had it over 5 years. I would recommend the Duet to anyone, and if and when we do need to replace ours, I am sure we will go back with the Duet. If your wife wasn't impressed with the cleaning ability of the FL, do you think it could have been due to using the wrong amount or type of detergent? So many people think bigger load so must use bigger amounts of detergent. I know I was guilty of it at first! Good luck!!

Many hardware stores or glass shops will do the repair. There are however dozens and dozens of different types of storm window latches, some of which are obsolete. Hopefully the hardware store would have the type you need, or one that is close enough to use. If you're going to do the work yourself, you'll have to risk breaking the glass, and there are two main ways that the latches are replaced. Some storm inserts are made in such a way that the latch easily slips out without taking apart the storm insert. Those types have a small hole in the bottom and part of the latch drops into the hole to interlock. By pressing the "button" that pokes through the hole it will pop out and is easily replaced. The other type (the most common) is made so that the only way to remove and replace the broken latch is to take apart the storm insert. It's easier than you would think. Here's how: The aluminum storm insert is normally held in place by 4 corner keys that are merely lightly crimped into place. Set the storm insert on a workbench. Take a chisel (I prefer about 1" wide), place it along the inside edge of the aluminum frame in the bottom corner (the chisel would be lightly touching the glass and is pressed against the aluminum, perpendicular to the glass) or into a weatherstrip groove near the corner and gently tap the chisel with a hammer to knock apart the aluminum extrusions in the corner. Once you have one corner pushed apart by about 1/8" you can start the other bottom corner. Continue to knock the bottom rail off, replace the broken latches, and then tap the rail back into place. Use a nail set to recrimp the corners. It seems as if you'd break the glass but that rarely happens (if done correctly). Again, you could have a hardware store do it (it actually only takes about 5 minutes) and let them worry about it. The following link shows about 50+ different types of latches: http://www.blainewindow.com/catalog/itemlist.cfm?catid=193&compid=1&pcatid=74