Here in OK, we just had two new 1.0 hp pump motors (hot tub jet and hot tub circulation motors) put in last Saturday at around $600/$650 each, installed. I don't know exactly because it was covered by our home warranty. Thank goodness once the new pump was installed, we could test the heater and sand filter for the hot tub and found that shockingly, they both worked fine. We had no measurable amount of CYA in our pool, so we were able to de-swampify with large amounts of chlorine bleach from the grocery store and brushing and vacuuming. My friend joked that the Walmart cashiers probably think I'm cleaning up a crime scene every time I roll up with a cart full of bleach. For our 35K gallon pool, it takes about 4 of the 182oz jugs of generic unscented clorox ($2.95 each jug) to bring to shock level. To de-swampify, it took us about 12 or 16 jugs total, added in the right increments at the right time (started just at dusk the first night with 5 jugs, then hit it with two more about 10 am, then a few more a few hours later, and keep going like that so my chlorine levels stayed high for at least 36 hours. that is not exactly the textbook way to do it, but I didn't have the drop chlorine test that measures really high levels of chlorine, mine just goes to 5, and when it dropped below 5, I added another jug. in 24 hours you can see blue but cloudy water. continuing to vacuum all the leaves from the bottom is crucial, because the leaves will just raise your chlorine demand and it's a vicious cycle. as we started to be able to see the bottom of the pool, it was a lot easier to see where the leaves were to get them out. brushing stirs up the cloud and makes it so you can't see again, but must be done to break the algae's grip on the pool surfaces.) Also, rather than spending $1K on water for your pool, I would budget that for an automatic cleaner of some variety if you don't have one already. We are shopping around for one now, and cannot wait to have it! Since we are out of swamp mode (although we had a revisit to swamp when we had a huge storm with giant hail that knocked tons of leaves in the pool. it's taken us 9 days to get it back to clean, so we need to work on how diligent we are to bring it up again) we are tired of scooping leaves all the time and want a cleaner to help us!

Dojey - don't be embarrassed, I think sometimes that we can become so accustomed to having our homes in a state of disruption and dysfunction that we forget how we used to cook and have real food in the house. I think that happened to us last time. We still have not reverted back to getting into cooking everyday, and it has been two and a half years since we got the kitchen back functioning. Sometimes renovation just sits and we do other things instead. I still have one kitchen cabinet door to sand and stain. Out of 30 doors and 20 drawer fronts, I missed one. Turns out it was sitting at my carpenter's shop. Two summers I have not gotten it done. THIS summer, I am going to do it. And I will sand and re-stain old trim and install it, too. I used a re-used kitchen in my remodel. I like your plan. The work area is big enough to not feel cramped. You have the island to "defend" your space from interlopers, you have extra space on the right side of the stove, and you have LOTS of storage. The horizontal upper cabs are nice and modern. In my first kitchen remodel, in 2003, I had 6 running feet of 8 ft. tall pantry cabinets. They were just cabinets with shelves, no pull-outs. We only had room for 12 inch deep cabs, and they worked fine. I did have room at the end for a utility cab, and it was 2 ft deep. It held the vacuum cleaner and other cleaning supplies. In my experience, a 2 ft deep cabinet that is just shelving is TOO deep for storing foodstuffs. Cans and boxes will get lost. Your cabs by the garage look like they might be that deep, so I wanted to warn you. If you use pull-outs for food, that deep is good. Deep cabs are good for appliances, but not for food. My current home had a horrendous 40" deep by 30" wide pantry cab. I had to stack foodstuffs on stair-step shelves along the sidewalls, put anything in the middle in baskets, and use a grabber to pull baskets to the front to get things. It was one of the reasons we remodeled. They should make the builders who create such stupid designs live in them before they sell them to an unsuspecting public! Welcome back. Are you feeling excited to get working on your new kitchen?

First, let me say that understanding how water behaves in soils and the impact too much or too little water has on your ability to keep plants healthy is a primary requirement for proficiency, so I heartily recommend you gain a good understanding of the concept explained in this thread (click me). An appropriate soil is one you can water to beyond the point of saturation, so you're flushing the soil of accumulating salts when you water, w/o having to worry your soil will remain saturated long enough that it imposes limitations by inhibiting root function or compromising root health. There are lots of ways to combine ingredients, but essentially the concept centers on particle size and the individual particles ability to hold water internally. Air in the rhizosphere (root zone) is as important as water, so the higher the quality of your soils, the easier it is to maintain plants in good health - all other factors being equal. I use this as the basis for all my bonsai plantings: It's equal parts (by volume) of screened fir or pine bark, screened Turface, and screened crushed granite or cherrystone (quartzite). You should water on an 'as needed' basis, not on a schedule. Buy a 1/4 0r 5/16" wooden dowel rod, cut it in half, and sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener. Insert it into your soil to check for moisture content. Water only when it first comes out clean, dry, and not cold on the inside of your wrist. Over-watering and poor soils are both limiting; together, they are deadly, so learn to avoid over-watering. "Should I gather additional materials to substitute sunlight??" I'm unsure what you mean. There is no substitute for sunlight, but some high quality light sources can come close. I use Dyna-Gro's Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 for almost everything I grow, including my trees. I use it because I've conceptualized the ultimate goal for fertilizing plants in containers and that fertilizer offers the best chance I've found to realize the goal. Simply put, our focus in supplying supplemental nutrition to our plants should be on ensuring all the nutrients plants normally assimilate from the soil are A) IN the soil and available for uptake at all times, B) in the soil in a favorable ratio - that is to say in a ratio that closely mimics the ratio at which the plant actually uses the nutrient, C) at a concentration high enough to ensure no nutritional deficiencies, yet still low enough to ensure the plant's ability to take up water, and the nutrients dissolved in that water won't be impeded (by a high concentration of solubles in the soil solution). Most fertilizers ensure this goal is unreachable. The FP 9-3-6 puts it within grasping distance; grasping distance because I tend to believe there are so many variables associated with "the perfect nutrient supplementation program" that it's doubtful anything would be perfect for any length of time. There is only one degree of 'dead', so removing wouldn't cause any physiological issues, and it doesn't appear the plant's appearance would suffer if the dead trunk was removed, so do as you choose about that point. You asked about supplemental reading. The info in the second link is probably the most important concept a container gardener can gain an understanding of, but please consider the first link as a primer and read that first. Once you get a good understanding of how to produce productive soils, half the battle is won. IOW - it's very important. But again, do read the first link offered first. A basic overview of growing in containers. This one contains info that will help you maintain healthy root systems, which are critically important (prerequisite, actually) to a healthy plant. This one is a discussion About Fertilizing Plants in Containers. Al

As the guide said juniper needs to be outside to go through a period of cold dormancy. Inside it is hard to achieve that. Is there a cold spot right next to a window with no direct sunlight and no heater next to the window? You can try keeping the plant in a box with one side open towards the window and keeping the box right against the window. The idea will be to let the cold outside keeps the box inside cool. Hopefully it will create a small micro-climate of cooler conditions there. Juniper like to be dry and so water only when it feels dry. Use a chopstick and poke in the soil to get a feel for how dry it is. No need to fertilize now since it will not be growing. Around April it should start showing signs of growing again. That will be the time to repot, prune, pinch and shape. For soil read this forum post to get started. It talks about soil mixes for containers. Bonsai is no different. You want to make or buy some version of the "gritty mix". Look at bonsaijack.com or dallasbonsai.com for premixed soils. In the mean time read up on juniper care and styling on the internet. There is no hurry. There are a lot of good videos on youtube. I just do not have links handy.