Those trees used to shade that complex, and I'm sure the tenants appreciated it during the summer. They'll probably have tufts of twigs at the ends of those stumpy branches for a long time now. That will be interesting to see!! How do I find the City Forester? I know Texas Parks & Wildlife used to have an Urban Forester, I heard him give a talk about the urban forest once, but have no idea how to get in touch with him, there's no link on the TPW website. A search for "urban forester houston" yields a landscaping company. Way to go, Ken. private means private, even if what they do is butchery. God forbid, they should cut them out and replace them with Bradford pears, though! I found a city ordinance that regulates the planting of street trees, but I think these are a bit too far back to be street trees. And I learned that the city of Houston requires each new house to have one street tree in the front yard, and it can be a new tree or existing tree. Wow, I had no idea. I have noticed that the landscapers usually stick a small live oak in the yards of new houses, even if the yard is the size of a postage stamp. I can just imagine the damage to foundations and driveways when those trees get large. The tree canopy will be larger than the yards. Very good, Ghost! Thanks! This post was edited by eahamel on Thu, Jan 31, 13 at 20:30

April, You keep starting new threads so it is difficult to review what advice you have received. Contractor #1 Option 2 is the nicest combination in my opinion. It is a Infinity 2 stage furnace (58UVB)and 2 stage condenser (24APA7). You could consider upgrading the furnace to the 58MVC for about $400 in order to get the middle stage. I still think the 58UVB qualifies for a Carrier rebate. Please check this. I have not heard of a Carrier armour coil. I know the tin plated coil is an improvement of Carrier's old leaky coils. This is the coil I have. The contractor needs to size the equipment by doing a heat loss and gain calculation. This is known in the industry as a Manual J calculation. Have each contractor explain how he calculated the size. I assume the summers in Michigan are not too hot, so the 3 ton unit may be the correct size.

suzannesl - I saw that picture on the website too and that was part of the reason I was worried about it being dark. I guess since I have them IRL, I should stop worrying about that. I have noticed that there are some little bubbles in the 'frosting' of the glass and that does cause me some concern. My contractor did ask me to decide what I wanted to do, but I'm thinking that he just wanted to know that now to take into account how much labor to charge for the estimate. I was planning to tile behind the hood, so I am guessing that I'll need to know sooner rather than later so that they can get it put up back there. As far as the floors go - I've already had two plumbing issues that didn't cause problems for my tile floors, but did cause the basement ceiling to be replaced. It was damaged several months later and will be replaced again with the reno when they run the gas lines anyway. Pricey problems and I worry about it. My contractor told me that he has constant insurance claims after power outages for people that don't think to empty the ice tray or silly things like that. Sounds like me... But they are so beautiful. remodelfla - do you know if those tiles are from Shaw? Because they have a clear version of the tile and it looks completely identical to what you have! Funny! Thanks for the tile source! I'm going to order several samples from there. Can't hurt! :)

Thanks for all your comments... I am still painting---I work a LOT and have little extra time, so I have to fit this project in an hour or so a day. However, I really do love Ivoire and I am SO happy I tried it. It just seems to be the perfect color for my things. *grin* P.S... I used the "Cashmere" paint and also LOVE that. I have never painted with SW before, but now that I know there is a store in my town, I will be a loyal customer! The finish is so much nicer than even the top of the line Behr or Valspar paints. I even prefer it to BM. YAY!