yeh i find usually the best advice is to do all you prunning a couple or so times a year in blocks and go hire a shredder machine, then you maybe can do bigger branches and hire a chipper. keep in mind no matter how much you pay the common garden type shredder is exactly that a shredder with some chipping capabilities. some gardeners over here get a bloke in with a chipper and they get lots of stuff ready and then he does the big cutting, too easy realy. they get an added bonus he takes any unchippable stuff/or gen' rubbish to the tip free. and look at the action of the machine if you are going to buy, for me i like the models that will shred fibrous plants ie.,. gingers, bananas, palm fronds etc.,. flail type shredders won't. and last but not least don't buy from a discounter like all machinery at the end of the day you get what you pay for, go talk to a specilaist store. if you go the hire path you may be able to try different models and see which suits you best. the best thing about hiring is you don't have that machine sitting there doing nought most of the year, and servicing or break downs are not your care. len Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page

Gah. OK. For the record, I am not in debt. I do not shop to the point where it affects my life in a negative way. But yes, I do love beautiful things and every now and then I buy myself one of them. I refuse to allow this to somehow reflect on my suitability for restoring an older home. On that note, given that I have no experience, how does one go about getting experience if not having any is a serious enough lack to possibly can the whole idea? As noted in previous posts, I have no experience. I am not an idiot. I am fully aware of how contractors would look at me were I to roll up alone all 'omg! I have no idea what I'm doing! teehee!' - they'd hear KACHING ringing in their heads. This thread is for information, not to hire people, my straightupness here would not carry over to convo's with contractors. I need to do research and I also need an advocate of some sort, possibly a hired advocate, not someone who works for the realtor or who has ties to any contractors etc. I get this. And of course I'm excited! This is something I have dreamed of doing since I was about 14, and now I can realistically consider it, finally. Lovmkitchen, that Iowa house is great - it looks like it belongs on the prairie - is Iowa prairie? Edge of prairie? Heh. I don't know, it makes me think of wide open skies and fields. Interesting to see prices, too. I definitely think I got the wrong idea about average house prices coming from BC. it's not even that Nova Scotia is so wildly cheap, it's that BC seems to be inexplicably expensive. Vancouver I udnerstand, but little hick towns on the island (one of which I'm from)? Who is paying half a million for a fixer upper there?

I haven't been here in a while, I have missed seeing and hearing about all the new kitchens! I thought I would post an update, now that we have lived with our kitchen for over a year. I really love my two tone cabinets, the cherry base cabinets are warm and inviting and the mushroom wall cabinets keep the kitchen from being too dark. After all the angst of the decision, I am so glad I went with the solid wall of cabinets. And I am still in awe of my granite, do not for one single second regret the money spent on it! We ended up doing a stacked beige subway tile for the backsplash, with a herringbone pattern behind the range and I am very happy with my choice. As for appliances, I still love my microwave drawer, I use it every day and the only complaint I have is that the panel doesn't light up well. And I absolutely adore my fridge, love it so much we got the same one for my son! The produce drawer is still my favorite feature, and the ice maker my least favorite. We have never run out of ice, but we are a small family and when we have company, we always use bagged ice. But I can see this being an issue for a larger family without a second fridge with ice maker. I am very happy with my Bosch dishwasher, it does a great job and I've never had the goop issue some were having when I bought mine. The big miss in my kitchen is the range, I should have gone with induction. And I really dislike the surface of my range, it is a pain to keep clean, I miss the ease of my Thermador cooktop. And if I had it to do over again, I would have done drawers in the two base cabinets that don't have them. I still cannot believe how much more organized my kitchen is because of the drawer bases! I had a hard time wrapping my brain around how they would function for me, but after living with my kitchen for a year, I would do an all drawer kitchen in a heartbeat. Overall, I am so grateful to have a kitchen that is both functional and beautiful, and I so appreciate all the advice and encouragement I got from this forum!

SKI, A very good post above. I researched composites before I had my deck built with a hollow PVC product. I think your comments about them are pretty much spot on. "Hollow PVC has been around for about 8 years, is a niche product and has really never taken off. Consumers often do not like the springyness, hollow sound and creaking. They have fastening challenges." As vanguardbuilders mentions a tighter joist spacing takes care of any perceived bouncyness. Not sure about the hollow sound, but there definitely is some creaking. It's most noticeable in cooler temps when the boards contract. During hotter temps its not very noticeable. I definitely agree that their are fastening challenges. Hollow PVC is a cost effective product, but IMO requires a lot of Homeowner/contractor interaction to ensure the deck gets built correctly. I think this alone would make it an unpopular choice for many. To the mods whoever you are, Why does this forum lack the basics of quoting text that other forums have?