Mindy, The stain is translucent, thin and watery. I got it at Homedepot. You choose the color you want from the stain collection and they color it for you like they mix paint colors to order. I just did it so I don't know how it will wear. I put in 2'x2'cement stepping blocks from our driveway to the front walk and sprayed that too, so we'll see. I tried brushing it on but it pooled in odd spots and looked terrible so that is why I went to a spray application. Much better.With spray the gallon went farther too. Try it in an out of the way place. You will have to cover any plants or grass nearby to protect them from spray. Don't do it on a windy day and it should not rain for at least 24 hours or more after application. I wore safety glasses when I did it. I'll check back in case you have more questions. I still have to learn how to post pictures, but I will soon.

Thanks for the feedback. I was scared of the stucco, but completely undecided. That cinches it. Now, does anyone have any suggestions for brands of paint for the ceiling or concrete blocks? Ceiling paint goes on tomorrow. I'll be at Porter Paint or Ben Moore at 7am tomorrow for that. May flip a coin since there is practically no chance of feedback before then. But I have a couple of days about the walls. Was so excited about Ben Moore masonry paint, but can't find anyone around here who carries it. Most dealers (I called 10) didn't even know they make it. Any suggestions for wall color would be welcome. Right now orange is in the lead. Hey, it can be painted over. Right? I'm really stressing about the brand of masonry paint so please give some feedback.

Hazel, Mostly I use bamboo/wood skewers and toothpicks. In order to cut through the stem of the plant, the worm has to be able to completely wrap itself around the plant. So, if you insert 1, 2, 3 or 4 toothpicks or skewers or toothpicks in the soil when you transplant (or after seeded crops like beans sprout) and have them close to the stem, the cutworm cannot wrap itself completely around the stem because the skewer or toothpick gets in the way. It works amazingly well and is much less tedious than making cutworm collars from tinfoil or cardboard. The smaller seedlings get two toothpicks, one on either side of the stem. Larger plants, like tomatoes and peppers, get the skewers. I break a skewer in half and insert one half on either side of a stem. It likely would work with only one toothpick or skewer but I use two for added insurance. If it is a really bad cutworm year (based on how many I've dug up out of the mulch, I think the potential exists for it to indeed be a bad cutworm year), I might use 4 toothpicks on bean and pea plants because the cutworms go after them relentlessly. Every now and then we have an epic cutworm year where the cutworms and their evil cousins the army worms are mowing down entire gardens one plant at a time. The last time we had a year like that, which might have been in 2010, I sprayed my entire garden with a caterpillar killer containing Bt 'kurstaki' about once every 10 days and still barely saved it. That's the only year I've ever used Bt heavily like that because, in general, I prefer to have a garden full of butterflies and moths. That year, though, there were too many of the moths that give us cutworms and army worms, so there wasn't even a choice---the only choice was to fight them aggressively and have a garden or to not fight them and to have no garden. I have been horrified by how many cutworms I am finding in my mulch, and in the decomposed mulch in the pathways (as I shovel it up into adjacent beds before planting them). I don't know if it is because we had so much rain last year or what, but I'm probably finding 10 to 20 times more cutworms than I've ever found in springtime before. The good thing about finding them is that I can drop them into a bowl of soapy water and drown them, and each one I drown is one less cutworm that will be trying to eat plants in my garden. I had been feeding them to the chickens, but now they already are tired of them and won't even eat them. That's when you know you have spoiled, lazy poultry---when they turn up their noses at nice, juicy cutworms and walk away. It is the same way with grasshoppers. In the spring, the poultry chases, catches and eats every grasshopper they can find. In the summer when the fields dry out and the hoppers migrate en masse to irrigated lawns and gardens, the chickens get tired of them and eventually stop eating them too. I just bought another two boxes of toothpicks at Wal-Mart last night because I have several flats of flowers, herbs and veggies to transplant today. I couldn't buy skewers because they were sold out, but I think the open package of them that I do have in my tool bucket will be enough to protect the tomato plants I'm transplanting today. Dawn

Laurel- I was hoping that was the case. That means that any standard drywall hanger can be used for pictures and mirrors and such because you should have enough depth for the typical screw or nail that holds the fastener to go in without hitting the block. You should drill a tiny hole through the sheetrock and insert a nail to determine just what that depth is. As far as bookshelves, it depends on what kind and how much weight. If you are doing adjustable shelving with brackets and standards, like these: then the screws need to go into the wooden furring strips behind the sheetrock to be secure. If you are using wire shelving in closets, like this: the sheetrock should be able to support it as long as you don't load the shelves heavily (although it would be best if these could be secured to the furring strips, too). If you are planning to mount floating shelves or load the shelving with a lot of heavy stuff, like books, then this would be trickier. What kind of shelving do you have in mind? And, by the way, there is no need to hire a professional for this unless you have zero DIY skills.