When I was six years old and living in Southeast Missouri, I had no idea what I was doing as I cut off 4 inchea of a small branch of a beautiful, early spring, blooming rose bush. The soil there was a well-draining, sandy loam, and I simply stuck it into the ground near the basement wall of our house. The area seemed to get a nice cooling dappled shade from mature trees around and from being so close to what I think was the east wall of our stone; tall enough to be three or four story, but only two story house. The conditions there must have been perfect to root a rose cutting that early spring. With no training or experience seeing it done previously, I simply put one of my mother's quart sized wide-mouth canning jars over it; kept it watered, and experienced a satisfied, amazement to see that it had rooted and seemed to begin growing in only about 2 weeks or so. Up till then, I had only seen my parents grow a myriad of vegetables and flowers. The fruit trees and vines were already mature and had been planted prior to my birth, so I am not sure if they planted them from seed or not. Well, seeing that little stick, which I stuck in the ground, root; excited me, and I wanted to see it happen again. That was the end of my experiment, though, because by then the temperatures had risen just enough that the next one I tried, it did not root; rather, it simply steamed in the jar. I had fairly quickly transplanted the first stem that had rooted, and it grew to be nice rose bush, but since there was such an abundance of gardens and flowers around, I quickly lost interest in that rose bush. The experience taught me that starting new plants from cuttings can sometimes happen with little or no effort in the right conditions, but if one is not well rounded in the knowledge how to successfully take a plant from cutting to new, thriving plant status, then many such efforts can surely, more often then not, lead to futility; instead of that feeling of excited joy I felt from my first successful rooting. I still consider it amazing that at age 6, I hit upon the right timing and conditions for simply sticking it in some every day foundation soil and covering it with a mason jar, while keeping it watered, and it turned out that such simple efforts were all that was needed from me.

i sell doors and hardware. My opinion is, Must get a feel of all knobs of interest, before you go any farther. Then look at your purchase. Amortize your purchase, this long term or short term. Then look at your budget, but you spent $20k to $100k on a remodel or over $500k plus to build a house and you decided to save money on your locksets? You spent $1,000 plus on an entry door and your going to put a $100.00 lock on it? really? Our sales here are 90/95% Emtek. No one offers what they do. - Randy

The large levers are easier to use if one has arthritis or mobility issues. If one intends to age in place a large lever is preferable to a round knob. As an added bonus...with a lever one can open the door with an elbow if one's arms are full of groceries! Try doing THAT with a round knob! Dead bolts are good, but it a thief is truly determined to get in he or she will. We have schlage deadbolts, knobs, and a lever on the front door that we purchased from a locksmith. I am very pleased with the quality.

My family, and some friends, know I post on GW, so I don't post anything I wouldn't want them to read. I've recommended it to several for gardening/computer/home improvement advice. I posted pics of my painted play room floor, and my brother's step daughter was excited to recognize the pics when she was searching for painted floors (she wasn't searching GW specifically). There was a similar thread in the KT recently. I typed in a few key bits of info I've shared on GW and realized how easy I am to find, even though I've never shared my exact location. A GW'er from Ohio once asked if I lived in the same town as she. I do not, but I remembered the post later when she posted a picture of her home, with the street sign visible and legible. I emailed her and suggested she delete the pic, since the two pieces of info put together could lead someone to her door. Years ago, before I knew about all of Google maps features, someone with whom I'd exchanged flower seeds and bulbs mentioned in her thank you email that my place was in a nice location. She had typed my address into the search field and looked at the aerial view. I was surprised, but since then I've realized that we no longer have an expectation of privacy.