Mike, First I want to say, the plants I received, beginning Jan 1, 2010, were in 3-4" containers, bulbs and cuttings. Only a handful were larger, meaning 8" to 1' tall. Total: 58. :) :( Marguest, your Banana Tree is beautiful. The colors amazing. There's even a pup. Did you find it on Ebay? Mike, to answer a few questions. I MUST stay away from Ebay..It's one addicting site. Not only do they have great deals on plants, but plant supplies. There's also a few online nurseries I browse every other wk or so. The internet makes it too easy to shop for such an exciting hobby. A few clicked keys, next thing, a package is at your front door? One word of Warning for those who really want to stop buying plants.. Well, an attempt. Do NOT sign up for nursery News Letters. It's convenient, swaying us to their site, displaying their wares. Hear the clicking keys to Paypal? lol. As for local nurseries, fortunately, there are two that sell very very nice and rare specimens..luckily, opposite directions, both a long distance drive. An hour on non-congested days, 1.5-2 hours during 9-5, Rush Hour traffic. Although, traffic has gotten so heavy the past five years, the only time to go anywhere with time to spare is between midnight and 5am. Problem is, the stores are closed. lol. Our grocery store, Jewel's, always has plants for sale. Mostly, basic plants like Spaths, certain Dracaenas, etc. My problem arises when they have dollar sales. 3-4" potted plants for 1.00. Every so often, they'll have a rarer specimen. Buy 3, pot them up, and you have a lovely plant for 3.00. Four years ago, they had, mixed in with other dollar plants, Schefflera 'brassaia/actinophylla, a plant I hadn't seen in years...last one) I grabbed it up fast. lol. That's about it. Not too bad for 9 months. lol. Toni

After some long discussions with York reps and with Honeywell (who does the zoning equipment), I think (if the HVAC guy doesn't come down on price) I may have them run 2 trunks in the basement, and feed the appropriate ducts into each. i.e. have all the 1st floor ducts go into the trunk for the 1st floor and the 2nd floor ducts into the trunk for the 2nd floor. Then have them put in a manual damper near the beginning of each trunk, and have them run a thermostat wire upstairs for future use. I can't imagine this would be much more work than what they're planning on doing anyway. Remember the main plenum/trunk isn't even run yet. That way I can go the first year and see how bad the temp differential is between floors. And I could simply manually adjust the dampers each season (likely close off the 1st floor by a certain percentage) so that more or less air flow goes where I need it. If it doesn't work out, or if it does but my manual adjusting is too much work, I can do the zoning in the future without too much more cost, since the trunks are already done. I figure at that point, they'd just have to add the zoning panel, hook up the 2nd floor thermostat, add the auto dampers etc. And at that point, I could at least have some other HVAC guys come in and get some competition and different ideas. Thoughts on this approach?

This is a little OT from the OP question but some things to consider nonetheless-- I didn't want to proceed without a Realtor for our side-- But in my case, it wasn't all about price- I am interested in a new construction home. The builder usually only builds custom homes but had an opportunity to develop a small subdivision of about 28 homes. I asked our realtor about them. He didn't know this particular builder but said there was some risk in this market (already happened with another builder) that the builder could go belly-up in the middle, leaving the development half finished or that they could run low on funds and start cheapening up the materials during the building process. He heard of another case in town (again, not this builder) where people lost their earnest money and their houses were left unfinished. The funds were not put into escrow but used to begin construction but buyers didn't know that going in. I've been (unoffically, usually online) looking for the right home for us for 2 years. When I walked into this model home I fell in love. The price was within our range but the home's look/feel/features were so much above and beyond what I had seen in this price range, so I was skeptical. I wanted the Realtor, who looks at homes day in and day out, to look-- to check the build quality, the surrounding neighborhood (older and not as upscale)to dig up information, and also his opinion on the pricing. Talking price is always uncomfortable for me. I don't want to insult anyone or come across as a cheapskate but I also don't want to overpay so I did ask my Realtor if there was room to move on the price, especially in this market and since I am clueless in the new construction process. He told us there might be a little wiggle room but that he and everyone else that goes into this home can't believe they aren't asking more. I believe they have priced it right to start with (compared to everything else I've seen) and although who wouldn't want to pay less, I think the price is fair. He was also able to check the sales in the developement. He confirmed what the builder told us which was all 5 spec homes they have built so far have sold except one (and builder told us they have a possible contract coming on it) and they have done about 4 pre-sales. The model has only been open for about 6 weeks. Their agent told ours that they got 3 new contracts last weekend. Some builders may be hurting and are giving away the farm to sell, but it is not the case for our builder. Another advantage this builder offers is free consulting with his wife, who is an Interior Designer on all your materials as well as paint colors and modifications (I just paid 75.00 per hour for this in our current home to pick new carpet & paint and other flooring for resale) Also, since they usually build custom, they allow for (and help design) modifications to the plan --we have a few we are already considering-- One is to turn a full sized closet in the laundry into a mudroom style bench with pull out drawers below and hooks for coats & keys and cubbies for gloves/hats etc. Most new construction homes wouldn't change a thing for us, beyond letting us pick the standard carpet etc... The Realtor also negotiated a 6 month contingency to allow us some time to sell our home, while this one is being constructed, and during that time, they can't sell the home from under us and I still get to pick all the colors etc. (I will have to prepay for those modifications upfront which I may not do if my home hasn't sold by that time. I still love the home as is~) I honestly don't have a clue how my Realtor is being compensated by the builder. Maybe they pad the price by a few K to cover it. But he has already handled many details in the contracts that I would not have thought of and I feel I have someone that knows what they are doing lookng out for my best interests in the transaction. We get along wonderfully (at least so far) with this builder but this is the biggest ticket item we will EVER buy, not having a a rep on our side for me would be like going to trial with out a Lawyer.

You could go for broke and spread out the kitchen. In just a few years you're going to have many potential cooks/helpers, so having separate clean-up and cooking zones, and multiple prep areas will provide space for everyone to work. Helpers could be loading or unloading the DW(s), or gathering dishes to set the table, without crossing your work space. Someone could be making lunches while you are cooking breakfast. Even now, you should consider a bigger fridge, or two 30" refrigerators. You'd even have space for a bigger range. Without measurements I don't know if this will fit, or if you have this much latitude with the layout and cabinets.