Hi, I don't have much to trade, but I do have hyacinth bean seeds if you would like. I would love to have some of your double confederate rose!!!! Please just let me know, and thanks so much for your time. Alicia

The "Forever" stamps are calculated for 1 oz. first class letter mailing. If I'm mailing a package or an oversized envelope, etc., requiring more than 44 cents, I just let the postal person use their postage meter labels. I've futzed around with 1 and 2 cent stamps to make up for postage increases long enough - these Forevers are brilliant as far as I'm concerned. I bought $100 worth when they were first introduced at 42 cents way back in April of 2007. Still using them with a handful of cards left to go. I'm glad there will be commemoratives though, the regular postal issues can be a bit bland.

Thanks for all the compliments... cdavmd: Paver brand is Flagstone Pavers. White based concrete, in cream/beige/charcoal. We used Orlando Brick Pavers in Orlanfo, FL. We went with American Pavers coping since their cream color looked nicer than the Flagstone Paver light color (I forget the color name). lmhall2000: I believe the wattage of the IntelliBrites is 75W... that is what I recall seeing on the box. The datasheet on the Pentair site states "IntelliBrite pool lights need only 37 watts to create the same light output as traditional incandescent and halogen pool lights do at 161 wattsmore than 75% less!" So a 75W LED (when displaying white light) is equivilent to a 300W bulb. Colors are less brite. We were originally going to put a spa LED on the shallow end, but received advice to put a full size pool light instead. Glad we did. But to make a full size light fit, we had to have a minimum of 3'-3" depth... PB did the extra depth for free (3' was standard). The first 8' of the shallow end is pretty level because of the stairs are 8'. At the deep end, the floor is essentially level for about 10' out from spa wall. The pool is 40', so subtracting the 8' and 10', the floor drops from 3'-3" to 7' over a span of 22'. If you look at my Progess Pics (see link above), you can get a feel for the slope. The slope feels pronounced for me, but I don't mind it. We would have gone with 3'-6" but did not want to pay the extra costs... the deeper you go at the shallow end, the more steps you need... and that is the extra cost. I personally think 4' is too deep at the shallow end if you have small kids. As for cost, if I subtract off the heat pump and spa, then our cost was approx. $37K. Fence was $5K on top of that. That's Orlando pricing. Concrete coping ran about $15 per LF, and pavers ran about $4.50 to $5.00 per SF. Total cost of my pavers/coping was approx. $8300. However, the price of stamped concrete ranged from $9.50 to $15 per SF. terrier96: Technically, the deep end is 7'3", but I say 7'. Our last pool was 5' deep (very common in FL with the high water table). Most PBs include a standard depth of 5'. The additional cost to go from 5' to 7' was $700. But the cost to go from 5' to 8' was $1500. We were just not willing to pay extra for 8' because we thought we did not need it. The 7'3" is deep enough for shallow diving... I can dive in across the width of the pool. We don't dive, and did not want a pool deep enough for proper diving (most residentail pools built with diving boards are not safe enough for diving anyway). We did want a pool long enough for laps, and 40' is good for us. One reason we went with a 20 x 40 was cost. In FL, folks can build a basic 400 SF pool (no coping and no decking) for X dollars, or build an 800 SF pool for 20% to 25% more. We had the room, so spending an extra 20% to 25% to double the pool area was an easy decision. We had 5 folks in the pool on the 4th, with rafts... all in the shallow end and we were not cramped. -Gorilla

Thanks, terriolsen! I'm going to have to ask my PB what colors were used on the deck......I know it was a 2 color powder release with some sort of skins stamp, not sure the exact pattern......I'm VERY anxious to seal it after seeing hwade's gorgeous pool and deck: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/pools/msg010104021225.html?63 I REALLY like the stamped concrete and have been pleased with it! Let me get with the PB for more details hopefully!