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

Dave, We are in the same boat. My job has been transferred to Columbus, Ohio. We currently live in Warren County, NJ. Our house is sold and we purchased a house in Columbus. We close on both at the end of January. Here's the kicker, my son is a senior in high school and we promised him that he could finish school in NJ. So, we are now looking for a short term rental for my DS and DH. I will relocate to Columbus at the end of January and come home on the weekends until DS graduates. When we put the house on the market in late September, we didn't expect it to sell as quickly as it did (3 weeks). We thought that we would wind up taking the relo buy-out offer thus stretching out our time here in NJ. We are blessed that it sold! Good luck in NC. DeborahNJ

I would get a structural engineer to look into this...not your builder. The engineer will know for certain if it's allowed and how to do it. It may just be that your contractor/builder doesn't want to do it b/c he either doesn't know how or just doesn't want to do it (possibly too much work). I actually got a similar run around from my contractor about venting outside. We had a stop work order for 9 weeks while we worked out a way to vent outside...actually, while I told them to find a way, don't just stand there wringing their hands giving me one excuse after the other about why it couldn't be done. When they finally started thinking about it they then quoted me a ridiculous amount ($4,800 USD) just to move a shower drain & vent that were in the way...I got an outside plumber do it for $900 USD! They still kept making up excuses but I stood firm and told them to find a way. They eventually did when they realized I was not going to back down or meekly go with whatever they said (including them telling me "I've been doing kitchens for 20 years and there's no way it can be done..." Guess what? It's done. BTW...downdrafts do not work well at all nor do pop ups.

Well I'm still smiling, Glenda. I thoroughly enjoyed talking with Parke today and it was a real hoot. (I admit that I did "play" with him a bit.) First of all, I want you to know that I think Parke is a charming young man and a son for a Mom to be proud about. I'd seen him several times over the past month or so as he whizzed past my office and I knew that he looked familiar to me. Today was actually the first chance that I had to stop him and we had a long talk. I thought I recognized him from photos that you posted but decided today that I wanted to confirm it. So...I had a very pleasant break in my day and a visit with a very nice and polite young man. That was a treat for me too and I hope you pass that along to Parke. And honestly Glenda, I thought you 'd mentioned here or either told me at some point that Parke used to post at the KT. In any case, when he kept blushing (Parke blushes!) and asking today how I knew him and you...I did tell him to ask him Mom to explain. So I dont think I divulged any "secrets" and you can breath easy. LOL