Jackie, I leave my amaryllis outside all year-round. They get full summer sun in Phoenix and they LOVE IT! They get watered by my lawn sprinklers, but when its 110 degrees outside, there's no such thing as too much water. Java, Benadryl (aka diphenhydramine) is the active ingredient in most over the counter sleep aids. So the fact your groggy comes as no surprise. Depending on the quantity and location of your hives, may I suggest using TOPICAL Benedryl gel? Every drug store will have it, it comes in a small white bottle with teal print. You can apply it locally to each hive without the nasty drowsiness. The stuff is amazing for taking away the itch from mosquito bites too! I have a few questions related to the original topic here.... 1st, is it possible the attached pups are draining energy from mama bulb, and that's why she's not blooming? Too focused on the kids to worry about herself? 2nd, for me to grow tulips in Phoenix and get a second year of blooms from them, I dig them up, clean them up, dry them out and put them in a brown paper bag in the fridge for a few weeks. Is it possible to do the same treatment for an amaryllis to force dormancy, or is the fridge TOO cold? Mind you, if you use this method, you CAN NOT have fresh produce in your fridge.

White and blue is such a fresh looking combination in the bathroom .... In that case, here's another one for you. It's got a carrera floor, (honed center with polished border), but the walls are Dal Rittenhouse subways with denim rope trim and the floor stripe, accents, tubdeck and vanity top are blue pearl: I take it you did those bathrooms, very nice work btw, but do you need permission to post the pictures of other peoples bathrooms? Quite honestly, I've never had a problem with it from anyone. I've always made it clear to every customer that I do alot on line helping people and showing them examples of what to do and how to do it, and I've yet to run across anyone who responded negatively. However, even before I got on line, I took pics for my portfolio, and the only time I had any kind of a problem was from an architect who saw me taking pictures of a 42 foot starburst design I did at a mall, and he threatened to sue me if I didn't hand him that film right then. I told him it wasn't his design I was taking picures of. It was my workmanship. if he wanted to take me to court, that was his perogative. But he might want to think twice about touching my camera. Nothing ever came of it. in the pictures labeled "Linen and light gray ceramic", do you know the brand and name of the the 6 x 12 decorative tile on the floor? Anne, unfortunately, all I can tell you is it came from Dal. I don't even remember what series it was. That was 4 or 5 years ago.

My parents looked into a similar issue when they needed to create an accessible shower for an elderly relative last year, and were debating whether to take the bathtub out of a hall bath (the only place *other* than the master that had a tub, in their case). My mom asked locally to see what the impact on resale might be. General response was that it was a very bad idea to take the tub out of a common/hall bath that might serve children's rooms because that would be a dealbreaker for many young families, but tub versus shower in en suite/master bathrooms didn't make much difference, since there are people who prefer one and people who prefer the other. They added it to a half bath instead, and I think designed the space so that it could fit a tub without a major remodel in the future if needed. Personally, I wouldn't care as long as the house still had a bathtub somewhere. But then, you may want to take my opinion with a grain of salt, since I live in an area where master bathrooms are pretty rare---I can only think of two families we know who have master bathrooms at all! :) (I think both just have showers.) Which is just to say that it really depends on your local market and what the "norm" is.

This is a new era of buying and selling after the real estate "bubble". Two years ago we sold a condo in Florida and a custom mountain lake home in Tennessee. Both buyers were obtaining mortgages, one being a jumbo mortgage. The Florida condo was appraised slightly below selling price. It was completely remodeled by us (new kitchen and two baths, etc.). The inspector told the young lady she would never find a condo in better condition. All new appliances, new water heater, new air conditioner. We owned it for two years, but decided even as snow birds we would rather have a house. But her Daddy told her not to pay over appraisal. The comps were condos in the same development that had never been upgraded or maintained. Many had been rented out. We sold it to someone else for our asking price. They didn't obtain a mortgage. The home in Tennessee was not on the market. A realtor showing another home in the neighborhood asked if they could see our house. They came back with an offer the next day, which was not the greatest offer We decided to accept the offer and move to the Florida house we had purchased two months before. It gets confusing, I know. :) The inspector was ruthless, but came back with nothing wrong in our new custom built home. The pest inspector came back with nothing (yup the bank required it). The appraiser on the other hand was a bit rude. When I said I wasn't too concerned about the appraisal price since the sell price was below tax appraisal value, he said, Oh, we often appraise homes below the tax app. value now. He told us our home was beautiful, but every home in the neighborhood probably had the same upgrades. No they did not. In the end they said there were really no comps, which wasn't true. But the most chilling experience I had was that the two appraisers used exactly the same words in two different states. It is beautiful, but this doesn't count. This is overkill, it doesn't count. Only the comps matter. Only square footage matters. I have bought and sold quite a few homes in my life. In a brand new builder developed area you get the basic house for the price of the model. Upgrades are paid for as an extra expense. Years ago we had no inspectors and no formal appraisals. It seems the banks do not want to pay for the upgrades, and are driving the prices. Now it has eroded into buyers with cash that look at comps and again do not want to pay for the upgrades. Even 11 years ago I sold a home in Ft. Lauderdale by myself (height of the market) and the buyer had an inspector, obtained a mortgage, but no appraiser came to my house. I sold my "model" for a higher price than anyone had ever sold for. Does anyone think that perhaps the banks are running the market??? Money makes the world go 'round.