Sounds like you're on your way to having fresh salad ingredients even this fall. Lettuce grows fast as long as you plant in rich soil & water daily in the hot weather. You might need to shade it a bit now. Our daughter told me yesterday she's figured she & hubby have saved about $60 just in lettuce greens from growing their own this summer. First time gardens can be productive! Your original question was about how to have enough to keep you in salads... One way to plant enough for harvest for your family of 5 is to plant each week what you'd eat each week. Lettuces can be cut & grow again for up to 3 cuttings or you can pick the outer leaves & let the centers grow. I prefer to plant transplants as somehow direct sowing lettuce doesn't work as well for me. For varieties: Romaines stay crunchy. Leaf lettuces are easy to cut & come again harvest. Kids will eat what they grow, so you're off to a great start with them. Doesn't the book say one 4x4 box per person? Larger or more boxes for enough for canning, freezing or drying. I encourage gardeners to start what they can care for planting, watering, weeding, & harvesting. If they can't do a box per person the 1st year. I can't remember if mulch is mentioned in the book, but I have good results with mulching in the boxes using dried grass clippings from grass w/o weed & feed. It keeps the soil moist & decomposes adding nutrients. The grass clippings dry quickly on a tarp just stir with a stick or plastic rake throughout the day. Cover by folding the tarp over at night if not dry yet & dry another day. I've taken a week or more sometimes to dry it & it still works once dry even if it gets a bit sour smelling. Hope that helps! Corrine

I just had my Lee sectional delivered a couple of weeks ago and debated for months before I could decide on cushions. The store I puchased from only had sofas with standard cushions and chairs with haven and cloud nine. The sofas with standard cushions gave two different feels, one was too springy and the other was firmer. The chairs with the cloud 9 and haven were indeed very comfy. I was a little concerned that the down wrap would compress over time or would require me to fluff often. I was also concerned with the bouncy feel of the one sofa, so I ended up getting the extra firm cushions and so far no regets. Good luck.

Good morning all. I am plumbing a new bath in my basement and have some questions regarding size of distribution/supply pipes. The following is existing: (1)DWV system is in place (2)water supply is a private well (3)Water enters house via a 1" rubber hose and connects to a 1"brass pipe and anti back-flow device (4)this 1" line goes to Amtrol pressure tank and exits tank via a 3/4" copper distribution run with a whole house filter close to the beginning of this run (5)the 3/4" pipe runs approx. 12' towards the center of the house and then starts to branch off to kitchen, 1 bath, laundry, boiler, hose bib, AND doubles back to water heater all with 1/2" copper and exits the water heater also with 1/2" copper and supplies hot water (obviously) to fixtures requiring it (6)house is small - 24x30' (7) new bath is 29' from water supply entry point into house and also 29' from water heater. OK. Now my questions. (A) Shouldn't the line to and from the water heater be a 3/4" distribution size (as is the cold)? If so, should I upgrade it to 3/4 or leave it as is? (B)Should the distribution pipe from the existing 3/4" cold run to the new bath also with 3/4" and then go to 1/2" branch lines or should I use 1/2" branch lines all the way from existing to new bath? Whatever is done with the new cold (3/4" or 1/2") will be done with the new hot run. (C) I assume that running branch lines down from ceiling to new fixtures (via 1/2") is OK and won't adversely affect water pressure to a significant degree (D)I plan to run new supply line first to shower then branch of it to sink and toilet. Is this OK? (E)Finally, when complete, farthest run from entry point/water heater will be 30' as the crow flys and a total of approximately 70' total pipe run each hot/cold (not including hose bib or boiler) and will service 2 vanity sinks, 1 kitchen sink, 1 tub/shower, 1 shower only, 2 toilets, 1 washer, 1 hose bib, 1 boiler. Will this work? Appreciate any advice you can give me. Hope I've given enough info (probably too much)

Oooooh, I like that!! We had window benches in our last home and that was a favorite spot for the kids. This one won't have the lovely window light, but I could see it being a good use of space! The only tricky thing is that I had tentatively planned to put 2 barn doors here... my thinking is if the room happens to be a little messy or we need quiet from the rest of the house we could close it off. (Please ignore the mess that is there at the moment!!) But if we did the built in, obviously we couldn't do barn doors. That might be fine though. I really like that bench you posted! But how would we recess the shelves? I guess you just build out and it creates the recess? I need to show my husband that picture. Do you think there's enough room for it? The wall that you see there to the right of the opening is 42" from the back wall to where the trim begins. And the length of the wall is 76". A chaise was one of my choices... this one that I like is out of stock, and I'm debating how useful it would be for more than one person. Whereas the built-in you showed could easily fit both my younger. Thanks so much for your ideas!! Do you think there's space for the built in nook idea? I really love that!