As usual you have ALL come through with great ideas. I will show the area as it used to be and then I planted it and now all these years later it looks the same...sigh...nature is telling me something and I am not listening :) But I am going to start listening. Ianna,prariemoon,lavender,serenae,new, irene and thyme,,,you are all equally wonderful for taking the time to help. The over all view is : don't fight mother nature...use pots and decorative features and droughty plants when possible. I am more and more agreed that it is the way to go. We had someone on here that used to post about " staring"...that is what I have been doing as I clean and trim and sweep and think. The funny thing is that I thought or hoped that I was done with that when I added lots of soil and amendments and planted all these things. sigh....quite a humbling experience. A gardener is NEVER done learning.They looked so good for 2 years. Ah well on to new and better ideas. It does no good to lament what will never be. I can't and really don't want to get rid of any more trees. I can't add anymore soil as it only encourages the adventitious roots. At first you think , OK I have conquered the roots....but they come on up and through and mat worse than ever. So other than " pocket planting" , adding lots of soil to the hole and not bothering to amend around the area, I am done with topsoil additions. I used to have a small pond , ianna, when we first moved here. It had koi and was wonderful. They knew me and came right up to feed. One Labor day a neighbor sprayed for mosquitoes and my fish all died. He never admitted it but you could smell it. I took out the pond. Also with the leaves it is almost impossible to keep it cleaned out. I have a fountain in the pool area it is wonderful and I am going to add another out here too as I think your idea of water and a feature is perfect. I don't know what kind of tree the " big one " is. Irene I had lamiums but they only lasted one hard freeze here...funny that they do for you and not here. prarie: there is enough hot sun in areas as the tree is very very tall so here in the SOUTH the sedums are happy. lavender I have lots of pots so that is no problem. Ok I hope I have covered all you have suggested. Here are some pics...this is how it looked when I first built the rock wall and started out...2-3 yrs ago . big tree ( second tree behind little house is gone too ) ....there is more in this area now than is showing but this gives an idea: this is how it looks with pots and my purple table and chairs that I salvaged a couple years ago: this is when it looked wonderful...sigh: other direction toward the small maple, there are only 3 trees in the back now ( I forgot the wonderful fragrant pineapple smelling tree by back porch) ...when it looked so good... another nice view: OK ,,,it was nice to see this and I am GOING to get it back to this. The rose campion still looks good and there are some grasses that are still OK. The salvias are so so...iffy. The sedums are OK. The pots are easy and some have roses that are OK as the whole bricked are is HOT sun for hours. There is nothing at all under the little maple now. 2 heucheras look sad and that is all. I had stone walks and took them out. Will see about putting them back... THANK YOU ....you have all helped me " get a grip". c

Sunfeather, i still love mine, although I've never used the cleaning/floorwash solution that came with it. Because my floors are all brick. I only wash them with vinegar and water. That doesn't seen to hurt the machine, although I have to stress the importance of always emptying the tanks when you're finished. So, I'm not sure if the solution that comes with the Hoover Floormate is compatible with travertine or limestone floors . . . but I imagine that the unit itself is. They do have an excellent customer service line for questions, though. BTW. for anyone else with brick floors, after mine are washed, my DH goes over them with Ring Brick Floor Care, using a special mop. It's a kind of finishing oil that is absorbed and gives them a soft glow.

Where are you located roughly? Here in NJ, I am not a big fan of automatic covers. the things that can go wrong with them outweigh, at least in my opinion, the positives. Yes, they can, when used on a daily basis, improve safety and reduce chemical and heating costs but on the negative side, the mechanisms can break, leaving a cover 1/2 rolled up, often aren't configured for use with salt cells, cost plenty when the cover fabric needs to be replaced periodically (average life is less than 10 years), and aren't as strong as most safety covers used for Winter. The chemical usage isn't that big a cost, certainly not enough to justify it. Heat can be saved with a solar cover at night for a lot less. Automatic covers can have snow loads play merry hell on tracks and cover material. Rain will carry debris into the coffin and clog its drain. Unpumped rain will seriously wear the spooling mechanism because of the weight so an automatic pump needs to be set. A hole in the cover will let pool water out. You still need a fence for the yard. There are added installation costs such as stainless hardware and extra bonding needed when a salt cell is used. The costs will vary with the size and shape of the pool. Here in the Northeast, plastering, regardless of the material used, is best done in the Spring. The cement used hydrates, raising the pH. Left unmonitored over the Winter, scale is far more likely to form. The more time you have to monitor it, the better. This process slows with time so the more time you have to monitor it, the better. The Sun provides all the UV you will need with an outdoor pool. Adding it to the return flow is more money in their pocket only. Nothing reduces the amount of free chlorine needed in the water. You can only augment it. Chlorine kills everything. Yes, there are a couple things that can take some time but residential outdoor pools have such a small risk of being contaminated, it doesn't make sense. Large, public indoor facilities and water supplies are at a greater risk because of the lack of exposure to the Sun. UV cannot be used as a primary sanitizer. It doesn't leave a residual in the pool which is where its needed. Go with the MasterTemp 400HD. Its just bulletproof, unlike the Raypak. I prefer the Quad series of filters over the FNS Plus series. They are typically a bit larger and easier to clean. All finishes use cement to bind. A big part of cement is calcium. Water can draw calcium out from the cement. The less cement exposed, the longer the finish lasts. Plaster dust also has calcium. It tends to be softer too. Quartz can improve things but is dependent on how much is used in the mix. Pebble finishes tend to have the aggregates more exposed and thus last the longest. Compaction needs are dependent on the type of pool and construction method used. Six inch lifts are expected usually. Scott

catherine, hah, I just realized that your email wasn't associated with the message...I received your post in my email account and I hit reply. I just checked, it wasn't from your email account, so I know you didn't get my response! sorry about that. Here is my email: Hi Catherine, First, thanks for the compliment. That is very nice of you to say. Glad you ordered samples from MS&T. Did you see the new colors? If you do order, make sure you talk to Mary Elizabeth there, she is so nice and she would love to know you saw my kitchen on GW or AT. (don't forget they are offering the 10% discount with the code "THERAPY". Now, as far as the grout goes... You will need to grout it. Although it looks like the tiles fit together snug, they have various spaces between them. It is handmade tile and each one varies slightly. Also, The grout gives the tile a different look. The grout sort of fills the space and helps everything look uniform. It's hard to describe, but, even though in the photos it looks like the tiles are not touching, underneath the grout, they are. It is the bevel that causes this. Very hard to describe. I have pictures somewhere of the tile during the process. I'll find them and email some of the photos of the tile pre grout. (send me an email so I can send them directly to you when I find them) Also, there is a 1/2 grout and 1/2 non-grout photo, that shows a lot too. You will also have to tell your installer that the tiles are set on an angle, rather than going across the bottom row first,then the second row, etc. It is more of a pyramid pattern. I know it sounds crazy, but this way you keep the vertical lines straight. Not sure if you want to tell your tile guy or not, but, it took twice as long to do this than was expected. Although, in all fairness, my "tile guy", is a friend who I didn't let see the actual tile until he showed up on a Saturday morning. He thought that they were on a sheet from the photos. He and my hubby worked from 10 am until around 1 am, then they were back at it on Sunday morning to finish laying the tile and then the grouting began on Sunday. They used a piping bag to fill the spaces with grout. I chose Permacrete White for the grout. Bill_V suggested this to me. He said it is the ONLY grout that is white that actually is all white. All the others have some sort of caramel color in them, and since this grout was going to be so critical to the design, I wanted my grout to be really white. Also, this stuff doesn't stain. Kind of important on a white backsplash. Also, the 10% extra rule? Go higher. Waste is much more than that. Ask Mary Elizabeth if you order extra if you can return it. Well, these are all my "tips". I'll find those photos, but I just wanted to get back to you and let you know, that I can't imagine NOT grouting this tile. -Bee