I saw a low-tech technique once for erosion control on steep slopes that might work for mulch. This guy was taking twigs and sticks and sticking them into the ground vertically, sticking up only an inch or two. Anything laid down would catch on them and stay in place. He was laying more sticks on top of the ground that would interlock with the little stakes, but it would probably help with mulch too. I have not tried this for mulch but it might work. Try to get mulch that has long fibers rather than chunky types like bark. They will interlock better.

Our master bedroom suite is over our garage. The garage is slightly heated (kept at about 45-50) and is fully insulated (doors are around R20, they were the best we could get at the time). There are no issues with heating or cooling the room (it's a separate zone as well), but the floors are marble and wood and the floors (especially the marble) are cold during the worst of winter. I don't think it would be an issue if you had wall to wall carpeting. If I had it to do over I would have put radiant under the marble. We are going to have a rug bound for the bedroom and that will take care of the cold floor issue. As far as noise goes, the garage door rarely wakes me up. I know we went for whatever type of opener was quiter, plus it's well insulated. I'm in Maine, by the way. As far as fumes go, fumes from what? You shouldn't leave a car running in the garage. I just start it up and backout. The smoke and CO detector has never gone off. We keep gassed up lawn mowers in the garage without issue as well.

If I could just comment her and maybe get some feedback on this topic. I have a somewhat related issue. I hade my master bath toilet and the cold water feed for the washer in the adjacent laundry room freeze up twice last year. The master bathroom bumps out 18" from the rest of the house. These pipes run up the outside wall and thru the subfloor of that 18" bumpout section. FOr whatever stupid reason, the builder's design didn't put the piping on an interior wall. The attempted fixes last year included adding more insulation inside the soffit of that bumpout, and then adding an second wall vent in the laundry room behind the washer so that warm air could circulate behind the wall, and that was supplemented by encasing the pipes behind there with insluated foam board of some kind. Anyway,the same pipes froze again last night. BY the time my wife got the builder's site foreman over to the house, the pipes thawed out. Toilet bowl filled back up and the cold water runs again on the washer. How that happened overnight is beyond me. It had to be in the teens during the overnight, if not colder. Well, he first tried to blame the frozen pipe situation on the fact that he says we leave our garage door open for great periods of time. ThatÂs crap, IM! How can that seriously be a contributing factor to the pipes in question?? My master bedroom is fully above the garage space (it's not abnormally cold and the proper insulation is in the garage ceiling, according to code), and adjacent is the master bath, and adjacent is the laundry room. The feed pipes for the toilet and washer are located about 14 feet to the side of the garage area on the backside of the house and in the area of the first floor ceiling/second floor subflooring. And he's claiming that cold air from the garage is causing or contributing to these pipes freezing? It's not like we leave the garage open for extended periods of time in freezing weather, and we certainly don't leave it open overnight! The master shower and jacuzzi tub don't freeze up, and they are phjysically closer to the garage than the toilet. GIVE ME A BREAK!!! In addition to that, IÂd also point out the fact that the toilet area of the master bath is directly above the first floor pantry, which is extremely warm, with a floor vent in there and the pantry door closed most all the time. All that warm air in the ceiling of the pantry. What a real jerk this guy is, trying to peddle this lame excuse as the contributing factor to the pipes freezing!! Two different plumbing contractors that have worked for the home builder in the past year, they both said the piping didn't belong on the outside wall. But the foreman says they aren't going to tear up the tile flooring and walls to move the pipes. They want the issue to be shored up via insulating methods. Any comments? The garage excuseby the foreman is bull$hit, right?

Your house is 4,000 sq ft. That should have at least 4 bedrooms. Where is all that space used? I don't believe for one second that the only option to gain a decent master bathroom and closet is to eliminate one whole bedroom. Maybe you're looking at the wrong room to make the master suite. It's not always the best approach to use all the existing rooms for the same purpose when you remodel. I'll bet there is another space in that 4,000 sq ft house that could be repurposed to make an awesome master suite, and still keep 3 other bedrooms. I have actually been through this same dilemma. The major difference is my house was originally a 4/2 crammed into just under 1,200 sq ft. Don't even ask how they stuffed all those rooms into a tiny house. It was awful. We removed the small bedroom 8x10 and expanded the master bedroom, bathroom, closet, kitchen, and living room. Now our house is a 3/2 with a slightly higher resale value, but the cost of the remodel probably exceeds the gain in value.