I can only assume that the 10 or more 55 Qt bags I bought this year must be a local mix or something then. Maybe it varies in different parts of the country which I believe it states on the bag. Mine has quite a bit of pine Bark fines in it already, in fact it looks like more bark (some of it very fine though)than anything else. Next is Peat then the "coir" and the Perlite. It can have up to 60% pine bark and compost according to the MSDS. All the bags I have gotten seem to have about that percentage. In 15+ gallon pots it seems to work very well for me, and in the 380 Qt Vegtrug it works great. Also in my part of the country blight is rampant regardless what mix you start it in unless you grow in a temp/humidity controlled greenhouse. The insane humidity here is a perfect breeding ground for it and spreads like wild fire. In zone 5 you are correct, not that much blight there. Craig Lehoullier just a couple miles from me just pulled all but about 30 of his 212 plants last week mostly because of blight. MGMC works just fine as long as you use large containers so that the perched water is not that much of a problem. I am going to pull my first 2 tomato plants probably within the next week, I will take pictures of where the perched water is in the container. I do plan on amending this years MGMC with a few bags of Orchid Mix next year which is nothing but perfect size pine bark fines and small charcoal and fired ceramic bits just to loosen it up just a bit more. But as long as you use at least 15+ gallon pots you should be fine with straight MGMC, at least what I get here in NC. I water my plants every single day unless it just rained. When over 100 degrees sometimes 2 even 3X a day. The 3rd time is mostly just to cool the roots. But I have never had any problems with this MGMC it drains quite good in large pots, the plants take a nice big drink, it drains right on out except for the bottom 2-3" is soaked the rest is just moist. All of my plants have done great in it. Tomatoes, Bell Peppers, Lettuce, Mint, Rosemary, Bok Choy, Blueberries plus all my wifes flowers all planted in MGMC all are doing great. So I cant complain about it, even though I do think for "Tomatoes" that it should be amended with more Pine Bark and maybe some vermiculite, Perlite or what ever to lighten it up some.

Pal, the ripple fold drapes have a clean tailored look which I find much more pleasing than pleated drapes. They would look nice in the room. However, they wouldn't provide the ability to block excess light while still having the yard visible as tilting verticals does. Have you bought from the Shade Store? It seems like they only carry their own line and I can't tell what the quality of their mechanisms is which is very important for verticals. I'm also having trouble finding technical information on their site - e.g. what the size limits are. Fun, those panels cover up to 120". Our window is over 144". Hunter Douglas has panels that cover up to 150" in a one way draw (and note that we don't have any stacking room on the door side so we have to have one way draw). That would mean that over 2' of our window would remain covered when they are fully drawn. And like the ripple drapes, they don't provide a view and shade at the same time. Annie, those are awful looking but I've seen some awful looking cheap curtains too. That cheap, badly done or mistreated ones can look awful doesn't mean that they all do. The ones we had were good quality. They are about 27 years old and only recently did a few vanes develop problems with turning in unison with the others - which is reasonable to expect after that many years. We have over 60' of sliding glass doors and fixed pane windows on the back of our house covered with these and not a one looks like the pictures you posted. Onedog, thanks - we found the kitchen forum here very helpful with our kitchen remodel. Do you know what brand the verticals at your lake house are? I've never found ours difficult to operate. Our cords operate smoothly with no yanking and only now that they are very old do we have trouble with a vane or two not turning correctly. I'm not sure what brand we had and I'm away on a business trip. I've heard good things about the quality of Graber's rail system. We are leaning toward selecting a color that blends with the wall. There is a lot of pattern in the room already from the wood grain and the quartzite in the kitchen and fireplace surround. Plus we have a Kurdish rug on the floor, so we will probably go with a white or off white window covering without a pattern. Here is a picture with the rug: (BTW, the chair in the picture is quite comfortable and handy for holder our grand daughter while she has a bottle, but I feel that it doesn't really go and should be replaced with something visually simpler. The couch is getting quite worn and needs replacement. I was hoping to wait until our grand children were a bit older and tidier but it really is getting too bad and needs to be replaced in short order. So I have no need to take either into account in the decorating of the room.)

@texasgal47: I am actually already thinking of a solutiion using a gateleg. I have access to an IKEA Norden table that with some slight leg tweaking (i.e. place leg in center of the table + shorten leg to close fully) it should to the trick: -> @Jillius: Yes, the entrance to the apt. goes through the hallway. The windows below are windows swinging out. The door on the bottom left (of this sentence) lead to a balcony. Here is the full view:

Yes, I've caught a couple episodes by channel surfing. I had to google 'PBS FoodFlirts' to see if that was the same. Did not know the show name. Cute and oddly flirty, "The Food Flirts are fun, funny, interesting, fearless, a little cheesy, a little cringy, and hard to take one's eyes off of." ....yes, I agree. I do like cooking shows that visit a restaurants kitchen. Always learn a few tricks. The episodes are on youtube now. I don't really get that from the 'what's for dinner' anymore. I'm 50/50. Authentic/traditional/culturally correct, ethnic based on the world region, is interesting and important. Sometimes the cooking police about spelling and history lessons I can do without but I do like the 'why' for the most part. My other 50% is fresh/local/seasonal. A young country of first generation immigrants brought their traditions but had to adapt to what was available. NYC is probably about 50/50. Authentic restaurants and those that 'fuse' by using fresh/local/seasonal. My only beef with American foods is the 50's 60's obsession with convenient processed and fast foods created by the big money-hog businesses. Creating a country of overweight and sick. Thanksgiving became canned cranberry, marshmallows, jello....even canned green beans with canned onion topping, canned onion soup, etc. We never did that as a family but my in-laws did. Fortunately my nephews on that side of the family recently married vegetarian yoga healthy eaters, lol. My MIL did not like her grandsons requests every year for the junk but that has changed. Thankfully. She got sucked into the early cooking magazines that used processed/convenient foods in everything via advertising.