"And I doubt you'd ever weed-whack any rose of yours into the form of a giant toadstool! " No kidding??? I thought it had been shaped to one of those umbrella supports.... geez!!! Vintage is currently out of Larry, best to put yourself on their 'let me know when it's available' email list if you want it, I think they have a very good system with that and it's free. I remember seeing some nursery charge for that service and wondered why since it would seem to be a win-win for customer and grower, for the latter it would be gaining a better idea of what people are wanting and thus, hopefully more sales, jmho. Again, not to pimp Vintage, but Sammy if you're ordering for yourself, you can secure roses you want that are available now for shipping in spring and then add to the order later if you like, as the next couple of availability lists are released, in that way taking advantage of the 4 bands per shipping unit policy which I prefer to do even though on the same coast. Say, Sammy, can your daughter really only have two?!?

Yes, flooring is what I do for a living. The 'linoleum metal edge' manufacturers went out of business many years ago. NY Metal mouldings was one of the leading distributors. Randall Manufacturing out of Newark NJ bought up most of the left over stock and I think some of the manufacturing capabilities, but I am not entirely sure that the later is true. However, I am very surprised that the product has disappeared altogether and left vinyl and linoleum end users without suitable edge products to use, other than those ugly applied-after binder bar things. I bet 1/8" metal moldings are available in Europe. The ceramic edge profiles I am talking about are not made of ceramic materials at all, but are 'large' versions of what we had commonly available in aluminum, steel and brass for linoleum and vinyl to finish door and stairnose edges. The reason I suggest them is that you could adapt these extrusions for use in a stepdown, such as you have. You would have to look at what's available and then design the product into your project. It can be as simple as cutting something off the profile to make it work...inseting the profile in your substrate...applying the profile to the 'riser' portion of your stepdown and building up that surface so the vinyl would meet almost flush to the metal. This can take some hard thinking, but it is not impossible to do. Since almost everything else being manufactured today seems to come from China, why do we not see suitable metal edge profiles coming from there? I don't attend the Surfaces flooring convention, so I don't know what is being offered as manufactured looking for distribution...there must be some somewhere. All I know is that I have not come across any suppliers recently and the only stuff I do see is my own personal stash for my special flooring needs. I heard rumours that there is a marketing place in San Francisco (or somewhere in California) called 'linoleumtown'...or something like that. It is a group of stores selling linoleum and other sheet and vinyl products and I bet there'd be a good chance of finding something there. Good luck.

Hi Chris, I very much like having a SWG...the saltwater is softer on the eyes/hair/bathing suits, etc. I got it as an upgrade to the original contract because everyone here seemed to like them quite well. Originally, the unit that was installed 2 years ago was a Watermaid. The Watermaid runs with a higher salt content than most other manufacturer's units (6,000-7,000 ppm compared to 3,200-3,500 ppm in most units). Prior to running into the problem with the salt water corroding the pool cover, I did not particularly like the Watermaid as it tended to develop air bubbles when i switched the solar heating on and off and the SWG would often stop working after the solar was running. The unit MV replaced the Watermaid with is an Intellichlor. So far, so good (although, truth be told, I actually preferred the feel of the water with the higher salt content). As to coverstar v. coverpools, I can't say that I can truly compare the two. MV pools uses Coverpools so CoverStar was not an option. Had I wanted to go with Coverstar, I probably would have had to have subcontracted that portion out. Because I wanted it to be an inground unit, it had to be designed and built together with the pool. The CoverStar cover I had on my last pool was a much simpler system -- it was an aftermarket, deckmounted unit. It was not connected with the sheer descents, so there were no sensors to break down, no SWG, etc. Therefore, I can't really compare the two units, as it's not an apples-to-apples kind of comparison. Customer service (Alternative Pool Systems for the CoverPool and PoolSafe for the Coverstar) for both companies is excellent, though...I'd probably say Eric from Alternative Pool Systems (the one Mission Valley Deals with) would get the nod, as he has been exceedingly responsive and was totally on top of things with the corrosion issues). As for the decking, I purchased the pavers from Ackerstone in Corona. I liked their selection much more than what I had seen at RCP and KRC. Except for Friday mornings when Ackerstone sells their overruns at a *tremendous* discount to the general public (I got pavers that normally sold for more than $5 sq. ft. for $ .80 a sq. ft (yes, 80 cents!)), they only sell to contractors. Since I was in the process of a home remodel at the time I was able to use my contractor to effect the purchase. Southwest Boulder in Fallbrook is a distributor for Ackerstone, and I also bought additional pavers from them when I purchased my flagstone (they have a great selection!) as the delivery costs were lower. The coping and most of my decking, seating and retaining walls were installed by MV's mason - Uriel Hurtado. Notwithstanding a couple of issues that arose with the retaining walls owing to an over-zealous building inspector, Uriel was a pleasure to work with. He had some very creative ideas, and was very fair with his pricing. After the remodel/addition was finished (which was nearly 4 months after the pool was done), I took on landscaping and needed to make some changes to the decking (we moved a couple of doors going out the the deck and added a door to the master bath and guest bath). These were done by my landscaper as the pool had been completed and we had since moved on project-wise.

@mrrogerscardigan -- I see the others hit your other questions. If tile and art ceramics are interesting, there are many choices. Yes, there is another SF location, at 18th and Alabama, in the Mission (and Tartine Manufactury!). There is the street food park nearby, next to Costco, filled with permanent food truck installation. OffTheGrid is on Friday nights at Fort Mason, Sunday mid-day at the Presidio. Regarding your vegetarian resto question -- the city (and California) is very vegetarian and vegan friendly (DH went veg five years ago). Almost all restaurants will have one if not more options - plus the Italian, Indian and other southern Asian restaurants will have plenty of choices, often a whole sub-menu that is veg and vegan. For Mexican, you might consider Gracias Madre in the Mission (purely veg) or for vegan sushi, Shizen (have not been, but have heard good things). It certainly beats your average nut burger for variety. At the high end, some top rated places are either veg-forward (Al's Place) or sometimes even have a complete tasting menu for vegetarians. I sometimes think because the SF restaurants are so veg-friendly (and rents so high) it hurts the success of veg-only restaurants (many have closed, including ones we went to). For example, Coqueta (tapas, famous chef, on the water) has so many veg tapas on the menu a mixed table is always happy. On pizza, Delfina is a great choice. I'm also partial to the pinsa (a Roman crisp rice crust variant) at Montesacro (in one of the gritty mid-Market corners). I've been to a party at the home featured in the "Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" documentary. The parrots can now be found everywhere, but the place the protagonist lived at is near the top of the Greenwich steps.