Again, ELISA, when properly done, is 100% effective, and has never once, in the 30-ish years we've used it, failed to give an accurate analysis. This is considering the following: 1. We always enclose "blind" samples of known infected and known uninfected tissue -- blind to the lab -- and unless the results come back with them correctly identifying all of those, we would not believe their results on our unknowns. That assures that virus titer is in a usable range on the day the test was done. In actual fact, in all those years, they (WSU Prosser's ELISA lab) have NEVER gotten one wrong, even once. Pretty good record. 2. Once that's done and a rose is "certified" clean (notice that ELISA is just one of the tripod of tests we run -- they're also tested with 'Mme. Butterfly' and 'Shirofugen' cherry -- all 3 must come out unambiguously clean) -- no rose once certified in that way has EVER later been found to have rose mosaic. Not one. Not ever. Not even in cold climates where all the intelligent people live. On rare occasions, the lab has said a test was somewhat ambiguous, and in those cases, we ignored all of the results from that run, and re-ran them later. 3. While we use the three tests for redundancy, we've never seen a case in which one test came out positive while the others came out negative -- in 100% of the roses I've ever tested, all three methods have agreed on their result. So obviously, the point of this long, drawn-out discussion with all kinds of complaints, is moot -- there is no problem here. We have no problem at all identifying where the disease is. No evidence to the contrary has been presented here. I would like to say that you can't argue with absolute 100% success, but obviously, there is one person who is determined to argue continuously with absolute 100% success! So yes, I'm just working our way toward the 150 posts mark, and hoping to keep us focused on the real issues, rather than being constantly drawn into perfectly silly little side arguments that are in and of themselves without merit.

I rooted out a red cherry tomato from a broken branch a couple of months back. I simply stuck it in a glass of tap water, and planted it in a sub-irrigated 5 gallon bucket filled with potting mix after the roots had grown out a couple of inches. I don't know the exact variety of that plant as it is a descendent of seeds given to me a few years back. I also have some extra tomato plants still in starter cells which were planted about five or so months ago. Those have basically stopped growing, but are alive. A few weeks back I took a couple of those, which were Roma Tomatoes, and put them into sub-irrigated 5 gallon bucket planters and they have started to grow out. I am thinking of combining these ideas and taking cuttings from my Sungold F1 plants this fall, and rooting them out in a starter tray, and try to keep them alive in those starter cells until about the beginning of March when I will put them in larger pots in preparation to plant out in May, that is unless anyone shoots down this idea.

Look into your building envelope. Some houses are leaky but they look good inside and out. If you have air leaks, seal them. Outside too. The coldest side (or corner) of a room is what determines the psychological feeling of cold. Warmth radiating at ankle height is psychologically good. A cold floor accompanied by warm air being blown out from a convector fan is not as good, because you have both cold and warmth in the same room at the same time. Ceramic or porcelain has different heat transfer properties compared to the wood and plaster everywhere else. The largest buildings use floor heating because people need warm feet to feel that the space is OK. More heat applied at ankle height turns the floor into a heat source for your feet instead of a heat sink. Long term slow warmth is better than sudden strong heat. For example, a heated aquarium put into the coldest corner of a room will change everything : people suddenly say the room is warm. An aquarium is permanently working, holding a constant temperature, radiating a small amount of warmth, a little bit all the time, permanently, constantly, continuously. It evens out the room's lopsided heat loss and makes the room's heat field into a flat playing field not a sloped vector field. You get the idea. Any warm object is better than none. And, prior sealing heat losses is even better, as a start. If you have cold air currents seeping in through the baseboards you have a house problem, not a bathroom problem. Don't let anyone tell you that one idea or another "is not really going to..." as all heat is good (and there is no "bad" as long as the heat stays inside the house and doesn't heat the outdoors) and secondly when it's permanently ON and producing heat the psychological effect is considerable. I have left old computers turned on (permanently) in wall benches, and enjoyed their slow heat which evens out the whole room's heat sensation. I have used the kind of electric kettle that constantly turns itself back on when the water temperature drops below 200F (it's a warm body in a cold corner). Anything goes. In a long time from now (like after you diagnose better the heat losses in your building envelope and seal them), you will have a better idea of how to heat that one space that bothers you today. Your asking about heating the bathroom alone tells me you need to take the time to diagnose your new house as a whole. Your asking about electricity and cost tells me you may have not caught that heat is heat is heat, that there is fundamentally the same cost to transform energy into heat no matter what, and that you have to seal leaks (and add insulation) otherwise you just heat the invisible air currents that flow through a leaky house. hope this helps.

LOL!! Moonshadow, you are too funny! In case my idea of a photoshopping career doesn't appeal to you, you should really consider some kind of creative writing! One thing's for sure -- you are not lacking for creative talent. I think we need to get Moon to come to Atlanta too. I need in-person moral support and she and I can cheer for the PnD team together. After the victory over the GWP, the PnD team can enjoy homemade Savannah crabcakes for lunch and pecan pie and peach 'n berry cobbler for dessert. Of course, served with sweet tea, and shared on our back porch with the scent of honeysuckle and jasmine from the gardens rather than paint fumes in the house. :) Funcolors, thanks for your moral support too! You're welcome to join the PnD team in Atlanta also. :) In all seriousness, you are so right that I had the knowledge of everyone here behind me. With everyone's input, I felt like I knew what I was talking about, and the contractor really wasn't left with any valid argument. I am VERY appreciative of everyone's advice. I also appreciate the humor -- it's helped to keep me sane through this. We met with our usual painter this morning. He's happy to take on the job and finish it properly for us, and I know he will. He actually spotted a few more problems that I hadn't noticed. He's proposing to prime the previously wallpapered wall and do two coats of paint. On the spots primed on the other three walls, he'll sand and/or feather the primer better than they have (they left distinct edges, which he said will result in texture problems), then he'll roll just those sections and feather that. Then he'll cover all three of those walls with another coat of blue. He said he thinks that will cover everything evenly, since the primed spots will still end up with two coats, but if it's not good, he'll do another coat. The trim is in such bad shape in so many places, including spots that weren't painted at all, he said it'll be easier to just repaint the trim than try to do spot fixes. And he found an area of the ceiling that wasn't painted and some areas that have scuff marks, so he's going to repaint the ceiling. He's also going to paint the vanity in the bathroom and give all the walls one more coat of blue. He thinks they may have just done one coat so far or he suggested that they may have watered down the paint. He's going to send me his estimate on Sunday. We told the contractor today that we're going with someone else, and once we get the quote, if it comes in lower, we'll pay him the difference. He said ok. I can't tell you what a relief it is to have that conversation behind us and to know that everything will be finished nicely from here on out. Thank you again to all of you who posted and helped me with this. I'm so glad I found this board!