warko, I wouldn't advise the girdling thing that's been suggested to you. I have, however, done 'bark inversion' on a few apples & pecans - cutting & removing a 1-inch wide strip of bark, turning it upside down, and replacing it, then wrapping as if you had performed a graft there. It's an ancient technique for dwarfing and speeding up time to flowering/fruiting, similar to 'looping', tying an overhand knot in the trunk of a limber seedling. The inverted section of bark will callus in, and since it is in an abnormal orientation, it will retard, to some degree, the flow of nutrients/auxins produced in the portion of the tree above the inversion for a period of time - I've seen claims of up to 4 years, after which you have to invert another strip, if you care to continue the dwarfing effect - and it also seems to speed time to flowering/fruiting, which can often be quite lengthy for seedlings. Another downside: you usually end up with a not-especially-pretty 'lump' in the trunk at the site of the bark inversion, and the potential is always there for a failure of callusing, resulting in death of the portion of the tree above the inversion.

Happy to report that yesterday I drove the Jeep for the first time. Easy peasy. Going out again for the next three days - grocery shopping at Walmart, two dr's appts. the next two days. A friend is going w/me today, but after today, I'll be solo flying. Hip is soooooo much better, but the old back is the problem, which never gets better - just worse. Still thanking God for my quick healing - just three months ago, I didn't think I'd be this far along. Thanks for y'all's prayers and concerns. Keep up the good work, mosaicists - you're still the best.

Well, you *are* putting in a windbreak. You want to break the wind. Simply because you are using non-traditional plants for that purpose doesn't change the physics of the arrangement. Several years ago, I found a lot of good sites about snow fences. They were mostly midwestern .edu sites. Those would help, as would similar sites on windbreaks. Definitely do the research before you start planting things, since a lot of it seems to be counter-intuitive. For example, the more solid the barrier, the more it actually speeds up the wind in certain areas, because it acts like an airfoil. Densely branched deciduous shrubs would be better.

We sourced all the finish materials for three major jobs with the same contractor (bath, addition/new kitchen & bath, complete backyard). None of these jobs started before we had decided, ordered and, in some cases, received every single item going in. Many of these sat with us for as long as a year. And, while we made a change or two it never delayed the project because we were all on deadline. Time is money and if you are delaying the project-which you are - it costs the GC money both because your project takes longer and it delays the start of the next paying project. I hope they are billing you for change orders. I paid a couple myself. I get the stress. It’s a ton of money and difficult to get a do-over. We spent probably $200k in total for our work. That was a huge investment for us. But here’s the truth. When the project is done, there is always the possibility you might have done something different. And guess what? The more time goes by, the higher the likelihood. I have a couple do-overs on my list - luckily they are adding things we didn’t do originally to save a little money (in the short run). So my best advice is to finish up with your existing service providers. They are a known entity and you will have difficulty finding new ones because people talk. I guarantee you will not come over well when you are interviewing new providers. The only other option is to allow the GC to bring in their subs at their going rates. Own your responsibility and start being clear about what you want from here out. Past misunderstanding are what they are. Put things in writing and cover the paper when you talk to people. Add the comments and agreements to the paper and all sign. My guess is that the people doing the work for you will be more than happy to do that. If you don’t like the result, and they followed the paper, then it’s on you. Clear communication, timely decision making and an understanding of your capabilities is key to these projects and, frankly, a good life. For your own reasons, you’ve become paralyzed in this process. Recognize this and move on before you impact more than a kitchen remodel.