I think we are splitting hairs here :-) Taxes are the least of your concerns. And there are some comments made from non-professionals that are misleading and not relevant and may be further confusing the issue. 1) You need to contact the designer and explain your concerns. Since she was responsive to earlier inquiries, hopefully she will do what is necessary to make you happy with the finished product. If not, you don't have a lot of recourse.......no written agreement outlining services to be provided and expected costs and a cash payment w/ no receipt makes for a not very good bargaining position. Chalk that up to a lesson learned. 2) Plants are often cut back after an initial bloom flush.....no one is inclined to purchase plants with spent flowers on them and cutting back sets new buds. Knockout roses bloom all summer so while they may be temporarily out of bloom at this time, they won't be for long. This is inconsequential. 3) The cost of the plants does raise some issues but only tangentially as it applies to the professionalism of the designer. A professional should have access to wholesale sources however these sometimes do not offer the same range of plant selection as larger retail sources and often landscapers make use of both sources. But even retail sources usually offer professional discounts to those in the industry. It is not common for an industry professional to pay full retail markup. Marking up the cost of plants to above retail is awkward. Obviously, the designer should be compensated for the time, travel and effort that was expended on plant acquisition but itemizing the plants at higher than retail just raises issues for dispute. I would have buried the extra costs into another line item....labor or design fees/overhead, etc. FWIW, the labor costs seem extremely reasonable to me......in fact quite low. Taxes need to be paid on any taxable items and the end user - the homeowner - is the one who pays. Any taxes the landscaper was charged/paid for goods or materials used in the design are legitimately passed on to the homeowner and at the appropriate rate. If the plants were marked up, they are taxed at the marked-up price and the designer/landscaper is responsible for collecting the difference between what she paid and what was charged the homeowner and remitting that to the taxing authorities. It can differ from area to area, but here a professional discount offered by a retail nursery is also a tax-free purchase as it is understood the landscaper will be charging the appropriate tax to the homeowner/client and remitting the same to the authorities. Regardless, this is the landscaper's issue and responsibility, not the homeowners. Don't go there :-) FWIW, because someone has a title as a 'Master Gardener' there is no reason to assume that they have any skill as a landscape designer. Design is NOT part of their limited MG training program. To select a qualified designer you should review their portfolio or examples of completed work, ask for and review/check references and any credentials and interview the candidate. Landscape design is a very interactive process and good communication and a good working relationship will facilitate the process and eliminate any issues such as these outlined by the OP. And always, ALWAYS, get a detailed written description of the work to be done and the the expected costs involved if not an actual contract for services. Otherwise, you are just at the mercy of any Joe Landscaper who may or may not be an ethical professional. And it's good practice and protection for the professional as well re: clients that do not pay what is owed. It happens......!

The bronze drain used on a copper pan comes in two parts. The lower part has a screw thread to accept a threaded 2" PVC adapter that gets glued over the 2" PVC waste water pipe in the floor after the the wide flange at the top is soldered to the copper pan. There is another internal thread that takes the screw in top part of the drain with the strainer that lets you adjust the finished height of the drain so that it's level with your shower mud and tile. Before you start the mud job some gravel should be placed around the exposed threads to stop the mud clogging them. Any water that gets into the pan is supposed to drain out via the threads, but I bet a lot just sits there. Copper pans are really yesterday's technology, which is why I'm using mine as a backstop and mostly as a container for the mud job as I went over the entire shower enclosure and over the curb and 3" onto the bathroom floor with Hydroban. For the floor tile backing the contractor used 3/4" plywood over the old 1" thick floor planks and topped that off with NobleSeal TS membrane to resist cracking. I think usage is a factor often ignored as to how a shower performs over time. I know it's a bit of a pain , but If you make take 2 mins to dry the shower walls and floor after each shower is really keeps it clean and minimizes the time water has to get through the grout. Also a rain shower head in combination with a shower curtain inside the curb keeps the curb and where it meets the wall nice and dry and that's often where there are failures.

Stop, tear it out, get a professional and do it over. I'm so sorry, but everything you have described is totally wrong. Wet areas are all about what is underneath and the pan system is crucial. Yours will fail. The last place to "get experience" in tiling, is in a wet area/bathroom, short of, perhaps a small backsplash. It is a complex process involving specific materials and methods. I guess the analogy might be something like a novice piano student being given Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" and expected to learn it in a week, before they can read music or know the basic hand positions.

Any modern idiot proof solution promotes the building of Neanderthal Idiot 2.0 in response. “Et’s da whay we alluz dunnit.” , Pause. Spit Tobbacy. Deliberate look up and down. Pointed passive aggressive insult....”Little Lady”. Another spit.