A tall fescue lawn in a northern California winter is going to look a bit bedraggled, and hardly grow much. The thinning of the grass is probably due to lack of sufficient irrigation suitable for best growth in the hotter months, in combination with insufficient top soil with organic content added before you sodded it, and not fertilizing often enough to encourage better health and growth of grass. How many inches of topsoil did you add before rototilling, and how often and which months do you fertilize, and what is the N-P-K ratio of the fertilizer you are using? As to whether 20 minutes of spray irrigation is sufficient for a lawn in northern California conditions, especially if applied 4 times a week on a flat site, if anything this is overwatering, even with heavy root competition from the redwoods and oaks across the fence. It looks to me that you need to build up soil fertility in both the lawn, and particularly for the citrus tree, which shows signs of nitrogen deficiency in particular, and is probably also not getting water in summer sufficient to get rooting deeper. Just adding a mulch with chicken manure in it, or mushroom compost or similar as a 4 inch mulch, ought to help the citrus tremendously. I'd also suggest adding some time release fertilizer such as osmocote and work into the soil in March, for longer term/slow release of nutrients, and check with a soil auger how deep your irrigation is penetrating with the irrigation you are giving it. The lawn can also be top dressed with a light screened mulch after having it aerated with a core type aerator, and the top dressing raked in to help fill the holes, but it might be better to simply use a sod cutter to skim it all off, add a healthy 6 inches of organic compost to the lawn area, and resod. Lawns here typically benefit from several fertilizing periods, at least once in mid spring and again in summer and early fall, or refer to the web site referred to previously for recommendations. You might also consider using a mulching lawn mower that chops up the grass blades so that they return to the soil, and preserve the nitrogen that is otherwise thrown away with each clipping. As to Ink's complaint about "cliche" eyebrow plantings around the edge of the lawn, I don't think you are really looking at other solutions if you mean to keep the existing lawn size and layout, but I do second Ink's opinion that the narrowness of the planting areas against the fence is rather dull and static. Planting of vines to cover the fence, and widening the borders to allow at least some layering of shrubs and herbaceous plantings is entirely possible if borders were widened to minimum 4 to 8 feet wide if you can give up some lawn space. The proximity of those large redwoods and oaks across your fence is definitely tapping into the irrigation you are supplying. The vigor of the trees, and even some of the plants in your own backyard indicates to me that yours isn't so much a soil fertility problem, as it is poorly timed fertilizing and no ongoing attempts to increase organic content of your clay soils via mulching with compost, as well as not checking to see if your irrigation schedule is adequately wetting the soil to sufficient depth to encourage better growth and plant health under drought/heat stress of summer. Having dealt with many California gardens under or adjacent to redwoods and live oaks, the soil ph is unlikely to be the problem, as I am willing to bet your soil is only mildly acidic or even close to neutral. We just don't have moist enough conditions year round to create acidic soils from dropped leaves in a suburban garden setting. The problem is the root competition of water, and any plantings you add will greatly benefit from adding tons of organic component, mulching with compost on a yearly basis, selecting plants that tolerate root competition with redwood tree roots, shade and constant debris, and closely monitoring your irrigation cycles to see that the plants are getting what they need. Beyond a soils test and a landscape design, you need some help from a good horticulturist who can advise you what you are doing wrong/right in your particular circumstances. I'd also make darn sure the natives you have on your plans are compatible with redwood tree competition, as well as potential overspray from the lawn irrigation. Fertilizing more frequently for plantings below/adjacent redwoods is extremely helpful, and if you prefer the organic route, stick with a good organic mulch that has some manure in it, and reapply a couple of inches every year.

I have a large, square coffee table that I'll never get rid of, no matter what style of furniture is there. I bought it about 10 years ago, and some of the corners have been chewed by a puppy. lol. It's French Country, cream colored, with a maple top. It has two deep drawers in front, and one deep drawer which faces the sofa. I use it as my "morning desk" when I need to pay pills, etc, while I'm watching the morning news. Plus the drawers holds everything I need. I plop my feet on it all the time, it's even beginning to show wear on top which makes it even better! I sometimes sit on it too. So maybe a cream colored coffee table would help lighten up the room, give you storage, and a place to put your feet at the same time?

I came up with a workaround that should eliminate or significantly reduce the stink. Besides the overflow tube being a horrible design, the round piece that connects to the bottom of the sink (2nd photo) seems like it is designed to grow nasty stuff. By the way, I originally tried replacing the white tube with the clear tube in the photo. I did this without any modifications. The water backed up so bad into the tube that there was at least a half inch by 4 inches of water sitting in the tube at all times. The old tube actually had mold growing all the way up to the top of it. And, I flush it out with bleach often. I took the drain apart and removed the round drain piece connected to the bottom of the sink. I replaced the overflow drain with a non-overflow drain with a pop-up stopper. The overflow tube was diverted further down the drain pipe so that there is more of an angle. The water no longer backs up into the tube. It required a little creative engineering to connect the tube to the drain. The plastic piece that connects to the overflow hole at the top of the sink also came off (as other people have mentioned) when I put this all together. I cleaned it and the sink up good. For the plastic piece, I used a carpet blade and a flathead screwdriver. Then I used a Dremel with a pointed grinding type bit to etch both the plastic and the Corian to make sure the adhesive would stick. I used Loctite PL Marine adhesive sealant and it worked great. This stuff is super sticky so make sure you wear gloves. Also, let it dry for at least 24 hours before assembling everything. If you can, use some sort of shims to wedge between the plastic piece and the cabinet. If you don't have shims, just hold it in place for a couple of minutes. Hopefully this works to get rid of the stink. At least it will be a lot easier to clean out with bleach every now and then. I did this modification for both my Corian bathroom sinks and it is amazing how good the bathrooms now smell (or don't smell).

My main concern is that we have had builder grade laminate counters for 17 years with zero problems. Now I’m about to spend thousands of dollars on counters and am really concerned about the amount of negative comments I have seen about the ceasarstone and quartz in general. Such as water marks that won’t come out, fingerprints that won’t come off, cracking, pitting etc. I was under the impression that quartz was best. I didn’t think we cold have any other material besides quartz or granite with an undermount apron sink. We are spending a lot of money on this and I don’t want to get cheap counters but I also don’t want to pay thousands of dollars for quartz just bcuz it’s trending right now. I really don’t care what material it is as long as it holds up and I don’t have issues. I am a serious clean freak and the issues described would make me lose my mind. Just looking for opinions