Hi Jan, Great job on your gardens. You have a large area to play with. It must be so much fun having all that space to spread out and make more beds. It's always fun to see others handy work, it is really inspiring. I go through times of the blahs and when I see someone else's work it gets me going again. I'm currently working on getting an harbor or pergola ideas in my head for an area to sit in the shade. If I get it done, it will have two seating benches facing each other. I will post pictures if I do get it done. The trick will be not digging, I plan on building it so I don't have to dig to place post in the ground. Reason for no post is because there is a chance we could move in a few years and I may want to take it with me :) I look forward to seeing your beautiful garden in bloom next year.

If the unheated portion is in a place where I'd place my bare foot as part of my normal traffic pattern as I make my way around the room? To me that'd be something to gripe about. If it was in front of a vanity, a place where's I'd typically be stationary? That'd be completely unacceptable. I've refused to short cut mat or cable coverage, even when the homeowner has insisted that it'd be okay to do so. Because it never will be okay. They might accept the poorly heated floor with cold spots because they insisted on and agreed to it. But they'll never, ever be happy with it. If I were ever to shortcut a mat...which I won't...I'd not do it without the homeowner signing off on a very detailed "heated versus unheated" floor plan. In your original post you wrote that there is no heat on the floor within 18" of the vanity, right in front of a sink. To me, and to Suntouch, that's way out of bounds. In front of vanities Suntouch recommends the mat be right up next to the vanity. If there's a toe kick, it goes under the toe kick. So 18"? That's a battle to be fought between you and your sub who installed the mat. In my eyes, the homeowner wins on that one. How this is remedied? You could refund them the amount of the RFH back to the homeowner, perhaps even recouping a part of the money through the sub who installed the mat. That may or may not satisfy. You can keep things as they are and let it slide. You might end up with an ulcer. You can fix it from below.You can eat the cost of the new mat, the tile sub perhaps could compensate you for the cost of opening up and closing up the ceiling below the bathroom. Or you can bring the original tile sub back in and fix it from above. He supplies the labor at no charge. You can work out the materials cost as best as you can with the tile sub. There are options, none of them pleasant. I do feel for you. You sound like someone who builds with good intentions. You wrote that "Many of the issues are self inflicted, and come about in an effort from him trying to save money, which all come back to bite ME. Our profit margin is currently below our overhead costs, and there is no indication of it stopping here." That's a tough spot to be in. But if he's talking you into changing things along the way and you're not executing formal Change Orders as the plans and contract morph away from the original design and budget agreement? Again, I might be reading too much into this and making an erroneous assumption. But when I've had difficult clients, everything goes in writing. Every change to the original plan is a written change order, paid for by the customer before the change is made. If the payment isn't made before the due date specified on the change order, no change is made and for that portion of the project, work goes along per the original plan and the original contract. If the change order results in a cost savings, it gets deducted from the next disbursement notice. There is karma. There are the easy clients. Like the one a few years ago who deposited $900k in an account with my name on it and said "build me a house". Anyhow, I do wish you luck with this. You sound like one of the good guys who's been run over by a freight train. Might be time to put on your engineer's cap, wave a red lantern, and slow this guy down a bit.

It's just a shallow groove cut into the underside of the overhang. When water droplets run across the top of the bench and then down the front edge of the overhang, capillary action can pull the water along the underside of the bench overhang and back to the tiled wall under the front of the bench. With the groove, when the droplets hit the groove on the underside of the overhang, it breaks the capillary action's horizontal pulling and causes the droplets to fall to the shower floor instead of running down the wall under the bench. It's normally just an issue with stone slab benches. If the bench were tiled, then the edge of a tile or a grout line would serve the same purpose. Below, "X" is the slab, "Y" is the structure supporting the slab. The dashes show where the groove is. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX--XX YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Hi, I'm a Realtor, been going into other people's houses for a number of years, did a bit of property management, & here's what I've learned: Warm tones go with warm tones, & cool with cool. Bright white goes through periods when everybody wants it, & then after they've cleaned it for a year or so, nobody wants it! Plus, if a white is too "clean", it'll make furnishings look dingy. It's a cool-to-cold color, not inviting at all. (Think laboratories.) Warm colors are more inviting & they'll harmonize with the warm golden & brown wood floors. The medium-light warm neutrals will go with most people's stuff, & they'll go with the floors. The kitchen has the potential to be very charming. You might get some ideas by searching for images of kitchens in the 1900's or the 1940's... but there again, warm neutrals will probably be better for a rental. If the budget will stretch to new kitchen flooring, you might get rid of that cold-looking gray & replace it with a good grade of vinyl (Congoleum used to have a product that will outlast us all) in a warm color & a "vintage" pattern, or even install those linoleum squares like you see in school cafeterias. They would look appropriate for the age of the building, you can move the fridge without tearing the flooring, & that stuff lasts forever.