Now I have received the reply from whom I bought the trees. "The trees are a population of Picea pungens var. argentea, common name Colorado blue spruce. Imagine the hedges where the trees are planted even at shorter distances between them. Are they bare at one side? In time, if you discard such a tree, its neighbour will be bare at one side, the side exposed to the removed tree. Do not worry about disease and insects, they will not be affected. Even in my nursery where the seedling are planted at high densities we do not have such issues, and we do not apply any pesticides." More than one tree suppliers suggested 1 meter distance to us. Among them, one sells blue spruce, one sells white spruce. It is interesting that when we drove to Ottawa downtown via the highway 5, we spotted that between exit 10 and 13, there are many screening spruces to hide residential buildings along the highway, with only 1 meter distance, which are growing very vivid. Those trees were planted in many rows, growing like dense woods, and the ages of those trees are between 10-15 years. So my hubs pointed them to me, "Look, look," and wished that I will not make him working again. Alas! Sungarden12

Elkay sinks tend to have more of a grainy or grooved looking finish to them. Have you logged onto their web site? I believe they actually list a description of their finishes. Most decorative plumbing showrooms have Elkay on display. Call around so you can actually see in person. Now as for matching your faucet to your sink or to the rest of the kitchen, I would match the faucet with your accessories (cabinet hardware). It's a much richer look if your faucet, soap dispenser, air gap and whatever sink top items you have will blend in with the rest of the kitchen. Do you have stainless appliances as well? Carleen

The utilities company does NOT have to read anything manually because it already has a smart meter "attached" to it. They want to change out the meter itself. While I understand it is their equipment, changing out something that is still working, and working well without any problems, begs the question. Yes, it's their equipment, but really, another aspect is that it's on my property and I can deny access that way. just want to not invite trouble by changing out something that works for something that is "newer" i.e. read: functional obsolescence.

There is a great danger in trying to approach home design and construction in the same terms as your previous experience as a consumer. You can't buy materials for the same price as a contractor and if you insist on supplying all finishes the contractors will probably raise their installation prices to cover the lost markup and the additional trouble of dealing with your inevitable delays and mistakes. Also, using an architect just for the basic design drawings is a poor choice since he/she is likely to be the only available independent guide through the pitfalls of the project. After all, that is his/her profession. The only certain way to save money on a house is to make it more efficient and eliminate unnecessary features. Unless you are highly experienced in these matters I suggest you provide the owner information and let the pros design and build the house with you observing closely. It is interesting that you mention Pella and Kohler. Those are the only two manufacturers that I tell my clients to avoid. I would suggest that any product heavily advertised to the public and sold by Home Depot, Lowes, etc. should be used with extreme caution regardless of the model numbers. The model numbers might or might not matter but the factory quality control does and there are other code numbers that denote a different factory that might serve only the big retail stores. Manufacturers believe the public buys because of advertising and appearance rather than proven quality and I agree. If you buy a toilet from Home Depot put it on a hard flat surface to see if it was miscast and look at the flapper to see if it is malformed or dmaged. I would say you have a 50% chance of getting a good one from Kohler and a 90% chance that the cheap plastic flow valve will fail in the first year (Kohler uses FluidMaster valves which jam so often that there are instruction on their website for clearing them - have someone ready to shut off the water in case you drop the cup). The water you pay for from stuck valves can quickly exceed the cost of a better grade of toilet - this is not the place to save a hundred bucks if you are on town water. Obviously, it doesn't matter how good a product looks or how low the price, if it doesn't work properly it becomes a liability. And if you provided it, you will be removing it and taking it back for replacement or repair. Being able to call the contractor about bad fixtures or window leaks is worth something unless you are good at diagnosing and fixing such things and have the time to do it. I usually don't make pitches for architectural services because it inflames some die hard DIY'ers but I have rarely designed a house where I didn't reduce the owner's cost by more than my fee (sometimes just in the bidding/negotiating phase) and the avoidance of pain and family strife comes for free. Good luck with your project.