Welcome aboard! You are going to love gardening year round!! No more winter blues keeping you down till plantin' time! Please be sure to look over the FAQ area here- and Trudi's site is great!! Read them both and you are well on your way to being a pro at this! I find I like those plastic containers that have flat lids to them, like ice cream buckets, the big lettuce containers, Costco cookie containers and others. I drill holes in the bottom for drainage- and then 4 holes near the top of the sides of the bottom of the container for transpiration, add miracle grow, water it well with HOT water, let drain, sprinkle seeds on top, pop on the top and head out to the snow banks. I like to set mine on the ground,where the get at least some direct sun during the spring days, as they seem to not dry out as much, nor are they affected as much by wind and fluctuating temps as those placed on shelves. I find I do not need to water again till the tops come off. This year- I will be trying zip locks with holes in them and miniblind supports to keep them upright in flats as well. I am hoping to reduce some container off season storage and clean up issues. Look for deals on miracle grow or other similar non dirt container planting medium now- and store in the house till you need it- It freezes solid!!! And can take DAYS to thaw in your house!! Then, remember that we Minnesotan GWers get together in January and hold our great "Winter Blues Seed Swap" and share our seed stashes with each other for a fun mid winter garden gathering. Many of us there Winter Sow, or are usually converted quickly! Look to the exchange area of our MN forum for more details closer to January. You are gonna LOVE this!! Julie

Detriot, That's what we were thinking. A repairman from a local lamp/chandelier repair shop said we could just find 120v bulbs to replace the low voltage ones, leave the current wiring and not use the transformer, but I'm skeptical. Could it be that easy? Do I need to rewire? The LED bulbs I'm finding online that match the measurements of the current bulbs are pretty expensive, but I'd buy them if that would do the trick.

You can use Dirtex to clean your walls. Sanding with a power sander is fine, but you will find that it gets dusty doing it that way. I may use a pole sander for bulk sanding and then use my orbital sander on stubborn drips or areas that hand sanding just isn't cutting it. If you do power sand all the walls, then cleaning them is probably overkill. The sander is going to remove any contaminants that may affect adhesion of the new paint. Be sure to remove any sanding dust before painting.

Ikea works really hard to make sure you don't miss anything, with a meandering floorplan that takes you through all of their room displays and vignettes. Then they take you through the shopping area for small items. Even if you want to take a shortcut to a particular section, you have to be pretty familiar with their stores to find them. If you have anything particular in mind, bring measurements. A measuring tape and pencil and paper wouldn't hurt, although they usually have ones to grab there (stubby pencils and paper measuring tape). Any of the larger things in the room displays, you will just write down the info and location of where to find it in the warehouse. Small things you can pick up along the way, especially once you get to the small goods area. The food is really good and not too expensive. If you have any kid/grandkids/nieces/nephews/ friends with kids, the kids section has some cool stuff. I've gotten their multi-colored plastic dining set for a shower gift more than once--all my mommy friends had them--and I actually like the cup size for myself.