I wish I could post some pictures of Fescue lawns in the area now. I think opinions are equally split here because you see about half warm season grass yards and half cool season yards with water running every morning when I go to work I might add. But all things aside if you look on the Ntep.org site and hit the virginia beach location for trials you'll notice there is no cool season trials. I think the reason is clear why they don't waste money testing them here. I'd like to see them try some of the next generation blue grasses to see if they can survive here. And the reason is the same why I don't use the Virginia tech web link is because they are in zone 5. Most of Central Virginia is zone 7. Why would anyone use research for choosing plants or grass that are two to three zones different than your climate? I'd be better off checking out Flordia State University's ratings since they are zone 8 also. They are probably more 8 B.

Looking at GE's press release it indeed looks like they will only offer the combo oven/Advantium in a 120V version, and probably only 30" wide although it doesn't explicitly say that. It does allude to the new model being intended for remodelers replacing competitor's oven/microwave combo units, which use only 120V/15A for the microwave. The cutout opening would usually be too short to accomodate a separate Advantium over a single wall oven, but the combo unit is shorter since it needs only one control panel for both ovens. The press release does say they'll be available with both Profile and Cafe styling; thusfar only the Profile is on the main GE website. The Cafe would be the first Cafe-series Advantium to be available in a wall oven of any sort; until now only an over-the-cooktop model was offered in the Cafe line. Both models will list for $3,999 and assumedly have the same features.

We are finishing our basement for our own use right now -- but before this -- I've always said that buyers would love our home - until they saw the basement. We have put thousands of dollars into our home: new windows, new cherry floors, new kitchen (addition), all new bathrooms, etc... But, when you walk downstairs to the basement you are greeted by nasty walls with seepage stains and dusty concrete floors. We had the walls taken care of (rod holes and cracks) but they are still ugly. Eventually, they will be insulated and dry-walled. My DH insists on a powder room even though it was not plumbed for one -- it was $1,700 for the sink and toilet rough in. I don't expect to ever recoup the investment on our finished basement when it is done -- but we could never sell it the way it is. At a minimum -- I would paint the floor and walls so it looks nice -- that is after making sure walls don't leak or seep. Another interesting option is spray painting the ceiling black -- our friends did this to their quasi-finished basement and I think it looks great.

We installed (ourselves) shaker inset white Conestoga RTA cabinets from & worked with Cabinet Joint to order. Would I do it again?... not sure. It was a lot of work & since RTA and factory painted, you have to plan everything super careful to account for seams, joins, etc. No t sure I would do insets again as those shows any misalignment unlike overlaps which can hide door alignment issues. The cabinets are very high quality wood and construction for the price BUT factory (white) is beginning to show yellowing around stove and garbage bin door where you touch it, etc - in other words, hard to keep factory finish looking great for long if you use your kitchen like we do. So we saved a ton of money over semi custom or custom but it was a lot of work to build, install, rewire, etc. Took me months of working by myself to do it and probably could have done a bit better job. There are some limits as to what you can do RTA but I found out after the fact, I probably could have done a bit more custom orders on a few cabs with Conestoga but I went with a more standard size which left a couple cabinets not exactly custom looking but fine (like a gap between frig and upper cab is not a exact fit but show a gap of 2-3 inches (I would have preferred it to be a built in, custom made look but nobody really notices its a nitpick. I am think they will need to be repainted after 10-12 years (white shows alot). Out painter does repaints of old cabinets and uses a specific euro product to do so . Never realized how many necessary steps there are to do a cabinet repaint correctly but here is a video (he has q couple which discuss the product and steps). https://www.facebook.com/toddthepaintr/videos/195740918684028