Wow, I am completely surprised by the lack of enjoyment of this rose! I am so sorry to hear it does not do as well for all of you as it does for me! This rose is one of the first ones I was able to root from cuttings when I started my garden at this current house. To date, it has grown from a 3" twig cutting in fall of 2004 into the huge, thickly foliated bush that it is now. It is about 6 to 7 feet tall, probably eight feet around. It will soon be the size of a VW Van! Jeri is absolutely right. This rose has never shown a single black spot here in my humid, hot, east Texas fungal forest. If you are going to get black spot, you'll definiitely get it here! But this rose is clean as a whistle here, and all over our area. It is a landscape rose, but, it makes lovely little bouquets to add to a vase as "fillers" for your specimen roses. I think it is gorgeous coupled with a few stems of Belinda's Dream, or any pink or red rose. It has that characteristic light, fresh scent of many of the chinas. For lots of noses, it is not an easy scent to detect, but I spend a good amount of time sticking my snoot into blooms and I love comparing and contrasting the various fragrances. To me, this is a rose to love. Unless I ever move to a climate that it cannot survive in, this is one, along with "Spice", Cramoisi Superieur, and Ducher, that I would never want to be without. Allison

Sorry for the late post to this fascinating thread. Perhaps I'm too cynical, but I used to work for a mining company that had extensive interests in LA. My first reaction was that there might be informal ways to solve the problem there that are less common in other parts of the country. I know when I was a kid in NYC, informal dealings with government bureaucracy was a business necessity, and I'm sure they still are in certain parts of LA. Xavier, let me add my voice to those who've gone past youth and seen how life changes one. Not changing is very bad, evil actually. The second your child is born you will be a changed human being. Have you ever noticed the subtle difference between adults who've had kids and those who haven't? That change is called love. And if people originally gave you a hard time on this thread, trust me, it was done through love. Construction and real estate are humbling professions. Amazing things can and do go wrong (as an example, the most reliable person I know destroyed a $5,000 toilet last week by dropping it. Things happen.) Professionals are worth what they charge if they do a good job. I'm saving perhaps 200k by being my own gc on my MBR renovation, the same kind of money you're talking about. But I'm under no delusion that it's really saving me money. If I put the same effort in my business, I would probably come out far ahead. It just suits my style to do it this way and allow me to get exactly what I want. No contractor would put up with my style without enormous change order fees. But I still rely on experts for many things, architects, engineers, contractors I know, suppliers, variance lawyers (try getting one in NYC someday). Whoever I work with, it's as a team, in which everyone is entitled to be wrong (and will be) and everyone is free to correct each others mistakes. I'm bothering to write this because I was frankly impressed with the quality of the advice you were given. Good advice like this is both hard to find and quite expensive. People can spend thousands of dollars on professionals and not get such good advice. That advice was offered to you as a gift, out of love. Well, you've been lucky. Once. Congratulations. It's always a lot better to be lucky than smart (and usually easier.) Sometimes it happens. The church I go to made mistake after mistake in trying to find a new worship space and ignored the advice of anyone with experience and intelligence. Through dumb luck they landed on their feet after a series of incredible errors, and I must say my respect for the Holy Spirit has been solidified. But don't count on luck. It turns. The best reason to undertake a project like you are doing is that you learn and change by doing something so difficult and seeing it through to the end. My hope for you has nothing to do with whether you succeed or fail in getting your house built, for I have no idea which outcome is actually better for you. My hope is that as a result of doing something so difficult you change and change your outlook on life and come to realize that "government job" for the rest of your life is not what you were created to do and not what would give you the most satisfying life. All the best, Frank

Now that I see pic, I realize I was picturing your wood edge differently. Don't let dh read this, but I actually think they are nice. I just think the pure plain white counter is a little jarring against that. If you did the one you described that had some "movement" in it, I'd bet it would look so much nicer. Anything that is not so stark white will help. I also imagine that they show everything as I have old pale peach ones now and they drive me nuts. Of course I want clean counters, but mid-cooking, it bothers me how I have to keep stopping to wipe, lol. Having a multi tone, even a very light one, will not make every crumb stand out from a mile away. I think I'd go with new formica on the tops if I did not like stone. Since you already have wood cabs and a wood floor, I don't think I'd go with a wood counter. If it is not too presumptuous, I think a new backsplash to go with the new counters would refresh the whole look. It need not be pricey either, just a little less plain. If you have access to a Habitat for Humanity Restore or similar, or try ebay, you can pick up tile very reasonably and then use your creativity to add some zing. HD & Lowes have some nice choices these days too. Btw- I love a nice all-white backsplash, just not the 4 x 4s laid upright with no accent pieces or liners. I adore tile and the options to make it special and unique. It really sets the tone for the kitchen due to nature of how one sees it right away from a distance. You can't be as creative with other elements to the same extent.

When I was repotting my pot ghetto, I pulled a dozen cedar trees out of about 30 pots! We have a cedar on the other side of the house next to the road which is 150 ft! I also find hickory trees in pots and elsewhere. But the worst is sweet gum trees, they come up everywhere! I think there was a acorn on the bottom of the oak tree, but the squirrel must have been desperate to put it in the middle of the rose.