I've given up on vermiculite. The so-called "coarse" stuff these days is always medium grade, whenever I come across it. I use bark mulch instead. If you can get it graded and delivered, that's probably your best bet, but I've had to use the bagged stuff from Home Despot - not the dyed stuff, this is Mountain Magic Premium grind. There is a good bit of wood chips in there but it hasn't caused a problem. If you have the space, aging it for a few months before use is a good idea for any bark mulch you are going to use for raised beds or potting soil. I live in a desert, there isn't a lot of choice for mulch here.

That must be what they were talking about today. It's talk radio; when I turned it on they mentioned a hotel & people being mislead; then people started calling in & a few told how they get paid to write reviews. The host told them what a sleaze they are & how it's illegal & the caller said it was not illegal. Just found what they were talking about on their facebook page- NBC's Today Show did a feature this morning on how many resorts and hotels around the world are writing fake customer reviews and posting misleading photos on travel websites to entice customers. Do you read online reviews? Do you trust them?

I think if you get exactly what you want from them and don't have to address any concerns after the product arrived, they're great (my initial ordering experience was fine). But if you have some sort of issue with the product that arrives, they are more than unhelpful. This is the first time, in all my years of interacting with companies, that I have ever been motivated to write a negative review. I really am just hoping I can save others the mistake of working with them. If your door arrives perfect the first time--you'll be fine. But why not go with another company that has better follow-up customer service, just in case you have an issue?

You’ve got a terrible program that’s driving the drafter’s terrible exterior. Get that basketball court outside and in the back yard. Unless you’re building a high school, trying to marry a gymnasium type volume to a “normal” scaled personal residence is doomed to fail. You’d need something more Biltmore scaled in order to not have that court be the 50 pound non absorbed second twin tumor on the side of the house’s face. Then there is the rest of the window dressing trying to distract the eye from the tumor. It’s offensive to the eyes. More tulle on a hairy 300 pound dancer doesn’t turn them into a sleek and graceful 90 pound ballerina. Either accept that your eccentric program that you gave the drafter is driving a pretty awful looking house, or accept that you need to do the painful surgery to eliminate that indoor basketball court. And hire a real architect. One that tells you all of these painful truths that the drafter wouldn’t tell you. You found someone to draw up your bad ideas. Not someone who is skilled in design and who tells you that your ideas are bad and result in a very poorly proportioned structure.