We had this same situation. I did some research and found that you could either make or buy a "ramp" made for just this purpose. Ours was installed under the carpet pad and its made of a very heavy rubber. Tapered on the sides as well as the approach and it spans the whole width of the doorway. and about 24" long so you've got a nice gradual transition. It's absolutely a perfect solution. The carpet installers ordered it and I couldn't be happier. I'll try to attach a photo of ours tonight. Ours were similar to this as they were rubber http://www.johnsonite.com/WallBaseFinishesAccessories/FinishingAccessories/SubfloorLevelerSystem/tabid/813/Default.aspx But I'd suggested the website carpetshims.com to the carpet installers when we first realized the problem. The ones from caroet shims.com are wooden. I'd have been majorly unhappy with the look and tripping hazard of a step up/ uneven threshold.

flyleft, I just went through this and you can't believe what a PIA it was. Schluter makes transition strips. They have many sizes and styles to choose from. I went through $100.00 worth of strips (Shipping was expensive) and just found one that fits. I have hardwood and tile. The tile was taller than the wood. My tiles are also 3/8. The one that worked the best was the Reno-TK in 1/2". I tried the 3/8" but the tile came up too high. These have to be installed with the last tile though. It sounds like your tiles are already installed. Donna

Put up a legal fence where you know you're entitled to construct it. Make sure it is on the property line and however tall the city says it can be. The building department, city, county, or whatever will not get involved in a property line dispute. It is a civil matter between you and your neighbor.(I have been through this all before) Is the property line ambiguous? Then get a survey. It will cost $1K or more. Make sure you pay them to put the stakes at the corners of your lot. Also the survey must be filed with the county assessor as an official "survey of record" The surveyor or civil engineer can do that for you, But it will cost more $$. Probably double the cost. If you know pretty well where the property line lies (you can obtain the lot subdivision parcel plan at your county assessor's office along with any official surveys of record of your property that have occured since the subdivision) That is a good place to start. Start measuring from the center of the street. Add half the width of the street as it shows it on the parcel plan to your lot dimension, and you can conduct a pretty accurate survey of your property. Give the neighbors a foot and build your fence there. If they dispute the property line, they can pay for the survey just to prove you're right! I have experienced this, but my neighbors ended up paying for everything. They buried an older survey stake and built a fence about 2' over on my side of the property. This was an attempt to prevent me from constructing a retaining wall which was in the building permit process. I went to the assessor, got the maps and did the survey myself. It took me about 2 hours total. I then sent them a letter copied to my attorney stating that they had to relocate the fence or face a civil suit. They paid for the survey, hoping I was wrong and then could sue me for the cost of the survey (which they can't even if I WAS wrong because THEY CHOSE to get it done) Their survey showed I was right, so they paid to move the fence over to the property line. Then they paid to plant like 20 trees along the property line, so I have a sweet privacy wall of trees now. I didn't pay a dime! They were so shamed they moved away the next year never to be heard of again. The whole neighborhood was happy. This story is 100% true, I an completely serious. You may be thinking, what if they had decided to go to court and not pay for a survey? Good question. In court, the Judge would have ordered a survey to be performed on the properties in question. The party found at fault would end up having to pay for the survey, the court costs, and attorney fees, if any. I would not have used an attorney, so i would still not have had to pay a dime. The point here is know the laws, your rights, and play the cards so the party at fault has to eat the costs.

If your looking for the savings on your water bill you are looking in the wrong place, the real savings is on your tax bill. In the early 1900's toilets consumed 5gpf however in those days water was plentiful and the sewage was simply discharged into a local river or estuary. In the late 40's or early 50's they began mandating sewage treatment and as the population expanded there was a big concern that many of the sewage treatment plants could not keep pace with demand. On average every man, woman and child will flush a toilet 6 times a day. At 5gpf that equated to 30gal/day per person or on the big picture, 30,000gal of waste to the treatment plant per day for every 1,000 people in your community. With the rate of population increase by the mid 60's the local sewage treatment plants were being overwhelmed until someone came up with the idea that if they cut the flush rate from 5gpf to 3.5gpf they could reduce the waste load generated by toilets by approximately 30%. The alternative was to build additional treatment plants and replace miles of sewer pipes with larger lines at a substantial cost to the taxpayers. By the mid 80's the population had expanded to the point where not only were the sewage treatment plants overwhelmed, the municipal water supply and treatment facilities were also running at peak demand. In some areas such as where I live water is plentiful so we could build additional water & sewer treatment plants at a cost of millions of dollars to the taxpayers, while in some arid regions such as California or the Southwest, they simply do not have the water even if they were to build additional treatment plants. When we consider that toilets account for approximately 50 of the total water and sewer demand the quick solution was to reduce the toilet water and sewer consumption rate to 1.6gpf, thus reducing the load generated by toilets by approximately 50%. Now in regards to why you cannot see the savings on your water bill? As Kudzu pointed out, the national average cost for water is $6.50 per 1,000gal or $0.0065 per gallon, however, water supply is not measured in gallons but rather in cubic feet. One cubic foot of water is slightly less than 8 gallons (7.92gal/cu.ft) therefore on the national average water costs $0.051/gal, however for billing purposes most communities charge a flat monthly service rate that includes the first 5,000cu.ft, then they charge a surcharge for each additional 500cu.ft. Sewer tax is then computed at 2 or 3 times the water rate. On the individual household, in most cases changing from 3.5gpf to 1.6gpf will not change your consumption enough to show a substantial savings on your water bill, on the other hand, if the community as a whole does not make the change, they will have no alternative but to replace the sewer lines and build additional water and sewer treatment plants so in conclusion, if your looking for the savings on your water bill you looking in the wrong place. The real savings is on your tax bill.