I really doubt that the heat from the grill is affecting the holly unless the holly was actually touching the grill. Hollies can take heat once they're established, but one thing they are sensitive about is alkaline soil, which can be caused by planting them next to concrete. Concrete can leach calcium into the soil, which changes the PH of the soil. Have you performed a soil test? Check w/ your county/state to see if they provide this service. I have a holly hedge planted next to a concrete retaining wall and have to periodically throw a handful or two of Hollytone at them to keep them happy. Regardless, a soil test will tell you what your soil contains and what you need to do to it to grow that holly (or another plant).

Just a tip for anyone who is thinking about making his/her own rain barrels. The rain barrels on the website Buford purchased from look really nice; however, we've learned at least one thing the hard way from the experience of making our own and that is not to put the spigot up so high on the barrel. Some of the pictures on the rainbarrelsandmore.com website show the spigots at about the midpoint of the barrel. What happens then is that fully half of the water in the barrel can't get out through the spigot. If you make your own barrel and are putting a water spigot on it, I'd suggest you put the spigot down as low as you can, then put the barrel itself up on top of a sturdy cement block, rock, or board platform that is high enough to allow you to put a bucket or watering can under the spigot. One other thing we've learned is that you really don't get much water pressure from these things, even when they're full of water and lifted up off the ground. In our community garden, we had planned to attach drip hoses to them that would be gravity fed, but they really don't have enough pressure to force the water down through a drip hose. So we water by hand with watering cans. You may wonder when you see the photos, so I'll just say that we're not using these barrels to collect rain, only to distribute water throughout the garden. But there are two things to think about when converting your barrel; 1)how will the water get inside of it and 2)how will you get the water out of it when you need it. From my own personal experience I also recommend cutting a hole in the top that is circular and just about as big in diameter as the barrel. The reason being, it allows you to pretty much climb inside the barrel to clean it out as needed. We've been using our barrels for only one season and I've had to clean algae off the insides quite a few times already. (not just from the inside of the semi-opaque white barrels in the picture but also from the inside of colored ones that the sun doesn't shine through) If you look up how-to directions for rain barrel conversions online, most of them will tell you to cut a smaller, rectangular hole in the top. And (again, my own experience - maybe yours will be better!) in addition to the smaller hole making it harder to keep the inside clean, I also found that opening up the whole top instead of just cutting a small square made it much easier to put in the spigot, and to reach around to put the spigot lower down on the side of the barrel. We're using plastic sheeting tied on top to keep out mosquitos, but if I were collecting rainwater from gutterspouts I think I would use a stiffer aluminum or plastic window screening with a hole cut in that to insert the gutterspout. And in case you're wondering, the plastic sheeting doesn't work that well (eventually cracks up because of sunlight exposure). It was just a cheap and quick fix. I'm hoping to be able to afford to use rolled window screening next year. Here is a link that might be useful: Photos of Homemade water barrels with spigots

In historic masonry load-bearing construction, arches and vaults were structural devices to span an opening wider than a flat lintel(s) could span. Of course, in modern, framed construction, the arches have become strictly cosmetic, extending (and hopefully enhancing) the architectural character of the building. For this positive effect to be achieved (and be belivable), however, it's still necessary to design and construct the arch as if it was actually load-bearing. That is, the springline of the arch (regardless of the shape and type of arch) must be structurally supported directly beneath the springer of the arch. That's the problem with the illustration in Worthy's post: the springline of the vault is hanging solidly in mid-air. It's a Disney-land detail, not a classically based detail. On the other hand, jenswrens photo examples are very successful because the spring line is solidly supported in every example. If one is going to do an arch or vault, at least do it correctly. Good luck with your project!

Recently moved into a ranch on a slab in Michigan. Dead center in the house is a 9'x9' room that contains the laundry, furnace and hot water tank. The walls are insulated for noise I assume and it has double doors which are half solid and half louvered. There is no other ventilation in the room. As you can guess, it is extremely warm in there. Any thoughts on how to move the air out of there to use it in the rest of the house? The kitchen, front entry, a hall and the living room surround it so noise is an issue. There is a HVAC return that opens on the outside to the front entry on one wall of the room.