yes .. it can be done very easily ... start digging.. remove them .. and replace them with size appropriate plants ... here's your chance to reshape the front of your house... make a real statement... don't try to skimp by trying to restore an ugly plant .... you may spend 5 years trying to accomplish something.. only to eventually fail ... conifers do not take well to harsh trimming.. IMHO ... can it be done.. maybe... but hey .. its your front door ... good luck ken

Wow, it really is the craziest shaped bathroom ever! It's too bad some of the tile is in bad shape, otherwise the bathroom looks quite pretty. How is the bathroom floor? It looks in pretty good shape. If the tiles are in good shape but the grout isn't, you can always replace the grout (time consuming but not impossible). The soffit really isn't too bad. The weird mirror corner obviously has to go, but otherwise it doesn't look terrible to me. I'm not a tiling/shower/waterproofing expert, but perhaps the bottom row of shower tiles and the floor could be replaced with something (maybe a different/contrasting tile) and leaving the rest of the shower wall tile in place? Everything but the bottom section of tiles looks in decent shape from your pictures. If you decide to completely redo the shower and want to save money, perhaps you can do some of the work yourselves. One draw back will be that sometimes DIY work takes longer than professional work. It should save you money, but you may be without a shower for a longer period of time. If you do rip out the shower completely, I think walling off the pointy portion of the shower would be ok, but I would also try to find a way to use more of that excess space for shower niches for storage. Looks like that may have been the intention of the ledge, but you don't seem to be using it that way. If the bathroom floor is in good shape, you should be able to just replace the toilet if it doesn't work well. The cost of a new toilet isn't terribly high and the installation is fairly easy. You could replace the vanity if you don't like it or it's not functional for you. A vanity replacement isn't too tricky and could be done DIY.

I made strawberry ice cream on Thursday, and it did not cool me down. I add Cointreau to the ice cream so that it will be softer, but because the kitchen was so warm, it was difficult to get the ice cream hard, and most of the strawberries fell to the bottom. Mango ice cream is readily available here, as is coconut. Coconut is one of my favorites, but I like it best when I buy it on a tropical beach made from fresh local coconuts. Maybe I will be able to do that next week. I prefer mango sorbet to mango ice cream, however. Unfortunately, I no longer have a mango tree, but I'm thinking about getting one. I used to make passionfruit sorbet when I had a passion vine, but it attracted too many possums and the vine tried to dominate the yard. I loved the fruit, however - it had an intoxicating fragrance. I'm keeping cool by spending time in the yard - it is 5 degrees cooler outside than inside. Lars

I agree with postponing the wedding until these issues are settled. I promise you, it CAN get better, and that is up to your fiancee, but also up to you as well. Once he has addressed the issues with her, you will see a very dramatic turnaround in the behaviour of the child. Don't make that your issue because it's not. Your BM is behaving this way because a) she is being allowed to, and b) she is getting something out of it - satisfaction, attention, drama, pity - she is getting whatever reaction she wants and she is feeding off it. And you know what - your fiancee is getting something out of it as well. You both just need to figure out what that is. If your fiancee says only call once a day and then he answers the phone and argues with her several times a day, then he is teaching her that she doesn't have to take him seriously and she can do whatever she wants, regardless of what he says. HE is giving her permission to do this! I don't see a problem with you being the primary caretaker if your fiancee is working - don't worry about that - but he needs to give you a LOT more support. This is not your child, and you are not a glorified unpaid babysitter and nanny. What I would suggest is to get yourself in a place of absolute calm - take some time out and go for a long walk, have a massage, go get yourself an iced coffee or something - and just BE. Just sit and relax and clear your head. Don't sit and worry and stress about the situation. Don't even let yourself think about it. Just relax. Then when you are feeling in a more relaxed frame of mind, sit down with him and have a talk. No shouting, accusing, crying - NO DRAMA - and discuss it calmly with him. I assure you, I know how difficult this is, especially when tensions are running high - but the benefits are enormous. One point you need to make clear to him, in a loving way, is that if you leave then it's expected that sometime in the future he will meet someone else, and if these particular issues are not resolved, then that woman, and every other woman after her, will leave the same way. The one thing I said to my DH, a long long time ago, when I faced VERY similar problems that you are dealing with, was this, "If you are not able or not willing to address the disruptive and destructive behaviour that you are allowing to continue, through your ex wife and into OUR family, then you will always be alone. No woman - not me, not any other woman with any self-respect - will put up with it. That is your choice." Actually, I told him that he would never EVER have sex again unless he paid for it :) But don't try that unless you both have a very wicked and evil sense of humour like we have - he took it the right way and it gave us both a chuckle :D I said this out of love, and in understanding for the very difficult position that he was in with an ex wife who behaved like your BM. And it IS difficult for the man as well, trying to keep two women happy, for different reasons. One more thing - start taking a more logical approach over this situation. Men don't respond well to emotion, and the last thing he will want is drama from his ex and then drama from you as well. Where is his peace? His place of safety and security and comfort? Once I stopped fighting with my DH over this issue, and instead gave him a soft place to land after her erratic and aggressive behaviour and attacks, and once I LET GO OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP and helped him build up the self-esteem that she was working so hard to rip to shreds every day, and gave him the strength to believe he COULD have a more peaceful life by being more assertive with her, he started seeing it for himself, and he started changing things. NOT because I wanted him to (and of course I did!), but because I told him that his actions with BM were hurting me and hurting our marriage and family deeply, and I was going to put my faith in him and trust in him to protect us from that and to take care of the situation so that OUR family and marriage could be peaceful, loving and safe. Today, I can promise you, our BM is not an issue in our lives in any way. No tantrums, no threats, no aggression, no phone calls, no 20 text messages a day, no 10 emails a day, no fighting, no drama, no problems. HE is the one who has to do this, but YOU are the one who can make that happen for him. All the best x