Artificial Turf

Smart Red said:

I don't own a cat! At least that is what I told the Vet last week when they cost me $400*. The cat you see is Thumbs. He is polydactyl, having six (left) or seven toes (right) on his front feet. He will eagerly jump up son's leg or go for a ride in the truck, laying in the dashboard tray. His brother is Sunset; both yellow/orange tabbies. Since we heat with corn, together they prowl the workshop to keep it vermin free.

I suspect they are the reason we have few chipmunks picking up acorns in the yard this year. They hunt as a pair, one catches the eye of the prey and the other sneaks up behind it. They belong to my son's family and hopefully will be going back home. . . someday. The other orange cat is Bell. She had an appointment for euthanizing when my Grand, Marissa, called and asked me to take her some 10 years ago. Because of her behavior she is an outside cat that lives at my house, but she is NOT mine.

*got shots for the dog as well.

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NOT your Cats! Funny how that worked out. Yep, pets can be costly. Nice of you to take good car of them until they go home?

I grew up in an old Victorian house-- 4 bedrooms plus the maid's room, electric outlets stuck in the middle of the wall (they wanted people to be immediately aware that THEY had electricity, I guess), a stable and carriage house instead of a garage...the whole bit. Woodwork inside was all bird's eye maple, with those foot-high base boards and trim. The bathroom had a sitz bath in it (took us a while to figure out what the heck it was!). All the bedrooms had walk-in closets and balconies or glass enclosed garden rooms and a little niche with a sink and mirror, except the maid's room. My mother adored the walk-in pantry, with glass fronted cabinets. And the library with built in glass fronted bookshelves as well.
We pretty much left it as it was- just doing maintenance on it. However I was allowed as a teenage to make the attic my escape room-at least half of it anyway. I painted a mural on the stairwell walls in there of the flower garden from Disney's "Alice in Wonderland"- the one where all the flowers had faces- the iris held a lorgnette to her high-bred nose... and the rocking horse fly and the bread-and-butter-fly...
Years later, after the house was finally sold, the new owners asked me if I would come and sign the mural- apparently it was one of the selling points as far as they were concerned, lol.

Red Did I miss photos of inside? Mary learned something new from you about poormans window. When I was putting the new roof on I found a pair of morning glory stained glass windows. My roofer had a fit because the gables where all ready finished. I said you can cut the hole or I can they are going up.

http://newyork.craigslist.org/wch/atq/4648427370.html Mary $1,300 for pair of doors

Nyboy, with the prices I've seen at salvage yards, $1,300 doesn't sound too bad. Ha Too bad it's in Ny. I would actually like glass pocket doors. I don't know if they made them. I don't think I would like my rooms all sealed up with solid doors. I like the open concept feeling.

Mary

Well, I've driven by some yards and I'm disappointed in that I think the artificial grass looks a little to fake for me. Part of the problems is that they seem to "plant" it deep enough and it doesn't have that nice 3-4 inches height that real grass seems to have. So now, I'm also looking into drought tolerant plantings.

I don't feel creative enough to do the design myself so I'm researching landscapers. With my $3,000 budge I thought I could get the design, drip irrigation and the few plants the tiny yard would need. Boy was I wrong! Five years ago I saw a beautiful garden and decided to contact the landscaper. The fee is $2,000 just for the design! That included the specifications and plant list. I just about fell over my chair! I know all about time is money but $2,000 for what I think is a few hours to come up with a design? I wrote an email back telling her not to laugh but that I was hoping my budget would cover everything since one section of the lawn only needs about 3 plants and a rock and the other 4 plants and 2 rocks. Ha...She responded and said that the project sounded much smaller than she thought and would drive by today to take a look at it. Well, I'm praying there is some kindness in her heart and that she will like me enough to help me out . A lot of wishful thinking.

Mary

You could always go on a yard safari. I did that a while back to get ideas for my big planting bed behind the house. Just drive through the (high falutin') neighborhoods and take picts of their yards to get ideas of how they placed things - what plants went close to the house, near the curb, along the walk, etc. If you see one you really like you could copy the layout. Get good clear picts so you can take them to the nursery for plant ID if necessary.

Here's crazy idea. Put dimensions on here. few suggestions of things you like, put our collective minds to use. What do you have to lose?

Good idea seedcorn, I'll post pictures today during nap time.

Mary