Hi dchall, I'm over in College Station. No, I hadn't found the FAQ yet (I don't think so anyway... Read so much lately!), but I will certainly go hunt it down. On my first couple of posts, I was definitely fixated on NPK... Within a couple of minutes of my reply wondering if I should wait for the soil test, I found an article that turned on the protein/carbs light for me though exactly along the lines of what you are saying. Although the light is on, it's flickering a little still though.... :) I see time after time where people are comparing the NPK of grains/meals. My current assumption is that the NPK of grains is still relevant b/c the microbes I'm trying to feed w/ protein/carbs are releasing it into the soil as they work on digesting the grain (along with lawn clippings, etc.)... So I may still have a little brain fog, but I'll keep researching and put NPK on the mental back burner. I homebrew beer and there is a hops shortage this year, so I decided to plant some several weeks back. I dug up a new planter along the side of the house where I was seeing the yellowing the most. The grass is pretty well rooted. Not terribly deep, but certainly not above ground. (That weekend I would have been happy to have had such a bad problem that all of my roots were in a thatch layer!!! My back still hurts from removing all that grass!). So I do have room for improvement on the root depth, but I THINK that I have caught on to all of this in enough time to not be as bad off as I could have been and can continue to wean it off of water. I had reduced watering last year to about an inch per week, but I did it cold turkey. I've turned off the automatic sprinklers several weeks ago and am trying to just water when the soil is drying now. On the homebrew topic, I read last night that spent grain (barley) is high in protein (but most of the carbs are pulled out in the brew process). I sometimes spread those out on the lawn (blindly thinking "this decays, it's probably good for the lawn"). I'll have to start doing that more regularly. I don't make enough to cover the whole lawn, but it's nice to learn that it is a safe supplement.

Had a similar situation with them. Bought a fridge - new, with warranty, came with all the paperwork, but a scratch & dent unit. It stopped working within the first year. Long story short, we had a manufacturer's service tech out & we discovered that the unit was not under warranty. According to factory records it had been "scrapped" (manufacturers term) and was never intended for sale. DHS did give us our money back, so that's a good thing. But the whole situation was a hassle to deal with and we were out the $75 service call from the manufacturer. Maybe the solution is to get a serial number & check that specific unit with the manufacturer in advance to make sure your unit is covered. We learned that another thing to look at that might tip you off to problems is the power cord. The molded, factory plug on our unit had been cut off & replaced with an after market plug. The service tech said that he had seen this before (not saying the other units were DHS supplied) & this was a dead giveaway that the unit was scrapped. Again, had an issue & it was solved, but would have preferred to avoid the problem from the get-go.

pinktoes i read your other post on the lighting forum about not wanting to get up on ladders - which I can understand (i just got done putting in 4 recessed trim kits that were 14 feet up - yikes!) I would suggest putting in more switched outlets than what would normally be installed - so that you can put in table lamps or reading lamps that can be controlled by one switch when you enter or leave the room. Not only is it a pain to turn all those little lamp sitches on and off - they tend to wear out too. The switched outlets will give you more flexibility - say down the road you decide you want a wall sconce or some other permanent fixture - you can easily have an electrician tap into one of the outlet boxes to run up a switch leg to power the light. I had the elecricians add a number of what I call half-hot outlets. This is simply a a duplex wall outlet that is wried so one of the plugs is always hot and the other plug is tied to a switch. I put these to the left and right side of each bed location, in corners where we might want table lamps, etc. Now when I enter a dark bedroom, I can flip on the switch at the entrance and the bedroom table lamps turn on. Since your DH is a geek - and so am I - I recommend that he check out www.smarthome.com. They sell a product line called Insteon which I have installed a bunch of into my new home. These are radio controlled dimmer switches and outlets that allow you to add some automation (maybe just a little) into your existing electrical system without re-wiring (what I mean is that you need to replace outlets & switches - but do not need to run new cables.) After we moved into our last house, we quickly discovered that the wiring was not done to support the way we lived in the house. For example - the house was wired assuming we would always enter through the front door - which we rarely did (used the garage entrance instead). Unfortunately - there was no way to turn on the kitchen lights when we came in through the garage - try that at night when it is pitch black inside. AFter many toe stubbings on the kitchen table - we needed a solution that was non-invasive and low cost. I started using remote controlled dimmers and switches to fix these problems myself - and saved a boatload of money by avoiding re-wiring. I simply added a contoller at the garage entrance (taped into an outlet and added a box to house the controller) and then could remotely turn on and off kitchen and other house lights where I installed the remotely controllable dimmers. DW loved it. In my new home, I went crazy with the Insteon products so that not only can I control just about every light in the house remotely - I have programmed scene's (hit one button for the TV viewing scene). I had to do this (this is my story and I am sticking to it) because we have an open floor plan with a lot of lights. For example - our family room has 4 different light circuits - recessed, ceiling fixture, low voltage cans, and floor plugs for table lamps and then 3 different ways to enter and exit the room. Instead of having 12 boxes (4 switches x 3 locations) - I installed 4 remote control dimmer switches and 3 scene controllers. Now when you enter the room you hit one of 6 buttons which will dim all of the lights to preset levels. It was a lot cheaper to wire the house this way because every 3way or 4way circuit is hefty upcharge and every additonal switch is an upcharge. Using the remote control approach in my family room - I had zero 3way/4way cabling, 4 switches, and 3 outlets (where I installed the controllers). I realize that this might be way beyond what you want - just wanted to give you an example of how you can add in this type of automation after the house is done. Best of luck with the plan.

Thanks for the tip but that site doesn't allow electrical questions per their policy here: http://www.mobilehomerepair.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5628&sid=54450981630b90ba039a1c777536a60f Pretty short sighted and arrogant on their part to decide that anyone who has to ask an electrical question is too stupid to do their own electrical work - especially since I see electrical questions posted by master electricians on some real forums and by licensed electricians very often on almost any electrical forum.