I found this topic, and although an old post I thought I would share my experience with costs. I am having a 1000 SF patio installed, which includes a 800 SF patio area, with a retaining wall and steps which connect to a lower 300 SF patio area. We are using a manufactered 3.5" paver that looks like flagstone. Due to existing water/basement issues, my project also involved substantial regrading about an additional 600 SF of area, installation of pipe/pop ups for my 2 roof gutters. This project is also incorporating some basic landscaping of the non patio area (i.e., mulch, and about 25 One gallon plants and 5 Rhododendron bushes) The average cost per SF installed for my job is $17/SF for the patio area. My total project cost is around $18K. Its a HUGE amount for an outdoor project to me, but I have a large clean finished outdoor space area that I expect will help when I go to sell my home in 6-7 years and hopefully address my basement water issues. My project did involve a lot of stone and regrading. I also am happy with the pace of work my contractor proceeded at. From notice to proceed to the 90% complete point was less than 2 weeks, which included rain days!

A long time ago, I did a Mint Mate install(actual install, not live) onto a 16GB Gigaware USB flash drive. It booted slow as molasses and the first time running apps was just as slow. It ran fine afterward though. I considered getting a faster flash drive such as a SanDisk Extreme, but it wasn't it my budget at that time. I seem to remember playing around with bcd.exe but my memory is short. Some day I'll have to give EasyBCD a try. In the meantime, GRUB works for me. An extraordinarily boring (and embarrassing, mostly because I flubbed customizing GRUB2 because I'm too lazy to learn to use it properly right now) video of my installing Mint Mate alongside Windows 10 in a virtual machine... I suppose the point is that they can, at least sometimes, live happily beside one another. I was really expecting Mint Mate to offer to "install alongside windows" and auto-partition but it did not. Don't some other Ubuntu based distros do that? Or is it just full blown Ubuntu? Anyway, after all my stumbling, doing it incorrectly, redoing etc., Grub now reads exactly the way I want, remembers the previous boot choices etc. ... That's just a virtual machine though. I wouldn't suggest others try it on their real machines. I suppose if one were to practice setting up a dual boot system, a virtual environment would be the safe place to learn, right? BTW, I used Oracle's VirtualBox in the above videos. Free and open source. Oops, I just read the warning on the VirtualBox download page: "Please be aware that Windows 10 is not yet officially supported!" Oh well, seems to run fine for me.

Thanks for this thread. I’ve been taken to task, and learned a few things here, while trying to work through some ideas and idiosyncrasies on our current build. At the end of the day, I think we all want something that works for our current situation, isn’t an ugly disaster, and can be attractive for resale at some point down the road. It’s a tightrope act, for sure! My “sins”: We walk through our master closet to reach the master bath. I have a lower level “drive under” garage, but also have a main level carport/patio around back, directly attached to my kitchen, should anyone doubt my ability to carry up groceries. . I have 2 bathrooms with doors to the outside, the master, and a guest bath. (Both exiting poolside.) Said guest bath also connects to my laundry room. It’s my way of minimizing the wet towel problem, and I refuse to apologize. Call it an overreaction, but I’ve lived for 14 years with wet people and towels entering my master bedroom or living room (the closest doors from our current swimming hole.) I’m over it. I may even put a fingerprint lock on the door into my master bath.

Erasmus, I tried 'Miss Kim'. While it is indeed well suited to a mild winter climate, it completely lacks the traditional lilac fragrance. In fact I disliked the way it smelled, so I gave mine away. Currently I grow five lilacs. Two are Descanso hybrids developed for the California climate. 'Angel White' is one. Its fragrance is faint but it is true lilac. Last year I planted another called 'Dark Knight'. I don't know how much fragrance it has but I look forward to finding out as it develops. I may in time plant 'Lavender Lady', said to be the most fragrant of the Descanso lilacs. I also grow two other cultivars which are not from the Descanso collection but good in mild winter climates. 'Blue Skies' is rosarian Ralph Moore's only released lilac. I have been told that he bred several others but this is the only one he ever released to commerce. And finally there is my very first lilac, 'Sensation', a gorgeous bicolor which I find very fragrant. It is probably my favorite. Some years ago Gregg Lowery told me that many lilacs will bloom in a mild winter climate if you keep them dry in the summer, once established, of course. Based on this I would be willing to experiment with others. I already only water my lilacs once a month. Rosefolly