If you can find an older Troy-bilt chipper/shredder, I'd go with that. My cerca 1989 Troy-bilt shreds much finer than a Craftsman, about a 1/16" of an inch! Mine has hammermills, when Yard Machines bought them out (keeping the name), folks said they were not as good. I have heard a number of nice things about the Mac, if you want to spend the money for a new machine. Don't be in a hurry to buy a new machine, all chipper/shredders have good and bad points. I thought the Troy-bilt was a poor design, until I used two others! It might even depend on the leaves, some large leaves won't easily go thru some narrow chutes. Anyway, if you have the opportunity to borrow or rent a machine, do that.

Kats, that is some real chutzpah. I feel for you. We've been in our home for a little more than a month after a 13-month build (that was only supposed to take 9 months) - the delays were excruciating because they would have been avoidable by someone with even a modicum or organizational ability, which our GC does not have. He's a lovely guy on a personal level but not nearly as good a contractor as he thinks, and we sorely need a break from the unrelenting pressure. He still has not finished one major item - two sets of steel stairs that go from our rear porches to our rear terrace, as well as several small punchlist items. There's always an excuse. He's disorganized, but resents it when we step in to organize, or take any kind of action to impose a deadline - this from a guy who is routinely hours late to scheduled meetings and never met any deadline in the construction process, even ones he imposed himself. Our new theory this week is to give him whatever time he needs (within reason) but to limit his intrusions into our home life to one day a week, arranged in advance, with a "one hour" rule - if he's not here within an hour of when he is supposed to be he has to wait until the next week. Apparently that is being just as "mean" and "difficult" as complaining about unmet deadlines - he thinks we should be there 24/7 for him to do what he wants, or we should just give him a key and trust him, in any event on his schedule. No way - he has needed watching every step of the way. We've done way more than our share of work that he should have done - I feel for you there too. He's been inches away from being fired more than once on this job, and we've talked to a construction lawyer several times about really contentious issues. In the end, even though we have the cash leverage (we still owe him more than our 10% retention, primarily because he's too lazy to do a requisition), it just hasn't been worth it to fire him. Assuming that you don't need clean title for a takeout of your construction loan, it sounds like you have little to worry about. I don't have huge faith in the court system, but even then I find it hard to believe that a judge would buy his argument that his subs are not under his control. Also, if he's not done, how in the world could he be owed a completion bonus? The courts are always a risk, but in this case it seems to me a pretty small one. If you do have to close any new financing that requires title work, you may need to think about it a bit more strategically. Do everything you can to get your loan closed without a lien being recorded. Otherwise, my advice to you is the advice I have a hard time taking myself. It's only as big a deal as you make it. So hire a lawyer and instruct him or her to deal with it in as cost-effective a manner as possible. Then let it go and enjoy your new house.

thanks for all the input -- very helpful in thinking about this decision. I just wrote a long post that got eaten before I submitted, so I'll be brief. ctycdm, that is a gorgeous kitchen! magsnj, your pantry and space is so charming - the blue cabs are adorable. We don't have a pantry space in his home (1957 house), so we're having to be creative with our cabinet layout. I think we're going to do a modified version of open shelves. I really do love the look, and I think functionality wise they work for us (I too get sick of opening and closing cabinet doors), but we're lacking cabinet space in this kitchen. It's just not that big. So, we're contemplating a smaller cabinet with a shelf underneath for storing everyday items like plates, cups and wine glasses. It would look sort of similar to the henrybuilt ones that iheartgiantschaunzers posted or maybe even something like this (our cabs won't look anything like this, but this is just the general idea): [[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/mid-century-modern-suite-hampstead-transitional-home-office-vancouver-phvw-vp~4309142) [Midcentury Home Office[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/midcentury-modern-home-office-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_732~s_2115) by Vancouver Interior Designers & Decorators i3 design group Another design we're considering is (kitchen is not my style, but just an example): [[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/tarrytown-house-asian-kitchen-austin-phvw-vp~101835) [Asian Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/asian-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2102) by Austin Architects & Designers Webber + Studio, Architects Still working out the design kinks but this thread has been very helpful, so thanks!

We've had our pool for 8 years and used pavers. A big reason for our choice was drainage. They did a great job and we've had no settling issues, there was even a leak that required repairs under part of the decking so that turned out to be a good choice. We did experience some mold in the wetter sections and weeds growing between pavers after a while. We recently hired a highly rated, professional paver company to redo the sand between the pavers which requires a good powerwash cleaning, replacement of the joint sand, machine-tamping it all, and a sealant. Unfortunately after a couple strong rains the sand was partially washed out in some areas. They came back and redid the entire job again only to have the issue repeat itself and now we're discussing next moves.