I'm not sure what kind of grass it is as I bought this house 3 years ago and it was already here. It has very long deep-green blades and doesn't have quite as solid a base as most ornamental grasses I see. It almost looks like a special turf grass that grows tall and has some dainty little red flowers in the late spring/early summer. I tried to find it online but couldn't. Maybe it's not a true ornamental grass at all, LOL. It is very beautiful though. I'm pretty new to gardening so I don't know names of a lot of things in my yard. The previous owner was a 2nd generation nursery worker and plant lover so we inherited a quite beautiful yard :) I'd really like to keep it that way. I'm in Eugene, Oregon. Not sure what the zone is here, but I moved up here from Southern California and fell head over heels in love with the Red Hot Poker Lily's. Had never seen one before I moved here and they are all over Eugene :) I just planted my 1st ones last year along with a few purple pineapple lily's and a dappled willow shrub that are also gorgeous!! I've never lived this far north before but am really loving how easy everything grow up here. I stumbled upon this board doing a search on my raspberry problem. I've been reading some other posts and plan on sticking around for a bit to see what else I can learn about gardening. I didn't mean to make the original poster feel any worse, but with everyone saying it's no big deal and how great raspberries are, I just had to let them know that there is another side to things. In my research I found a root barrier system that only costs around $50 for a 12"x 20' roll (BioBarrier). It requires digging a 12" trench around the planting area and will prevent roots from spreading where you don't want them. I took this info over to my neighbor and she said "great, why don't you guys install that?" UGH!!! So if I want to prevent the spread, I have to dig up my existing well behaved landscaping to install this so that her newly planted raspberries (planted last fall) wont be disturbed. Or I could accidentally overspray some round up through the fence I guess. Just was hoping not to have to go that route. Anyway, nice to meet you and thanks for the overspray tip.

Where is the thermostat located? If the upper level has no thermostat control, pulling air from that area will likely not achieve th desired result. Also note that adding returns to a duct system that should already be sized correctly is something many of us will advise against. Have a professional analyze your system, check your airflow and static pressures, and give you a pro recommendation. It might even be possible to use a sensor on that level that will communicate with your tstat which would be advisable when adding more return on a level that does not utilize a thermostat. Here is a link that might be useful: Tradewinds Heating & Cooling

Hmmmm, interesting points and suggestions... thank you! And thanks, Loranium, for the picture and suggestion. I do like that look! So far, it looks like it's 4-3 in favor of going all the way around, although possibly not with granite. Here's is a little more info which may make a difference, or maybe not... This is a 37" wide vanity in an L-shaped water closet that we built during our masterbath remodel. The vanity in this picture will only be used for washing our hands after using the toilet. I'm not too concerned about it feeling too closed in/small because of the nature of the room. There is no natural light but we did put in a 10" Solatube in the ceiling. We're keeping the lighting simple with a two light fixture centered above the mirror. In the main bathroom, we have two separate and larger vanities with sconces. Each of these have upper cabinets with a valance and we're planning a 4" granite backsplash that will go between the upper cabinets only. I know that our granite is very busy but, given our limited use of backsplash, we decided to go with granite instead of introducing another type of tile in the room. (Our shower has travertine deco accents which wouldn't be practical or affordable to use as backsplash.) Any further thoughts? Thanks so much!

Thnaks for the replies. I was all excited about the microwave drawer until I saw the price - $5-600?!? Seriously! DH would flip! We are already looking for places to cut costs as this build is seriously pushing our budget. The hanging sapcesaver MW is an idea. We'd have to get dimensions and check it out, as that space (under the cabs on that side) was going to be for the coffee maker. I personally like the pantry idea, but not sure DH will go for it. I'll bring it up tho. On the updated plans it looks like the pantry has been whittled down to 4'10 by 5ft and has a chunk taken out of the corner, so I am not sure how much space will be in there. I don't want to get rid of the message center all together. It IS full height (it is going to house slots for mail for each family member, cook books, recycling can underneath for mail recycling, and our cordless phone) and only 12 in deep I think so not sure a MW could go there anyway. I linked the updated plans below. SIGH. This is so hard....all for a stupid MW. Grr. Here is a link that might be useful: