I volunteer at our local Red Cross blood drives ( every other month). Our most recent one was on Tuesday, The Red Cross staff did take the temperature of every potential donor, but they did not take the temperature of the volunteers, nor did I note any other precautions. The donors sat side-by- side as they waited to be called, there was no hand sanitizer that I saw, they shared the required reading material, they sat at the same canteen table, etc. I was surprised when I later read about the new “ measures” being employed. That memo never made it to our town!

My Kohler Underscore drop-in tub was installed in September 2017 and we have had no issues with it. I use it about once every 4-6 weeks; so not heavy usage. Occasionally my high school track/CC daughter or wrestler son will use it for an ice bath. Are you nervous about the contractor installing it correctly? Maybe it will help you feel better if you print out and read the installation instructions, maybe even call Kohler if you have any questions about it, and then discuss installation with your contractor to be sure he/she knows that you have read them and you expect that it will be installed according to manufacturer's instructions. Also, have you opened the box and inspected the tub for any cracks/uneven finish, etc?

The economy is always a factor in housing costs, whether you own or rent. When we sold our 'starter home' (of 30 years occupancy!), we were in a mild seller's market. I figured we'd 'made' 4% after deducting mortgage, RE taxes, maintenence, improvements. This was during a period when you could make 10% on a CD. Still, we had a nice home and were in control of the property. We'd paid off the mortgage and invested the sale proceeds in a new home we built and moved to in 2001. Come 2008 and the revelation of the huge numbers of home 'owners' in all price ranges who were out on the street. You could buy a million dollar home here for $500K or less. In my town, north of Chicago, the RE market was sunk for years, and has only rebounded in the last two years -- largely boosted by the work from home boom, but it's nothing like the increases of other regions -- 11% is the last number I've heard. Today a shortage of housing has driven the market up -- not a concern for homeowners not needing to move, but a big concern for younger people starting out and for renters, whose rents are rising. We paid more than expected for the Chicago two-flat where we invested Maui condo proceeds, but the sale was in a much more highly appreciated market than here. I would always prefer to own a SFH after owning a condo and after renting during the first years of our marriage. I resist having others decide how or when to spend my money on maintenance or improvements. (That extends to 'Senior Living' buy-ins.) Our home is a big portion of our net worth. Allowing ADUs or STRs in my neighborhood decreases the value of our home. It's simple self-interest -- as is improving and maintaining the two-flat we now own. We want to be able to attract good tenants for nice homes at fair rents. Good for us. Good for tenants. Good for that neighborhood.

Well, I started gardening organically in 1980 on the same property I still garden on. [g] I guess I was committed to the process beyond what the results were going to be. Major problems that I've had? I did have winter moths on all my trees and shrubs for about 6 years in a row without doing anything to address them. The only organic solution would have been to spray the whole tree, that was already 25 ft tall, every spring, with horticultural oil for an uncertain result, so I skipped that. It did leave moderate damage to the tree. Lots of dead branches up in the canopy but it started out being a very dense canopy so it still looks very good, now that there are no more winter moths. They just stopped one spring. I have no idea why. I did replace a number of shrubs and two small Amelanchier trees. I had a bout of witch grass that invaded my vegetable garden and I did the wrong thing and used a rototiller on it and what a mistake that was, it just multiplied the root system and it was worse. I abandoned my vegetable garden for 2 years before I thought of an organic sollution - I had a left over 25ft piece of plastic from an outdoor skating rink and I covered the whole area for a year and basically solarized it and that was the end of the witch grass. I had a very annoying influx of earwigs that were attacking plants in my vegetable garden and it took me awhile to figure out what was doing it. I looked and looked during the day and saw no pest that was causing the damage, but when I went out at night with a flashlight, I found the earwigs all over the plants. Simple solution, a plastic cup with soapy water in it and I'd just knock them into it. I did that for a couple of weeks and never had that bad a problem with them again. I grow a lot of brassicas in the vegetable garden and I used to get a lot of those caterpillars that make a mess of the leaves. I still get some in the spring, but my plan was to just inspect the undersides of the leaves and remove them, but I got busy in the spring and forgot to do them and I noticed that I had wasps patroling the vegetable beds and I barely had any damage from the caterpillars. So, to me that is the ecology taking care of itself. You do have to be observant to notice what is happening in the garden. So, those are just a few examples of issues that come up and what it has required from me in the way of acceptance and patience. I know in the beginning, when I had less patience, I did make up my own homemade insect spray - garlic, a drop of oil, a drop of dishwashing liquid and some red pepper flakes, blended then strained into a spray bottle. That seemed to be pretty general purpose and I had no issue with using that and still don't. It has been a couple of decades since I resorted to that. What I was doing was taking each issue that came up, researching possible sollutions, talking to other organic gardeners and then choosing the most natural solution, sometimes doing nothing. Thinking about it, I think I do nothing more often then I do any thing else. [g] BTW, when you talk about gardening making you happy, growing organically and supporting the ecology in my little corner, has always made me feel really connected to nature and adds a lot of happiness to my gardening.