Yes, I'm in Florida. But I was reflecting on my same behavior as when in Georgia. Hmmmm... "finest paint"...? The trouble with assessing such a thing personally is that no one can run "clinical" trials with controls in the home setting. And there a lot of variables. Back when I was doing some house renovation and needing a lot of paint, a Consumer Reports study led me to Valspar paint (sold at Lowe'es) as one of the higher performing brands. (I also use gloss which holds up better than other sheens.) Being a creature of habit, I stick with it. That was a few years back and things could have changed so I don't know how it would shake out now. Maybe someone subscribing to Consumer Reports can update...?

Yes, in the USA, where people are accustomed to brightly colored peels on their citrus , they would automatically just assume the orange is unripe if the peel is green so I doubt many people would buy them as is. That's exactly why some commercial distributors in this country artificially dye their peels. I've seen oranges, limes and lemons that have clearly had their peels dyed. I used to pick all citrus at market by the color of their peels but after picking many citrus fruit at market with beautifully deeply colored peels in the past only to find them hard, dry and pithy inside, I now know better. Juicy ripe citrus will give a bit to pressure when filled with juice and fully ripe

We're just putting our laundry room together, after buying the cabinets a couple of years ago. It's about 70% done. We're using Ikea cabinets and had to make some modifications to their limited cabinet choice. DH is currently converting doors to 24" wide x 24" pullouts for the 2 opens spaces left of the washer, the upper cabinets need cover panels for the top, sides and bottom and we need a faucet for the sink to the right of the dryer. We will put a counter on top of the cabinet left of w&d and on top of the w&d for now. You can't really tell in the pictures but the w&d and the cabinet to the left of them are pulled out from the wall about 6" while we're still putting things together. We plan to replace the w&d in the next couple of years with models that don't shake the house as much (2nd floor laundry room in an old farmhouse.) They will either be on pedestals or on a shorter home made platform. Either way they will be taller than what we have now (and most likely won't need a counter above them.) North and South Walls: East and West walls: North wall: Center drawer has a fold-away ironing board for quick touch ups (which is about 99% of the ironing I do---and even that's not very often.) An outlet is nearby for the iron. The counter is the folding area. Cabinets underneath will hold separate laundry baskets for clean clothes. 4 baskets for family members, 1 basket for items to go downstairs (kitchen towels, etc.), 1 basket for miscellaneous. East Wall: Open white cabinet: has space for hanging and lots of open shelves that I think will be used for storing out-of-season items (hats, mittens, etc.) One long drawer will be used for wrapping paper and one smaller drawer for ribbon, etc. The north wall folding area will used for wrapping. Drying racks will be stored in front of the window/to right of north wall cabinets. Tall storage: one side will have pull outs (inner drawers)& space can be left at the bottom for a laundry hamper. The other side will house vacuum cleaner and full size ironing board. South wall: wall mounted drying rack. West Wall: cabinet for sorting dirty laundry into categories includes 2 deep drawers and 2 24"x24" pull outs (one may have 2 hanging bags from a frame and other may be left undivided space for bulky items.) Like ebear1271, I have quite a few dirty clothes catergories (lights--cold or warm, darks--cold or warm, dh has his own catergory--extra dirty, towels/sheets/washclothes--hot, socks & underwear--hot.) I can use space in a tall cabinet for another hamper and I could have a hamper on wheels in front of the east window. There is a laundry sink to the right of w&d. We plan store a steam generator in the sink cabinet for a shower we're building on the other side of the wall. We plan to store an air tub turbine in the dead corner space to the right of the sink cabinet (the north wall cabinet next to this space can be pulled out for access). I only use the dryer for towels & washclothes, sheets, socks, and underwear. All clothes and blankets get hung to dry. The space gets tight when we put up the drying racks (in winter) but I can also use the guest room that is through one of the doorways. We will scatter hooks throughout the room for hanging items to dry (I usually hang pants by a belt loop) and items can also dry on hangers. We may put hooks high on the wall at the north end of the room from which lines can be stretched when needed but this may be unnecessary. Concerns: flooding, since this is the second floor above the kitchen we recently renovated. We have the washer hooked up to a sensor that will turn off the water supply if any leaks are detected under the washer. We're thinking of putting the eventual new washer in a pan that will hopefully be deep enough to contain the water used in a fl. This is why we think we may build our own platform instead of using pedestals. Another thought is to put the washer in a shallow pan that drains into a deeper plastic box stored under the pedestal (with the leak sensor still in use for closing off the water supply.) We also plan to get as good a quality of hose as we can find. Right now I only wash when I'm home and I turn off the water supply after each load. We will mount a fire extinguisher near the entrance to the room and will put a smoke detector in the room. I plan to set up the sewing machine in the spare/guest room just through the east doorway. I hope this gives you some ideas. Good luck!

I'm also in zone 5a, so what has been successful for me may grow well for you. These are my "standards", and the number I planted this year, happily growing under lights: 12 Mortgage Lifter, which is my favorite tomato and might fill the beefsteak spot 12 Great White, a little picky to start but prolific and is my Mother's favorite tomato 6 Pineapple, because they taste good 12 Golden Jubilee, another absolutely dependable and prolific producer here 3 SunSugar, for the 5 kids across the street 24 Rutgers for canning New this year, I do "experimental" plantings annually, just because I like to, LOL 2 Moonglow 2 Pruden's Purple 6 Hillbilly 2 Tasmanian Chocolate (cherry type) 2 Giraffe, supposed to store up to 5 months, we'll see about that... For peppers I agree that King of the North grows well and is big, but I also prefer other "sweet" types in place of the bell peppers. So, my current favorites, and proven successful here: 12 Ajvarski, I love these and they have a wonderful sweet flavor 3 Golden Bell 6 King of the North Hot: 6 Sugar Rush Peach, I've never seen anything so prolific. 12 plants gave me 3 BUSHELS of peppers last year. They aren't habanero hot, but they want to be. When I made relish and ground them in the food processor they smelled just like peaches. Flavor is sweet first, then hot. Plants were 4 feet tall. 3 Early Jalapeno 3 Lemon Drop New to me: 3 Orange Jalapeno 3 Yellow Jalapeno 3 Napoli frying peppers Good luck! I bought a box full of last year's seeds from our local on line auction, I have new varieties to experiment with for a couple of years! Annie