When I installed EMT into my HFGH, I flattened the ends with a hammer and drilled holes for the bolts which hold the walls to the track/framework at the top of the wall. Look closely at this early photo and you can see that there are 3 (2 visible in this shot) cross-braces. Also, I tapped small holes and installed #6 sheetmetal screws (stainless) which secure every wall panel so the wind does not blow them out. Similar to your area, we have fairly serious wind and snow in the winter.

Well guys, We still live in the house we bought to in 2014 in order to move Donna's aging mom who was (at that time) showing symptoms of dementia. The dementia progressively took its toll on her mind, and then in October of 2016, she was diagnosed with stage 4 bladder cancer. She lived until early February 2017 and died here at home with us, as she wished and she had made us promise not to let her die in a hospital or nursing home. She died surrounded by family and a hospice nurse was present. I only relate this story because Donna's mom's health situation was the reason we bought a house big enough for all of us to live in, under one roof.........and the subsequential multiple projects and renovations.........were the reasons I dropped off of the forum. As soon as we moved into the house, I had a long list of things that HAD to be done, and a long list of lesser things we WANTED to do......so my time on the forum just could not be justified.....I simply had too much to do. The first things to be done were to come up with safety measures to help prevent an elderly woman with dementia from injury by being proactive about preventing her from "escaping" the house. I had to equip all exit doors with a deadbolt lock keyed inside and out (all keyed alike) and we had to come up with a nearby "hiding place" close to each lock location for spare keys in case of emergency. This house has a full basement with stairs, and we did not want her mom to have access to the stairs, so I included the same deadbolt on that door too. The sliding door to the second floor deck was a challenge in that it had a key lock on the outside ONLY with just a paddle lock lever on the inside. I had to come up with a way to make that door lockable with a key from the inside. My solution was to remove the lock assembly from the door and "reverse" location of the paddle lever plate and the key tumbler plate, so that the key tumbler would be on the inside. I stripped out the guts relating to the paddle lever and covered the hole where the paddle shaft came through with a small brass plate.....heavily epoxied in place from the backside (inside the door). All you can see from outside is a small hole blanked off with brass. The deck is on the second story on the backside of the house with stairs leading down the the pool, which is enclosed inside a fence, so we never use the sliding door as a "key entry" point anyhow. Then there is the attic storage space epic adventure. The attic space when we bought the house, was almost non-existent. There was a total of 4 sheets of 4' X 8' plywood (128 sq. ft.) on the joists at the top of an extremely rickety pull down wooden stairs. Stairs were the first to go. Replaced with a sturdy aluminum pull down folding stairs. Then I hauled 22 4' X 8' sheets of 3/4 OSB into the attic space.(each sheet was cut in half lengthwise to fit through attic stairs opening). We now have about 800 sq. ft. of usable attic storage space. I built 2 inverted trusses (strong backs) to attach to the joists on the sections spanning the 12' kitchen and the 18' den. These trusses ensure that the load imposed by the extra OSB and stored material are ultimately borne by the load bearing walls at the hallway, den, and both walls of the kitchen. The addition of the trusses assures that the ceiling joists do not assume a sway back shape over time resulting in cracked ceiling gypsum board. I assembled the trusses in the attic and fabricated them to have about 1/2" "preload bow" on the 18' truss and 3/8" preload bow on the 12' truss. This was to ensure that the trusses were actually carrying some load right from the start. After I got the trusses built and fastened onto each joist they served with metal strapping, I built a 30' long, 2 tier shelf system into the truss structures. Shelves are 24" wide and the bottom shelf is 20" off the floor, while the second shelf is 46" off the floor, so you have the attic floor under the shelves, and the 2 shelves themselves for storage, That yields 180 sq. ft. of space, plus the remaining 720 or so sq. ft. of attic at various head space. The tallest overhead clearance is about 6'2" at the rafter collar ties (and I added collar ties so that every rafter has a tie, instead of every third rafter as the house was built). There were 4 rafters that had "split" open due to improper orientation by the rough carpenters. They had placed rafters with knots situated on the lower chord of the rafter (tension side), which is a no-no. These rafters had to be jacked back into place and reinforcement panels of 3/4" plywood "scabbed" onto each side, glued and screwed. The original scheme had the ventilation exhaust fans from both bathrooms simply dumping into the attic space, another no-no. I extended the exhaust hoses over to the gable area of the house and busted through the brick and installed 2 bona fide exhaust hoods with insect screens. On the longest hose, which was a 4" hose....I built a booster fan box in the middle of that run and wired it so that it turns on when the original fan turns on. I felt that a 16' run of 4" hose would probably need all the fan power it could get to keep from simply "stalling out". The other hose was 6" and only 8' long, so I felt it was adequate with no additional help needed. I could go on and on about other projects, but these were some of my most major undertakings, Now, about my employment. I no longer work as a forklift mechanic in the shop. In midsummer 2015, I took over running the parts department when our longstanding partsman retired. This was challenging in that it put me to the task of acquiring and dispensing the parts instead of installing them on vehicles. It has also been challenging in that I was the first partsman in our history to actually have the capability of searching the Volvo and Daimler websites to look up parts. It was in the summer of 2015 that the company finally got onboard with software to enable this. Prior to that advent, our method of ordering parts involve looking the parts up in hard copy paper parts manuals, or talking to a vendor/dealer on the phone and trying to describe what you wanted, it was sometimes a crap shoot whether you would get the right parts or not. The outgoing partsman never had to use the computer to look up and order parts, and when it was introduced, he refused to do it saying that his time was too short to need it, so he told me to get all the training and he would just watch. LOL He and I worked side by side for 3 months while he showed me most of the ropes before he retired in October 2015. That is a summary of what I have been up to. I know this was completely off topic, but since the request was posed here, I felt OK in responding here.

Two things here. "How paint works": paint comes in usually four different bases for the different colors. Pastel base has a lot of white pigment and very little room in the can for adding colorant. Medium base has less white pigment and more room. Then there deep base and ultra base, which is nearly transparent and has a lot of room to add colorant. If you want a dark color, you have to start with a transparent base, not a lot of white. That is why ultra dark colors can take more coats and take longer to dry. Most colorants don't dry well and are not as strong as paint. (BM's new Aura is a different animal and covers extremely well in dark colors and dries fast.)Dark colors can take 2 to 4 weeks to "cure" before they stop rubbing off. Now how your 50% equation fits into this. Back in the days when all houses were painted in pastels, a common method of picking a ceiling color was to add only 50% of the color formula to the pastel paint base at the time it was ordered at the paint store. You would have a light color on the wall and a 1/2 strength, lighter color on the ceiling. Today's colors are deeper, and if you ask a paint clerk to mix 50% of a medium base color, she or he then has to decide whether to go with the medium base or move to a pastel base. Either decision changes the equation and you will not get the color you pictured in your mind. I sell paint, and I can tell you I have mixed many 50% formulas that simply do not work, and no one is happy, because the color was too deep to use this old idea with. I prefer to walk over to the color chips and find a lighter color by eye that will work great as a ceiling color with the wall color the customer has chosen. I have many years of experience in working with color, as well as a BA in Art from Cal Berkeley. You might be surprised to learn how many blue collar wage slaves are actually very well educated. If you can visit a few paint stores and talk to the staff before choosing paint for your next project, you may find a "free" color consultant in the process. Just be sure to buy your paint there.

Heruga Their trees are grown under perfect conditions and are very well feed. I grew 3 tangerine trees under perfect warmth and light condition and this is what 1 year from seed sprout looks likeThese trees are 13 months old and all have more than 8 feet of trunk/branch/twig growth. 2.5 years old has a linear branch growth of over 100 feet. I measured it and am accurate to within 10 feet. The richest dirt heavy feed and greenhouse over winter with no slow growth season. This is also a tangerine tree and will grow 3 timed-4 times as faster than a Meiwa kumquat as Laura pointed out. 6b Steve