Ha no problem qwade and good luck with your endeavor. I've been trying to get to the arboretum all summer (after it was recommended so highly by folks here and I then checked out the website, yowsa!) and will now have to settle for fall; the little ones kept me too busy. I did recently get my mom to agree to come with me and we have a rough goal of next week or the following. Isn't it a shame that more of us aren't in coupledoms where BOTH partners share the obsession?? It works both ways though-- I suppose I could try harder to develop a taste for football, auto mechanics or America's Got Talent but if you try harder, it's not much of an obsession now is it... For today, I am grateful that hubbie does all the heavy digging and lifting when I ask him to. He does enjoy planting and nursing grass seed in our bare patches, so I think there might be some hope for him yet. Time will tell... I giggled about "quicker ways" to kill these little maples. Picturing someone really attacking the poor things, furiously hacking at them or setting them on fire. I do see what Ken is saying as it seems that the colder-than-here pacific northwest is where so many of these mail order trees come from so I don't understand why we'd have problems here but your mention of the freeze/thaw seems a likely candidate. And we did have several days here last winter that were below 10degrees, I think a couple even below zero. Harford County is usually several degrees colder than Baltimore, sometimes as much as 10. And I second the ice damage- perhaps that was a bigger culprit to the deaths of the trees I heard about. I didn't personally lose any other than my little maple but my HUGE pine tree (of some sort, I def do not know my evergreens yet) lost like 8 major limbs! It looks so sad now, big ol' holes. Anyway, thanks for the info on the dormancy/no photosynthesis/no light needed. Boy does that seem obvious now. Think if I do need to move them, into the garage they will go. Then I won't have to worry about the sunroom getting to 42degrees (or whatever, hehe). Here's a pic of one of our huge evergreens. I didn't take it for this post--already had it in my folder-- so you can't see the entire tree.. and it isn't the one with the holes anyway. But there it is nonetheless. Maybe someone here knows what it is? I'm going to see now if you have any pics posted of your bonsai. That's much more than I can imagine taking on at this point in my life but I do always love to look at others'...

We have the same kind of sunroom, concrete covered w/ industrial carpet. This is the only place in the house I'd put in tile (had it in the kitchen & replaced it). I like cork, too, but my DH doesn't, & because this room is at ground level & has potential for water damage (& we have 2 dogs), I wouldn't use the hardwood that is in the rest of the house...

Hello, Maj. You do not mention the climate you live in. I know nothing about pre-fab 4-seasons rooms, but from the info you provided, I can make a few comments. You said the prices were too high but this one at $5,500 seems to be affordable to you, so I think you answered your own question about the price. That sounds like a decent unit (from the specs). I built a sun room 8 x 14 and it costs a WHOLE LOT more than $5,500 (in Canada, where things cost more). I wish I had made it larger (although that was not feasible). Adding a sun room does not bring more light in. What brings the light in is removing the wall where it connects to the house. I am not sure exactly what else you really want to know. Knowing your zone or State will make it easier for anyone to know what you will be up against. I had to spend a LOT of money on proper footings because of frost and because of a lot of water and a lot of clay, all right where the footings sit. The deck (off of the sun room) and the sun room footings have been repaired and/or removed and/or adjusted 3 times in 8 years. This year, the whole mess will be dug up (with the sun room temporarily supported). The deck is already removed (it heaved nearly a foot this past winter). So be prepared to spend whatever it costs to do the foundation and footings well (based on where you live: climate, soil, water).

jane ny, I was in a similar situation last year. For me the sequence was paint first, then flooring, then baseboards, But it looks like you may have baseboards already installed. Painting first worked for me because I did it myself and there were spatters on the subloor before I was finished. You might want to check on whether your subfloor is indeed covered with plywood, because you may need an underlayment before installing your floor, depending on what you choose. Best to check where you buy the flooring. With some help from a friend who knew what he was doing and owns a Skill Saw, I installed a plywood underlayment in less than two hours. I too wanted tile with a slate or similar look, but the room was already over budget (long story) and I chose to spend my money on high end French doors because the floor could always be changed later. I got some advice from the flooring forum while deciding. You can always post a message there before you proceed. We narrowed floor choices down to either loose-laid sheet vinyl or vinyl tiles. My friend chose the tiles because the color and pattern seemed to fit well in the sunroom/porch. The original intention was to keep those tiles for about a year while I shop for tile and find a good tile installer. But the floor has held up well, despite some abuse like beach sand, rain coming in when some airhead (