Apologies to the neighbours

Late spring and early summer here are marked by the sounds of power tools being wielded by contractors and landscapers as everyone races to get the heavy stuff completed before the heat and humidity set in. We haven't any really big projects to do before autumn but we have managed to get quite a few small jobs completed: the rotten window sill has been repaired and as I chopped back a huge holly and arborvitae we have a better view of the west side of the property. The landscaper spent a whole day pruning and trimming all the shrubs so everything is clean except for the north side. I spent an hour pulling weeds there and have the poison ivy scars to prove it.
I also cleaned out a piece on the NW side about 10' x 10' that I wanted to plant up, but we discovered that the irrigation system wasn't working on this patch so I had to get the guy out to fix it, otherwise nothing would grow up there. I want to put in some sun-loving plants as this area is always sunny whereas most of the rest of the yard is filled with shade tolerant plants. Hopefully we can go to the nursery to look this weekend.
We had the bloc party and decided on some priorities for sprucing up the road. The electrician came and ran a new line from our yard to the lights on the cul-de-sac, and they look great, too. I suggested that he put in some lights at the turning circle up the court and they ran with that idea, I think it may be Christmas every evening up there: sparkling! Now we are waiting for the paving crew to asphalt the road and then I guess I'll have to lose my trees because they do block the lights a little. I'm feeling better about the idea (and, neighbours, I'm sorry I was a bitch about chopping them down) but I'm still waiting to see what they want to replace them with.

It feels like summer

Winter has finally left us and it has turned hot and humid here. We spent Memorial Day in the pool, which was a little chilly but it felt like a very American thing to do. We also barbecued and sat on the deck at the Beach Club to watch the sun set. A very satisfying day all round. We've also accomplished a few things that have been on hold whilst the weather has been so bad: fixing the pond was the major achievement. I was expecting to have to buy a new pump or at least a new cable for the old one but when Steven and his father got it out of the pond and cleaned it it worked first time.
Actually, it worked a little too well: they decided to clean it in the kitchen sink and I arrived just as they plugged it into the socket and water shot 6' in the air and soaked the ceiling and most of the floor, too. So I got a scrubbed floor and ceiling out of the deal; luckily they missed the light fixture by a hair's breadth. It took another couple of days to clean out the accumulated soil and debris from the pond and to angle the flow from the waterfall so it circulates back but I think it's done now and it is very restful to sit on the patio and listen to the water trickling down the rocks.
I have pruned two enormous holly bushes to about a third of their original size and replanted the rhododendrons that were dying off under the hemlocks. I hope they like their new homes. I also uncovered an entire rockery on the southern corner of the south drive, which was a totally unexpected and pleasant surprise. I got Steven to reset some of the stones and it's waiting to be replanted in September.
The final thing was to tackle the kitchen window sill that was completely rotten. We couldn't do this until I had pruned back the holly and the evergreen (above)that were right against that wall. Taking it down dramatically increased the light in the kitchen but also exposed a lot of rotten wood on the sill. I dug out a piece to see if I could fit a "dutchman" but it looked too big a job for me. Then Steven and his father had another go at it before declaring it a workman's task. So today I have a man replacing the entire sill and hopefully we can manage to keep the rain off it and stop any further damage.

Now the neighbours are swarming

As if we didn't have enough to contend with dealing with those pesky bees, now we have the concerned neighbors too. Not concerned about us, you understand, but increasing their property values.
We live on a corner property and it's a beautiful site - lots of trees, azaleas, rhododendrons and spirea along the main road and hostas and conifers along the cul-de-sac. The entrance to the cul-de-sac is not signposted and it's easy to miss; which is annoying I suppose if you live on it. Apparently this is a problem that those neighbors want to remedy, and soon. I'm kind of laid back about the issue: it's a test of my visitors' ability to problem-solve and their desire to find me. But obviously it's grinding away at some folks nerves.
The entrance is in fact marked by two pillars with lamps on them, one is on my property and one on my opposite neighbor's. The lamps don't look as if they've worked since 1970, although there are wires coming from them. I tried changing the bulb and turning on all the switches in the house but nothing worked. My landscaper thinks they may both be wired to the other property, but who knows? The entrance is also marked by four Arborvitae, large scrappy conifers that builders put in because they are cheap and form a screen really quickly. Before we moved in the neighbors stealthily removed the lower branches of these and some junipers that were beneath them, a move that apparently did not go down well with the previous owner.
Anyway, we have been approached to see if we could cut down the four trees on our side and replace them with a beautiful bed containing at this point I know not what. The plan will be revealed by the neighbor who owns the tres chic garden centre at a bloc party this weekend but I know a sign with the house numbers on it figures in it. The idea was sold to me as something we will all benefit from, as our house values are sure to go up. We also need to re-asphalt the cul-de-sac before it becomes a hazard to motorists. So I am waiting to see how much this is going to cost me before I consider it as we have other priorities this year. I see the urgent need for paving the road, and it would be nice to have the lights working but as for the rest - chopping down my trees? Bloody cheek

Killer bees

Actually, not killer bees, more chewing, gnawing, pesky bees. We have carpenter bees: they look like bumble bees but instead of hairy backs, they are smooth and shiny; they don't sting (often) but they like to hang out on the redwood siding and chew little holes in it. They chew a hole in, turn at right angles, tunnel down a few inches and exit through a new hole. Hooray, they don't do structural damage, boo, they leave the siding looking like swiss cheese!
We have spent the last few weekends experimenting with various insecticides in an attempt to rid ourselves of the little critters. I wouldn't bother but they make a lot of noise while chewing and this freaks me out, especially as they are by my bedroom window and they chew throughout the night. We could call in te professionals but apparently killing the buzzing ones requires time and patience and that translates to lots of money, and it is quite easy to kill them yourself. You need either powder insecticide and a baster or a spray with a long nozzle to poke into the holes. I was also told you could spray them with WD40 and that should be easy as it comes with a target nozzle but it didn't kill any bees although the ones flying around didn't squeak at all.
The powder worked well where we could get it directly into the holes,and there were a few dead bees beneath the holes the next day but some holes were too high under the eaves to reach and the gnawing continued. Then we tried a spray and had some limited success. If we got it into the hole it worked but often we couldn't be precise enough. Then the spray attachment snapped off so I drove to the hardware store to buy a spray bottle to transfer the poison. By this time I was pretty mad so I picked up three different brands of aerosol insecticide, all specifically for carpenter bees and drove home to perform a little experiment.
Brand A when sprayed directly on a bee rendered it dizzy enough to fall to the ground where I could stomp on it. Brand B seemed to have no effect on the bee except to make it shinier but Brand C had a dual use: if sprayed into the hole, it foamed up, leaving the hole covered and causing the bee inside to groan horribly; when sprayed in the direction of the bee the product caused it to instantly fall lifeless to the ground. Instant gratification and our product of choice for the future. And there will be many more opportunities to use it as they are still chewing in a couple of hard to reach places.

A few more repairs

The visitors left and we had a great time with them but before the next lot arrive we have some maintenance to take care of. One of the shower faucets started leaking and we bent the shut-off valve trying to turn it so that's a plumbing job. I phoned today as there are a couple of other leaky pipes in the basement and was told I will have to wait nine days for the plumber to call! Good thing it's not a serious leak. I still haven't heard back from the irrigation people about turning on the sprinkler system so I guess I will have to call them again.
The other pool guys have opened the pool and repaired the leak but told me under no circumstances to turn on the pool heater without getting the oil guy out to look at it. So today I phoned and he was here within an hour. However within an hour and a half he gave me the bad news: an animal or animals had lived and possibly died in the heater and the damage was considerable. It probably wasn't worth repairing and a new one will cost $4500. It's apparently more expensive to put in a pool heater than a house heater! Who knew?
As the price of oil has risen 30% since last year I guess we will be doing what we did last year - not heating the pool!

Cleaning up

The first of the season's visitors arrive in a couple of days and I really wanted to have a coat of paint on the walls and the windows stained but the delay on the installation has put paid to that so I'm opting for a spring clean instead. I got Stanley Steemer to clean the carpets and Bob to wax the parquet and it has really spruced the place up. I was amazed that all the stains just lifted right out of the white carpets, and at $100 for three rooms it was a really good deal. Getting the floor waxed was even cheaper but I learnt that I am supposed to have this done every 6-8 weeks. As the dogs slide on it for at least a week after the waxing I could spend more on vet's bills than floor maintenance. Anyway, it looks great so I might get it done slightly more often than every 8-9 months, which is where we are at now.

Window woes

Tax season is crazy time here. Every year from January to April 15 the media relentlessly presses the message: the government has your money and you need to get it back or they government wants their share of your money. If it's the latter, you hold on to it until the last possible moment: 11:59 pm on April 15.
My misfortune was to hire a contractor who owes the government money. Of course I didn't know this when I hired him last November, when he was interested in getting the work and told me it would cost nothing to install the windows. I didn't know it until January when he installed the windows and told me his accountant said he had to buy something or he would have to pay the IRS. Taxes are paid on income earned in 2004 so it didn't register much with me anyway, what's done is done, it's good to be successful, I naively thought.
His mistake was to turn up at 1:40 pm, finish at 3:40 and expect to be paid because "it was tax day" even though he hadn't completed the work. He gave me the bill and said "your painter can sand down the skim work". Alarm bells went off so I examined the windows. Bits of insulation were hanging out of one window, another had nail holes that hadn't been filled, another shavings all over and all had uneven plaster all over the frames. I told him he wasn't finished and refused to pay him until it was as good as the work he did last time. (At $500 a window it had better be excellent work. I'd already paid him for 11 windows and he'd installed 13 so I didn't think giving him the rest of the money was an incentive for him to come back and make good.)
I tackled him about the damage on the two windows from last time that he'd promised would be taken care of and he firstly denied all memory and then when I told him that I'd contacted the wholesaler about it he got partial memory recall. He phoned the wholesaler, who is sending a rep out to look. Then he asked for $1700 for today's work as he had sorted out the problem. That is way more than we agreed for the job in the first place so I refused. I was clear: no money until the work is completed to my satisfaction; I don't know that the window people won't say he did the damage and must pay. Where would that leave me. His idea? Give him the money, and go after his licence. I don't think so.
He phoned me later, he was "hurt" I was keeping the money back. It implied I didn't trust him. That's rich coming from the man who told me he wasn't going back to one client because she was too difficult.

all hands on

2:20 pm is when the contractor turned up, so I thought I'd let the dogs in the yard rather than have than cooped up in the kitchen, when I opened the door there was the pool guy and his help fixing the leak. Yee ha it's spring.

Reconstruction

The snow has melted, the sun is shining, the roadsweepers are passing back and forth in front of the house removing the last of the sand and grit: winter is over, spring has arrived. You know it's spring here because you can't hear the birds over the noise of the lawnmowers, leaf blowers and chainsaws. Landscapers trucks are blocking the roads as everyone tries to repair the ravages of the last six months.
And early birds have contractors out re-roofing or at least reattaching all those shingles that blew off during the gales. I have lined up workers to come this week and next to fix the pool (so far, no show), re-wax the parquet floor and steam clean the carpets. The window people delivered four large replacement windows for the dining room and our bedroom, but not those for the ones the contractor damaged when he put them in (now why I am not surprised about that?). I have been waiting patiently (ok impatiently) for the contractor to install them and he rang yesterday to say his guy would be here at 9:00 am to start taking out the old windows and he would be here soon after. Guess what? It's after lunch, all the windows are out and the contractor still hasn't shown.
Why don't contractors say they will turn up when they feel like it, with only half the materials they need to finish the job, and that they will try to charge you twice what they originally quoted? That way you would never feel let down, disappointed or scammed, which is what I am feeling at this minute and it's getting mighty chilly, too. After some glorious weather, there was frost on the roof this morning, so it's not a great day to be sitting with four gaping holes in your house. Well at least it's not raining.

Recovering

It's been almost a month since I last posted here, mainly because we haven't had anything major done on the house in that time but also because the kids were home from college last week and before that I was too sick to sit up and type. Well, I could have typed but the risk that I would sneeze all over the screen and clog up the keyboard with phlegm was just too great.
The cold was a total bummer and lasted a good three weeks. I caught it from Steven just before we were due to go to the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas and we were forced to cancel two hours before the plane left. I'd been looking forward to this for years and the fact that I have most of the music downloaded from the SXSW podcast doesn't even begin to make up for missing it. I began to feel better the day we were due to fly home, now that's irony!
The upside of the whole nasty experience was getting our new kitty, Jefke. We had already dropped off the dogs at the kennels and the cats at the vet's office where they board when we are out of town so we decided to leave them there while I was delirious so I could get some rest and Steve could go back to work and not lose his vacation allowance unnecessarily. When it was time to pick the cats up Steve thought I should go along for the ride (the fresh air would do me good he reasoned) and sit in the car while he sprung the kitties. However I had to get out of the passenger seat of the Jeep in order to get the carriers from the back and i thought I might as well go and help carry a kitty. Big mistake. We opened the door and there was the assistant playing with an abandoned kitten. Then the persuasive marketing sell began. He would be a playmate for Cassis our year-old cat, Cassis would then stop tormenting Midge, our sixteen year old senior cat, we could have him on a trial basis, he was already neutered etc, etc. I tried to explain that we had nothing to carry him home in and no room for another cage in the car but it turned out they had a cardboard carrier I could balance on my knee. So we left with four cats and he and Cassis chase each other all over the house, great fun, especially at 5:30.
Next day Steve picked up the dogs, on his own.

Decor(um)

It always feels good when you can add something to the house that is decorative rather than necessary. Last week was Steven's birthday so I bought him a large painting and in a sort of BOGO way I treated the den to a smaller one too. They are aboriginal paintings from Queensland, Australia. One depicts the Myths of Uluru and the smaller one is a Cod Fish. We have placed the large one on the sandstone wall, both because it was a large bare space and because I think the dot painting needs to be in a sandy setting reminiscent of the earth. The Cod Fish I couldn't resist because it is black and red, which are the colours we used in the den.
I think they look awesome, but I am not sure Steven shares my enthusiasm. One reason I picked Australian Aboriginal art is that with the new roof we have to put on the house this Spring I am pretty sure we will not be going to Australia as planned to celebrate our wedding anniversary. I thought this would be a nice way to get in touch with Australia but maybe I put way too much thought into this present?



We also have blinds in our bedroom now. Steven went to London for a conference and stopped by Habitat to pick up these incredibly cool silver blinds that look like gossamer. Customs gave him a bit of grief as he had to carry two 6' tubes back to the US: they wanted to know if there were no roller blinds in the US. Of course there are but they are all disgusting, old-fashioned and vinyl. Anyway, they are up now and the bedroom is almost done. Plus our neighbours can no longer see right through the house into our room in the winter. We'll get some blinds for the downstairs bathroom so guests can take a shower without shocking the new neighbours next door but once the leaves are back on the trees it isn't urgent as they provide a natural screen.

Patience is a virtue...

But not one I ever subscribed to. We are still waiting on the second delivery of windows, including replacements for the dinged ones. I hope they can get those in this month as we have visitors April-June. It's frustrating because I would like to get the window frames stained and obviously I can't do that until they have replaced the damaged windows. This also means I can't paint the walls and we have two cans of Benjamin Moore bronze beige eggshell (which is a sort of gold colour) that have been sitting in the garage since November.
We got one quote for the new roof and it was very reasonable, that is it was half what Steven was expecting and a quarter of my worst fear estimate. I am still waiting for the other two guys to come and quote but the weather has been so awful that they couldn't climb the roof to look at the damage. We have had snow since early February and cold temperatures too but, touch wood, we haven't had anymore leaks. I think this is because we have had no ice damming since the January cold spell but also because the temporary flashing the contractor but in place is holding up really well.
We were sent a bunch of free airline tickets by American and as we have loads of Marriott points we have decided to take two cheap as chips minibreaks to get away from the dreadful weather. We are going to Austin, Texas to the SXSW festival this month and to Nashville in May. So it will be all about the music for the next couple of months and that will be it for vacation this year. We will summer here, Steve plans to take two weeks off and spend them in the pool and watching the sunset on the beach. Of course, we have to fix the pool first........

Big, fat bummer

On closer inspection the crew did not do such a good job on the windows. The plastering looks good and the windows themselves seem to be great quality BUT when they installed them they managed to damage TWO of the nine. How the f*** is this possible I asked. The first window the contractor showed me he said was damaged by the delivery guys. So I asked the wholesaler who said they would swap it, it was still in my garage, wasn't it? Well, no, the contractor showed it to me when he had finished installing it. I have told him it has to be replaced.
Then the installer slipped off the ladder carrying another window and fell. The contractor assured me the window was ok. At the time I was more concerned about the installer, who was thankfully ok. But the window has two dings in it. If they were wooden windows they could be filled and painted but they are aluminium clad and the edges are really roughed up. They were also very expensive because they were custom made so there is no alternative to replacing both of them. Extremely frustrating.
Worse though, when they took down the blinds by the chimney in the great room there were a couple of cracks I wanted them to plaster over. Unfortunately one crack was wet. Not good. The installer ran up the roof to get rid of the ice and the contractor offered to come back and run some flashing to stop the leak when the rest of the ice melted. He came back today to put up the flashing over the gutters but the edge of the roof had peeled away with the ice dam. So we have to get a new roof this year rather than next or the year after. Big fat bummer.

Spackle, sand, repeat

I am thankful that we had a good crew to put in the windows because the rot in my office was more extensive than we had first suspected. Both the header and the sill support were totally eaten through (I could poke my finger right through the latter) and someone had patched the side already but not with the correct beams, so we could have potentially lost that end of the house at some stage. Now we are secure right down to the foundation.
All the windows are in now and the ones upstairs look really good. I am gradually getting used to the ones in the den, too. From the outside they all look lovely and immediately the house looks more cared for. Of course fixing one problem gives a hundred more and the area around the windows had to be spackled and sanded and spackled again. So now we have to paint. I hadn't really thought about colour for this room as were weren't originally going to change these windows.
We also have molding on the stairs at long last and they look fantastic now. I got the guys to change the baseboard under the bookcase to one that matches the other baseboards in the house. I still have a laundry list of jobs for them to do by the time they finish tomorrow afternoon. These guys are obsessive about cleaning up after themselves and seem to vacuum every five minutes. I think they are sweeping up more dog hair than spackle and sawdust though. They are about to take down the vinyl blinds in the great room that are double-height and I will be celebrating when they have gone. Then it's just the flashing around the house and we should be golden.

They may be ugly, but they should be warmer

Four of the big windows went in yesterday and, although I still think they are horrible, I did a little test last night to see if they will keep us warmer, and thus cut down on the fuel bills. I sat in the dining room, which still has the original single pane units, for half an hour in sleeveless T-shirt and pyjama bottoms and I was shivering with the cold. Then I went into the den and watched TV for an hour or so. It was definitely comfortable. So that's good isn't it?
I wish I knew why they have to make the windows so damn ugly. There is molding after molding on them. Haven't they heard of less is more? Clean, crisp lines, that's what I wanted. I didn't know it was impossible to find but I should have guessed - the most popular style of house here is "colonial". This is code for a door in the middle of the house leading to a foyer and rooms on either side; square, predictable and boring.
The other bad news yesterday was that there is rot in my office. For some reason this does not faze me at all. Partly I think because we knew this is where the termite damage was, partly because I could smell it every time I closed the door and partly because every house on the Island seems to have rot. But it is a little bizarre - my beloved house has rot and am wittling about the architectural integrity of the windows.

Freezing, thawing and re-freezing

Well, at least it's stopped snowing but temperatures remain frigid. When I take the dogs out the oils on their coats freeze giving them white zebra stripes on their black coats. They love to tear around in the snow but I can't wait to get back indoors again. -11 is too cold for someone brought up in rainy, mild climes. I ordered a cord of firewood and it was delivered this morning so I have built a huge fire in the great room to celebrate. It is beautiful- the roaring fire, white snow and blue skies. Almost like being in a chalet hotel in the mountains, except no one is going to fetch me hot chocolate or schnapps to complete the gezilligheid.
Most of the huge icicles hanging from the roof have gone, either the sun thawed them or I took a broom and hung out of the windows and knocked them off. There have been no drips or leaks since yesterday morning but I think this is only because the water has refrozen and I am sure when temperatures rise again we will be running around mopping up.
We also ran out of ice melt for the steps and the local shops have either sold out or are rationing sales to one bag per customer. One bag barely thaws out the length of the garage so we are forced to go out in pairs and buy a bag each, pretending we don't know each other. With our accents that's not easy to pull off. We are forced to take these desperate measure to avoid a lawsuit if anyone slips on the property. I am beginning to think an apartment building with a concierge is going to be the next move for us.

freezing, leaking and updating

Last Saturday's blizzard dumped over 12" snow on us and for half a day after it stopped it looked so beautiful: deep white snow, blue skies, a little sun. Unfortunately, the snow was accompanied by freezing temperatures and that is the perfect combination for ice damming. That's when the snow melts off the roof but freezes at the roofline, especially behind the gutters. Icicles start to hang off the gutters, drip down the siding and reform over the windows. That's when the leaks occur. By Sunday afternoon we had water pouring in through Steven's study and my office. Normally in this situation I would grab the duct tape and effect a temporary repair but a thorough search of the house and garage revealed that the duct tape had disappeared.

The solution we came up with was to decorate the floors with plastic sheeting and black trash bags covered with towels. We had them in the kitchen in front of the slider (that was installed by an incompetent amateur), in the great room (under one of the second storey windows), in the den as well as in the study and office. It doesn't look very attractive but at least the wood floors won't get damaged. This should hold up until the thaw begins and we can solve the problem by attaching flashing over the gutter and under the roof, adding insulation to the roof space and installing the new windows.

Those who have visited my website will recall that back in July I joked that the new windows would probably be installed during a snowstorm in January. Well that's when they were delivered. Now they are in the garage awaiting a few dry days to fit them. It can't be too soon for me, I am freezing as I write this. If I get any colder I will have to wear fingerless mittens to type.

Eager anticipation and great disappointment

We waited so long to get these windows, we first got quotes in July 2004 so it seems like forever. They have been in the garage for a week and today was the big installation. We have been really cold too as the huge windows downstairs were only single pane glass so we were really anticipating that these would make a big difference. The reason it took so long to order them was we wanted them to match with the huge expanses of glass we have throughout the house that let in so much light and we especially wanted to stay true to the contemporary architecture.

So when the contractor said go take a look at the first window I was so excited. But when I looked I felt sick. I wanted to cry and run away too. In place of the expanse of glass we have inches of moldings. This is before they are even framed out, this is how Marvin windows deliver them. We explained to the contractor and the window wholesaler what we wanted - no moldings, minimal wood. We rejected double-hungs (which would have been cheaper) in favor of more authentic picture windows over awnings and were assured we could have it looking exactly like the other windows. That was the beauty of a custom design.

They look nothing like the other windows. Instead of 60" dia of glass we have 53". The rest is horrible pine, with step molding inside and they still need to install another piece of molding between the picture and the awning section. I feel that we were totally misled. And at the moment I cannot bear to look at them. They were also really expensive.

I don't know what to do about the rest of the windows now. We have another four of the same type that we were going to order this week but I am so unhappy with the end result. I have to find some sort of solution because they look so out of place. I don't know whether to just get the same again so there is uniformity or to get picture units that will have less wood.

Total freakin frustration.

The carpet shopping experience was not as awful as I feared. We only really liked one carpet, the most expensive naturally, but we knew it wouldn't go on the stairs so we picked four ones that weren't too bad and half the price and arranged to have samples delivered. A week later they arrived, and guess what? Yuk! So I got out the stain and experimented on one tread. I didn't think it looked too bad, but Steven still wasn't convinced. There was no way carpet was going down so I started the stair sanding process again, this time with steel wool rather than sandpaper. Eventually Steven took over and spent two hours on the job. Then I got to work with some dark stain and the more I did the better it looked. Three coats later the treads are a rich walnut colour and the risers white. It may not be professional but it looks way better than carpet. Eventually I'll get round to tackling the back stairs but I think it will have to wait until the New Year.
We have a more pressing problem to tackle this weekend: the huge Christmas tree that we thought would look great in the double height sitting room is so tall Steven can't reach the top even standing on our stepladder. So the choice is to leave it au naturel, throw the lights and ornaments at it and hope they stick or trawl round the neighbours and see if we can borrow an 8' ladder. Guess what we will be doing Saturday morning?

Let's decorate

Things are starting to come together now. The dining room is done, apart from new windows. We ordered them and hoped they would be installed before Xmas, but as they are almost 6' high and 4' wide they have to be custom made and probably won't be ready until January. At least we have ordered them. It felt so good to have finally made a decision about them. I hope we will be happy with the result. We also ordered new windows for upstairs except for our bedroom, because those are in good condition, and for my study. Steven jumped up on the garage roof and nailed back the siding and it doesn't look to shabby so we are going to leave it until next year before we consider replacing that section. It isn't possible to get redwood boards in that width anymore and we would have to replace the whole of that side so that it didn't look odd; while that is only 25'x4' it isn't something we want to shell out for if we don't have too. We will have the whole house refinished with oxalic acid next Spring and decide then what to do.

We have also, after three months of cogitating, agreed to put wood flooring on the back hall. Ceramic tile is just too cold, both to stand on and to look at. It was putting down the tile in the kitchen that finally made up our minds. We have such a large area (kitchen, eating area and back hall) that we would have to cover it with rugs to live with it, so we might as well put down runners to keep the dogs from scratching the wood and I think wood will look better. Now we are waiting for the installer to come back and lay more bamboo. We also decided that the stairs require too much work to refinish so we will be out this Thanksgiving weekend looking at carpet for both the front and rear staircases. As we both dislike carpet and hate shopping that should be a joyous experience.