So sad to hear this. Condolescence to her family. Paula

I am so sorry to hear this. I was just thinking about her.

I haven't seen her post in a while. She will be very missed. I will get her a empty chair. Sending condolences to her family.

She was such a help to people and shared great recipes and cooking advice.

Dogs are far less expensive than kids and give unconditional love.

Redrone, I love your dog food cabinet.
I wish I had a great place like that. I have a mudroom
closet for their food.

Here is my chance to brag about my pups.

Our Breeder's site

With the quantity of dog food we keep on hand, if we kept it in the kitchen, we would have no room in there for human food! It seems our dogs all need different foods, so we buy four 30-pound bags at a time. We have four giant dogs (two great danes, a mastiff/dane mix, and a dane/?? mix), so they also prefer their food bowls elevated. We use large Rubbermaid bins to store their food, and their bowls sit on top of their bins.

So, since I don't have much of a suggestion for you, I guess the real reason for my post was to be able to show off my babies. :)

Matilda

Buddy

Lucy

Yancey

and I can't leave out Nelson, the king of the house

And here are three of the pups enjoying the cool kitchen floor last summer, before Yancey or Nelson joined the family...

During the remodel Rusty's airtight container of food has been near the kitchen next to his food bowls, but it will be going back to the laundry room now that the kitchen is finished. Reason? It is just such a fun little parade in the morning as one picks up the measuring cup (from his food bowl) and walks to the laundry room and back to the food bowls. Rusty is tap dancing respectfully a half step behind the entire time.

I could not resist pictures here, nor could I successfully resize the one below! You can probably figure out that he is peering through the temporary wall. This was taken before he ripped the bottom by continually jumping through it once the mystery was gone.

Hi everyone! The floors are red oak and we are going to remove the carpeted sections and do hardwood throughout 😊

I agree with your wife. Very distracting and unattractive.

I agree with your wife as well. Looks horrible, this is a living room not a mancave.

" My other hope is that some of you can make suggestions about how I can soften the look. "

Move it to another room.

"I am still hoping that some decorator from this site chimes in and says something like: "This can be great -- all you need to do is . . "

That's honestly not going to happen. While that kind of response could be possible in a listening room or a basement or some sort of man cave, I can pretty much guarantee you there isn't an interior designer or decorator that's going to say there's a way to make this work and be aesthetically pleasing in your living room.

It might sound extreme but you could honestly replace those speakers with two toilets and it would make about as much sense as it does right now.

Kids, rolly toys, dogs and everything in between. Lauzon engineered floors installed 3 yrs ago. Still going strong!

@stiley they really are beautiful! If ours look like that after 12 years, scratches and all, I'll be happy!

@spagano yes the allergy thing has been a journey. It's just one of my 3 kids, but we are trying what we can to help with any house allergens...can't wait to get rid of all our carpets! I was reading that LVP can trigger those with allergies if they are sensitive to chemical smells, so didn't even think to go down that road until I started hearing comments about engineered. Thanks so much for the feedback!

We also have engineered wood installed 13 years ago, there are some scratches in living room where kids played a lot and dragged toys etc. But apart from that no complaints. Flooring looks greak