that's too bad that you feel it was bad luck, to receive little pieces of sea glass... that's just what sea glass is..small, because it's been broken and washed up onto shore and made even smaller, by the rocks. consider it lucky, to have a nice piece, small as they are. it takes a good eye to even spot them on the beach and more time and patience to pick them up, one by one. authentic sea glass is a one of a kind, one at a time thing. if you want to do a project with large pieces of glass, then it's best to just go to a store that sells glass in different colors and break them. I've gathered the sea glass as small as a grain of sand, it it has a dark color..otherwise, I may as well use a grain of sand..lol my favorite beach that I used to find lots of sea glass was recently nearly covered over, to keep the shore line from slowly slipping into the water... Oh how I wanted to lift those huge boulders and get to my favorite stash..but that's not to be.. you can always use the small pieces you have, for little jars with craft sand and some other trinkets and make some soothing 'seascapes'.. I gave one to a cancer survivor friend and she sits and just turns the apothacary jar, over and over and each time, it's a new view of her tiny shoreline. Becky .(*_*).

Or you could try to connect with remodelers. In areas where they remodel perfectly fine kitchens to embrace the owner's version of a dream room, or simply the switching out of hardware due to finish changes, the old stuff is still in great condition. I know we bought some temporary value-pack pulls to replace the hideous knobs in the kitchen when we purchased the house. Now I am staining the cabinets and changing the pulls to ones with a different finish. So there will be a box of pulls that are only a few years old sitting in a box in the garage, or waiting for a garage sale. I cannot be the only one.

We have ordered several handlesets (both interior and exterior) from Emtek -- my husband's best friend is a locksmith and he recommended them highly as having the best quality in their price range. The ones we have outside are holding up nicely. We purchased ours from www.simpsonshardware.com. They are a small family owned business (when you call you talk to the owner or his wife) but their prices at the time met or beat other competitors. Plus they spent a lot of time with me trying to figure out exactly what pieces I needed (including having me send pictures of my existing hinges to make sure I was getting ones that matched the mortises.) I haven't ordered from them in years so I don't know if they are still owned by the same folks but if they are, I would definitely recommend them.

Use some double-sided carpet tape (removable adhesive) to stop curling and make a slip-resistant rug. Slip fall injuries are very common even if you aren't aged.