thank you all for your input. i did get her an air stone after i posted about it. i was so worried she did not have enough oxogen i barrowed enough to get the stone. jalal, that is exactly how mine started. there was the white fuzzy stuff all over her back fin. i have not been able to find out what it was as of yet. but the other fish seem to be ok so far. i did notice a white spot on the head of one of my other koi he is all black except on the bottom he is orange. but he is eating and very active. i'm going to keep a very close eye on him and if it seems to spread or anything, he is going in a sick tank imediatly. i have been treating my pond with malafix so i hope it is nothing to worry about. i so hope. i don't know if the koi are anything special or not. i'm so new to koi. but where i live there is a very limmited supply of koi, and the pond, pet store was having a koi show so i thought maybe there were a better quality. but since my ph was very low they would not refund or replace my fish. i did get some ph buffer to raise the ph to a normal range. i did this 2 days ago and the ph is still at 7.0. but i only have the test strips. i'm going to get a more acurate testing kit as soon as possible. the cheapest i have been able to find is 40.00 and it only tests for 5 things. and no amonia test. but i'm searching the net for a better on. angelcub, there is a petsmart about 3 hours away, but with that type of garuntee i'm definatly going there for my next koi. i'm going to call first to see if they have the butterfly koi. i just love them, they are so preaty. i have one butterfly left. he is yellow and black. a very lovely fish. he seems to be dong so good so far. i thank you all for your help, and kind words. any fish i get from now on are definatly going to go in a quariteen tank.. that is for sure. i got my 60 gallon pond up and running today. as soon as it is stable and tests ok, i'm going to put my 3 commets in there. that should help with some of the stress of my other pond being sort of over populated. i also got a valve for my watter fall that regulates the flow. a neighbor had some sort of ball thing for plumming and he put it in. now the waterfall is going much slower and the pump is not pulling as hard. i am hoping this will also be less stressfull on the fish. i'm doing all i can figure out to do. i hope it will work and keep my fish safe, happy, and healthy. oh yeah i also started putting in good bacteria 4 days ago. does this help with the fish staying healthy??? BIG HUGS, i so apreciate all of your help.. laura

sippimom, That does help. Thanks for letting me know that the Amendoim floors are beautiful in person. I never saw them in person so I only have wood samples and pictures on the Internet versus I have seen Brazilian Cherry floors in one of the townhouses in my complex that were beautiful but there was no light in the room (only 2 lamps with 60 watt bulbs and the walls and furniture were very dark) so I could not tell if it would darken my home office that needs light. I also love Quartersawn White Oak and wonder if there is any quality engineered wood floors in this wood species and how a light floor would hold up to heal marks. Since many months have passed and my beige rug now is being cleaned every 3 weeks and is starting to never look clean, I am ready for any floor other than this beige rug so after my busy season, I must make a decision and go for it. When I have time, I will have to post pictures of my foyer areas that I ended up having a professional install Akoya Bone Porcelain Tile with Mushroom grout rather than the Rialto Beige tiles I was going to go with.

I think that what happened during the building is that the original builder's design was tweaked to open up the kitchen wall so that you could walk through past the fridge. That looks like an archway that was an addendum added to the work contract. Maybe there was even a wall separating the kitchen from the dining area too that was removed to really 'open the space up'. The island looks like it was just the original cabinets that were to be installed along a wall that they then added a larger countertop to. That is why the island looks so plain from the LR view. A cheap solution is maybe put some large, square, decorative wicker baskets with lids, under the counter overhang. They would become "part of" the pole and island by eliminating the empty space under the overhang. And they could be useful too for tossing recyclables or storing pet food! I am wondering if extra lighting is really needed over the island? I might put a large, flat, wrought iron rack up there to hang pots. It would help define the area and help the pole not look so obvious. If lighting is really needed in the area, I would NOT do little itty-bitty, pendant lights. Having long hanging strings of tiny pendant lighting on such a vast expanse of ceiling would not look right. I would get something large and substantial with the smaller lights as part of it. This style is called 'billiard lighting' or 'island lighting' sometimes. Something like this maybe: Here is a link that might be useful: Island Lighting

OK, I renamed the best pics of each of the three wood species I chose and took pics by my file cabinet by the window, by my credenza that is in back of my desk and by the front of my desk which is by the front windows. I also took pics of the room that is a little messy right now since I am working on a major project and do not have time to clean if I am working as well as obsessing about which wood floor for my office. I was going to wait until the end of the year to change the carpet but then when my air conditoner/heating/compressor unit died on me and caused a flood in the foyer area between the two rooms that are part of that big room, I had to decide what to replace the engineered warped and darkened oak wood with. Pieces of the veneer have come up and it is bumpy and was smelling a muscky smell until I had carpet cleaners deodorize it and steam it lightly to get rid of the musky smell. I either have to replace it with wood or maybe I should put tile there and wood floors in the rest of the office? The 80 pics are now about 23 or 24 pics labeled. Tomorrow I will reduce the number of pics and insert them into my picture program to share with you. I may start a new thread.