Shot, how come my sunflowers never smile at me like that?? =( Glad ya'll are getting some reprieve today. We didn't get any today but were blessed with more than I could catch on Monday. We've been lucky I guess over here on the state line all spring. It was starting to get dry again but we got a downpour Monday night and I was able to collect about 160 gallons just in random buckets, trash cans, etc...around the drip line until they filled to the point of overflowing. Oddly weather.com's rainfall totals for my zip code totaled 0.02 which I find very hard to believe unless it just sat right over our house the whole time. I just bought a used 1700+ gallon above ground pool off of craigslist for $25 bucks that I'm going to reassemble and tuck away in the woodline downhill from the house where no one can see it. I'm hoping this will make a great inexpensive cistern for piping our rainwater and grey water into to use for the garden which should take the burden off of our well and ease the concern of it running dry. But I can't put it up until we clear and level the spot for it and rig a cover so the mosquitos and critters can't get in. Gravity will get all of the water into the cistern but I also need to invest in a good heavy duty pump to get the water from there uphill into the garden when I need it. I've borrowed some feed barrels temporarily from a friend so I've got about 400+ gallons of rainwater in reserve at the moment that needs to go into the cistern/pool asap. Danielle

I have a walkway leading to the step-up at the front door and like a flower bed between the walkway and the house foundation, where water stands and at the front door. when it rains we can't hardly Step down on it to get to the driveway. what can I do. please help.

If you see wear on your wood floor after two years, it's time to recoat it, not refinish it. You only get so many resandings. As your kids grow they should get a little more responsible and be easier on the floor. You should evaluate why you have so much wear so you can extend time between recoating. Sand is often the culprit. When I look at floors with wear issues I run my hand across the floor to see if it's clean. Do you have dogs that come in the house after laying in dirt? Do you have mats inside and outside each entry door? How often do you vacuum to remove sand? What do you clean the floor with? Installing new hand scraped factory finished floor would be expensive and would only buy you a little extra time. Once it's scuffed and scratched you'll have to recoat it. Then you'll be in the same boat you're in now. You say you got Swedish finish. Is this Swedish finish as in acid curing urethane, or as in waterborne urethane? If you got waterborne urethane (and you've been maintaining your floor correctly) you could have the floor recoated with a more durable finish like oil-modified polyurethane. You could possibly do one room as a test first. Refinishing your existing floor and staining it dark will not lessen the appearance of dings and dents. For people in your situation I usually recommend they soldier through, maintain their existing floor until the kids get to a certain age (like college age) then have the floors done the way YOU want them.

Thanks everyone! We have maple cabinets with plywood construction. I don't really know/understand much more about them. They're Medallion brand cabinets, painted white. Our hardware will be polished chrome. Well, I went ahead and cancelled my order. It's so frustrating because I ordered August 19th, and there was no indication that anything was back ordered. I received my knobs but not my pulls. They called about 2 weeks after the order and told me it was back ordered until mid-september. They also failed to send me a couple other things I ordered and claimed to have sent it. Nothing but a headache. Anyway, I guess my lesson is that you get what you pay for. At least I can get a lot of the RH stuff locally and order the rest. I think it was a sign too. My heart was really set on the RH style, but they were much more expensive and my builder wasn't crazy about them. Well, we just went into contract with our current house and the new house is supposed to be completed in 3 weeks. I NEED my hardware! It all works out! Happy sigh of relief. :-)