Empty the bowl and using a sponge, and rubber gloves, to remove the water from the trap-way. If the ring is rough and uneven to the touch, it's a indication of calcium deposits. The acid will cause nasal discomfort so keep the area ventilated. Pour some muratic acid into the bottom of the bowl and using some brown Scotch-Brite, moistened with the acid, gently scrub the ring. The treatment may not cure the problem entirely, and I would caution against using a stronger acid, that you are not familiar with.

Rose, how sad to see such a majestic beauty go down. It had to be done. Long story short: At the corner of the yard at the house my family lived in for many years was a tall, beautiful, perfectly shaped pine tree; the kind with those long slender cones. It shaded and provided privacy for the front porch. My DH died; years later I sold the house. I often wake up with a song going through my mind. One morning, a year or so after I sold it, it was the old song "They Cut Down the Old Pine Tree." I went to work that day and my boss, who lived across the street from the house, asked me if I knew the pine tree had been cut down. I couldn't believe it. I had to go and see. There was the stump. No sign of rot showing. Unbelievable! We knew the history of the house and knew when it was built and by whom. Also had met a lady who was born in that house. The house was built about a hundred years ago and that tree had "always" been there. You had no choice but to let your tree go. I'll never understand why anyone would cut down a solid old healthy tree. Don't understand how the mind works when I woke up with that song playing in my brain either. Your house shows more beautifully though. Sue

Wood vs. Engineered Wood? No contest in this case. If the home was built in 1905, put real hardwood in. This preserves the integrity of the home's building materials. Plus, as you can see from the age of these floors, higher grades (i.e. thicker) hardwood can be sanded several times; you usually don't get even one chance to sand engineered wood. The hardwood layer at the top of this multilayered product is simply too thin. Level Floors and Subfloors There are ways to level a subfloor, ranging from replacing parts of the subfloor with thicker or thinner sheets of plywood (or planks, see below), to pour-on leveling compounds that harden to make the entire floor level. What you use to level uneven areas depends on what the subflooring is. If it is plywood or concrete, the compound works. But more likely with this home, on floors at or above grade, there will be wood planks laid at a diagonal across the floor joists. So in your home, the layers were probably joists first, then subfloor planks of wood, then hardwood with tongue & groove joints. You cannot effectively use a pour-on leveling compound on a plank subfloor, as there are cracks between the planks. However, you can lay a new hardwood floor directly on a wood plank subfloor as long as those planks are sound and relatively level. Replace individual planks that have been damaged by water or insects, are otherwise compromised, or even missing (it happens!), with either new planks of lumber, or with plywood of the same thickness as the planks. Any lumber you install, for either the subfloor or finished flooring, should be brought in to your home several days prior to installation, so the materials acclimatize to your typical interior temperature and humidity. Unlike for ceramic or porcelain tile, the subfloor does not have to be perfectly level. And unlike vinyl sheeting, planks or tiles, the hardwood won't "telegraph" minor differences in height, and minor surface irregularities, so the subfloor doesn't have to be absolutely perfect; it should be sound, strong, uniform and essentially level. Your flooring contractor can give you specifics on what upgrades your subfloor may need once the original hardwood is removed. Joists If the floor is significantly not level in parts, or if certain areas feel spongy when you walk on them, I recommend you have your flooring contractor, a home inspector, or structural engineer inspect the subflooring and especially the floor joists. You don't want to invest in a new floor, only to have it become damaged because some joists weren't attended to. Transitions Transitions (a.k.a. thresholds or molding) between existing rooms and the new floor ought to be made of the same wood and same finish (stain, polyurethane, etc.) as the new flooring you are putting down. As wood ages, the finish becomes darker, so trying to make the transitions match the finishes of existing floors is very difficult and not recommended (what will match those floors right now won't match later after your transitions age up a bit). Eventually, the transitions wouldn't match either the new or the old floors! Transitions come in four types: reducer (when the two floors being joined are of different heights), seam binder (when the floors are the same height, and the boards from each are very close to one another), T-mold (when the two floors are the same height, but there is a crack between the two rooms' flooring) and stair nose or stair edger (when the flooring needs to curve around the front of a stair's "tread"--the flat part of a stair upon which you tread!). The transitions for your particular project can be ordered when you order the hardwood, so make sure to include measurements for those doorways/entrances. The contractor can tell you if he/she anticipates there will be a height difference or gap between the floorings, which would require those particular transitions. Dry Air Concerns Consult a local lumber supplier or flooring contractor familiar with your local climate conditions to discuss finishes or other tips for keeping your wood floors healthy in the dry winters. Sounds wonderful! Have fun!

Woot! A positive ID, and such a lovely one too! I look forward to it flowering all summer for many years to come. Interestingly, this is the second potential link I've found to Portland. I do wonder who the rose lover was. On to pink rose #3. This rose is about 6' tall, upright, and shows no signs of pruning. It's quite vigorous and is pushing new canes up from the ground. It's growing in the roots of a Western Red Cedar that is at least 100 years old (we've seen it in aerial photos from the 1920s, and it wasn't small then). Quite thorny, this one is a repeat bloomer that bloomed continually all summer last year and has no hips. It's growing in a different area than the majority of the roses, so it could be from a different era, although so far they all seem to be from around the same time period. The buds are a coral pink, but it blooms out to a somewhat shocking bright pink. Someone who gardened here was a pink lover - the majority of roses are pink as are most of my 30' tall rhododendrons.