Having grown up with paper wasps, I see them somewhat differently. While they leave me alone in the garden, if their nest gets bumped (like in a canoe), they will defend it vigorously, and their stings are really painful. I don't think of them as non-aggressive, but rather as being very aggressive if you give them cause, and willing to leave you alone if you don't. Now mud daubers or dirt daubers have always seemed to me to be much more passive. I've been stung many times over the years by paper wasps, mostly as a child, but never by a mud dauber, even when I was knocking down their nests from doorways, etc. But worst of all are hornets. Oh, my. You do NOT want to bump into a hornet's nest (the ones that look like big paper footballs). Hornets and yellow jackets seem to me to be far more aggressive than the other wasps I'm familiar with. Eeeek. Right after we moved into this house, we had yellow jackets suddenly appearing all over the INSIDE of our windows. We were told they probably had a nest inside the walls and that it could be huge. But they started dying on their own shortly thereafter, and never came back. I was sweeping up piles of yellow jacket bodies for weeks. We were lucky that they expired on their own, I reckon. Might have been a very different story if they had hung around long. Marcia

john i am not sure on those toy dimensions, but I can tell you that if you can - go with the 9' high x 8' wide doors. I put 4 of those those in - I have two 2 car garages - and love em. In our last house the doors were 8' high x 7' wide and could fit a mid size car OK, but larger vehicles would have been a very tight squeeze at best and some vehicles just would not fit when you add on the widths of the mirrors that stick out. The 9' height would allow a good size tractor with a roll bar. The 8' width is great and easily accomodates an large SUV, no issues judging, plenty of space to walk around the vehicle. I also have a tow trailer that has a 6' x 10' bed BUT when you add on the extra width of the wheels and wheel wells the trailer barely makes it into the garage! Had I gone with the 7' door width - no way it would have fit. Make sure that they size the garage itself properly. My architect increased the size from the original plans - I think they are now 25 feet deep x 25 feet wide (were originally 22' deep x 20' wide i think). Having that extra space is really nice and the increase in cost was minimal - same for the larger doors. Check your garage plans and lay on top scale size cut outs for an SUV, truck, mini-van - whatever you plan to drive. Then look to see how the door swings would be - in my case you could barely get the car doors open and walk around space was very limited.

My DH had a boat similar to what you show. We used it with a trolling motor on our small lake for several years before we sold it. The recipient will want a motor too which will add another hundred and fifty dollars (maybe more) to the cost. These are nice little boats which can be put into the back of a pickup and don't need a trailer. They are probably too heavy for one person to lift though. I wish we still had ours... my Dad took his boat back to his house and we now boat less (except for an old john boat which leaks badly). Not really what you were looking for I realize, just bringing up some points that maybe haven't been considered. It sounds like a very generous gift!

I'd dilute whatever it is you use or you'll melt the vinyl, especially bleach (which will also dissolve the stitching). I don't have personal experience with boat seats, but it's a common problem. They make marine mold and mildew cleaning products that are supposed to work very well. A lot of people just wash the cushions and set out in the strong sun to let nature do it. :)