Many people have mentioned the "expense" of putting flooring under the cabinets, but the actual financials are usually a wash. It will be more expensive material wise to put the flooring under the cabinets, but it will be a much easier flooring install. It'll be more expensive labor wise to have your flooring person cut plywood to put down under the cabinets and then do even more cutting and fitting to get the wood to go around that plywood. In the end, labor usually being more expensive than the product, it usually makes more sense to just put the wood over the whole floor and then install the cabs and appliances. If the wood ever needs to be changed out, it's no big deal to cut it out right at the toekick line and install different flooring. The big risk in wood flooring in a kitchen is the inevitable moisture damage. Yes, "traditional" homes used to have wooden floors in kitchens, but there was no subfloor. The wood was laid directly on the joists, and anyone who has ever lived in an older home knows that the expansion/contraction of that wood over the years left gaps between the planks that modern homeowners would throw their hands up in horror over having. :) Well,those gaps and no subfloor let any water problems drain right out of that wood floored kitchen with only minimal damage to the floor. The water didn't stand on it for hours. Today's modern building methods have a subfloor that will trap the moisture, or a cement slab that will trap moisture when you have that refrigerator water line leak. So, getting moisture alarms shouldn't be optional if you want a wood floor in a modern kitchen. It will help to alert you to when you have a problem. And, it is when, not if! It's a wet workroom after all!

Felt paper is simply a moisture retarder (not proofer). It also helps the installer slide the flooring in place and keeps down dust. On re-sands down the road it also helps to keep dust down by encapsulating the plywood subfloor so it won't generate its own dust filtering up. On a mechanically fastened wood floor installed over plywood the best underlayment is Aquabar B by Fortifiber.

I put radiant heat under my wood floors and it works very well. The floor is just pine over wood joists and plywwod subfloor, and not engineered.. I did pay close attention to insulation, isolation, heating loops, tube spacing, loss calculations, all that good stuff. I get some seasonal gapping in the wood though frankly it's hard to notice, and it's not any different than what I got without radiant heat. The one thing I did regarding controls was to use both a floor sensor and a thermostat for each zone. The thermostat runs the system but if the floor heats up to a set temperature (I use 85 deg F) the system shuts off - that way the floor never gets hot enough to damage the wood, if it could damage the wood, which I'm not sure of. I've heard good things about the control system that funnycide mentions (water temp function of outside temp) but I get pretty good performance with my water at a constant temp - very comfortable and fuel efficient.

Hi Estreya: I have five cats and one male sprayer named Elvis. I had Elvis on antidepressants for about three years. The vet changed from Amitryptilin to Paxil. They just kept upping the dosage and it never did ever stop his spraying completely. He was just doped up all the time. I finally hated seeing him look so out of it and took him off of them completely. Yes he still sprays, but not near as much as he did in the past. I have no idea why that is. He is 11, so I guess I will be dealing with this for a couple more years, but I am used to it and have become quite the cleaner because of it. LOL! I tried the Feliway spray when it first came out. I would have to spray the whole house because he would just spray somewhere new. It was a bit rediculous and costly. I am lucky that now in the house we have lived in for the last four years he has more room and is keeping his spraying to one room in the basement. We have cement floors that I sealed thank goodness, but like your problem we had the cheap base boards. We took them off cleaned the area replaced with new cheap base boards and this time I sealed around the top of the base boards with caulking. We now keep the door closed, but the odor is gone. It was just absorbed into the baseboards not the drywall because I had painted the wall all the way to the floor before we installed the first base boards. I really don't think there is any product out there that will get the urine smell out of carpet padding though. The enzyme cleaners like you are using are the only option for cutting some of the odor though. I use a Hoover steam cleaner on my carpet. It is the best investment I have made for my house and my sanity. LOL! I am with you about putting in hardwood floors and ditching the carpet. Go for it! If you do decide to put your cat on an antidepressant ask your vet to prescribe it in a compounded form. It is basically a cream form you rub on the outside of the ear and it absorbs into the skin. Pilling a cat is no fun as you probably know, so just to save you and your precious cat from a stressful situation go for the cream form. I also used a liquid form and it was a mess. If you ever have to have someone else watch your cat it is much easier for them to put cream on the cat's ear than pill it. LOL! Sorry this is so long, but I feel your pain. We love them so much we will do about anything for them. One more thing you might try is putting a second litter box in the room she seems to be spraying in the most and see if she will use it instead of spraying. My male cats sprays in his litter box also. LOL! I know that is not very appealing having a litter box in your living areas, but it might do the trick. Just make sure it is a hooded one to keep the smell in. I clean my three litter boxes twice a day and I have used the attract cat litter. It is pretty expensive for three litter boxes and I am not certain if it did any good, but it is always worth a try. Boy have I worn your eyes out yet? Sorry this is so long. :) Good luck tomorrow. Let us know how it all goes.