I will be putting Hardi plank siding up in less than a month. I live in the middle of a woods. I want to blend two different shades of paint. Gray primer(dry) than (light green first...(dry) than a gray over it,(dry) and possible another charco gray lightly to give depth to the cedar mill. Pain staking but I got time and I want my house to blend with the woods surroundings. Could someone please guide me on how to do it right. Thanks!

I am about to begin the second phase of a backyard project that started last year as a "simple" deck expansion & screened porch addition but escalated into a real challenge for the wallet as well as my personal endurance. Unforeseen ledge outside the old deck resulted in weeks of manual jack-hammering and the removal of the old decking off the house revealed a severely rotten sill-plate resting on 3 layers of old brick (!), an apparent technique used when the house was originally built in 1899. With project design on the fly and after many hours of exhaustive labor, a much thinner wallet and three cement trucks later there is now a new foundation under the fourth of the house that does not have basement (You guessed right because of the ledge!) On the plus side, the ledge was rich in veins and the removed rock proved highly suitable for masonry work so with the help of a talented mason, we now have a new 70 feet stone retaining wall. (The pic is bit funky in the middle since I had to stitch 4-5 images together) My original thought was to install IPE decking over the entire area, i.e. the covered porch floor as well as the outside deck. After having read about all the challenges associated with IPE (and after my wifeÂs continued insistence on a stone patio) we are opting for a compromise  flagstone patio for the outside portion and IPE floor inside the porch per the sketch below. (How can you tell I like Adobe photoshop? :-) This new approach renders the following issues where I am hoping for some GardenWeb advice and suggestions. 1) IPE Porch Floor For the porch floor, we like the look of narrow plank, T&G, i.e. no visible fasteners. The question is how practical is this given the following? The GOOD: The porch will be screened and have an approx.14 inch flat roof overhang which will limit exposure to direct rain on the floor. There will only be some late afternoon sun exposure on the floor on side A facing west. The BAD: There will be poor cross ventilation under the floor (due to stone wall work already done); however, depending on advice under 2) below, there may be a way to permanently prevent any moisture to get in under the floor anyway If T&G OK - any installation instructions that differ from normal indoor flooring? (I have installed one floor previously  reclaimed old oak, ¾" T&G, 6-9" varying width, glued to the joists and nailed through the T.) Questions: 4" or 6" boards, joists 12" or 16" on center, boards jammed tight or deliberately spaced a bit (likely install during typical East Coast high humidity Aug-Sept), type/size of screws & pre-drill bit, what pitch if any, etc. 2) Flagstone Patio Instinct tells me the patio should have a small step down from the porch floor and a pitch away from the porch, however having completed the stone wall last year with a rim joist height suitable for decking the whole area, I have "painted myself into a corner": A) Behind the rim joist we never bothered with decorative stone but only cement so laying the stone patio lower than the top of the current rim joist (to be removed) is not realistic. B) The cement slab for the grill was poured to be flush with the intended deck, i.e. it is one inch higher than the rim joist and the steps from the upper grass area were done with an intended landing at rim joist level It seems my only option is to raise the porch floor (deck joists yet to be installed) which I had planned to fit snugly under the sill of the sliding door. Luckily, the extra tall slider is set 3-4 inches below the indoor floor so there is room for a few fill in pieces on top of the sill. I would then have to pitch the patio from side B towards D (~13ft) and from C towards A (~32ft). How much pitch? I am a bit concerned this may not look right given that the increasing height difference between the patio and porch from C to A would be visible and perhaps make the porch look poorly leveled or even out of plumb.(?) Another thought would be to create a below surface, pitched channel around the porch perimeter (think castle moat) and install a few 2" or 4" wide drainage grates along side D. I would still have to pitch from B to D but could keep the height difference along D constant by pitching the channel under the grates towards A. In either case, I would have to do a small buildup for the half column base outside the porch which is OK. I also realize I would have a bit of cement exposure at the bottom of stone wall side C towards the house but with some chisel/masonry work I can probably fix that In either scenario, if done right, there would be no chance for water/moisture to ever get in under the porch flooring. Thoughts - Alternatives? Thanks Max

Hi jeri, I have not talked with the installer yet on my decision in no longer gluing the floor but floating it. My neighbor has a floated 5"" wide Merbau hardwood floor and I like the way it feels when I walk on it. It has no hollow sound and feels solid but has a tiny bit if cushion so it does not feel like I am walking on my hard tiles in my two foyer areas. My other neighbor's very dark 5" wide plank floor feels very hard to walk on since it was glued. I am hoping my installer agrees with me and feels it is OK to float the 5" wide Triangulo Engineered 1/2" thick with a 3 MM sawn cut veneer of Brazilian Cherry on top floor ( have a concrete floor and installing a sub-floor would cause problems in my door ways and raise my floor much higher than my Porcelain Tile foyers so I decided to go with an engineered wood floor that has a sawn cut veneer). I just hope I can refinish it if I ever need to since BR-111 says you can refinish the floor a few times and I am hoping the floating installation does not affect this.

The Latitude Run table is the only new table in the ones shown above that is really a dining table for anyone not sitting on the couch. The couch ones are good for two or three people at best, since they cantilever over to the couch from the center coffee table area and leave all the other chairs with no place to set anything. I love the Kai Kristiansen Elevator Table, and if you can fit it in and afford it, jump on it! That is an heirloom! I looked at a few MCM lift tables online when I was looking for my lift coffee table, and did not see one like that. The ones I saw had scissor-lift legs and would not have been as durable. Nor were they as beautiful! I got a table that had the same idea as this one Sherry Coffee Table at Wayfair for $580. But mine rotates a half turn and opens like a book, which doubles the table size. I can have the table either small or large at any height between 11" and 30" and it really is a breeze to lift and convert. I got mine at ExpandFurniture.com, and they have this 39 x 22 ish Coffee Table that rises from 10" to a Dining Table at 30" and doubles in size. It is small enough to be practical in your space, but provide a real table for dining that all knees can tuck under (unlike the Latitude Run and even Expand Furniture's version of it). It is $799, expands to 39" x 45" (which is still half what I paid for mine, that expands to 59" x 43"). Even if you do decide to stick to tables that make a little tabletop that rises and moves over to the couch, look at what Expand Furniture has. Check into what kind of wood product the different tables you consider are made of. I would not expect a moving mechanism in an MDF or particle board to last. The tiny wiggles with each movement would loosen it sooner or later. Another option for a lift table to bring the table top toward those sitting at the couch is to look at used furniture stores. These tables were popular in the 1990s, but many did not see a lot of use. I see them in my favorite used shop regularly.