I feel for you! We have bad neighbors on all sides of us, luckily there is some space (we're in the boonies, but you still get bad neighbors who burn plastic and let it smolder all day and the wind blows the stench into your house). I planted A LOT of bamboo, mostly to hide the ugly view of the one neighbors property that we can see in winter (and see all the garbage they have piled everywhere, along with the 30 dogs he has (he runs a puppymill, and do the authorities care? NO.). Destruction of property is a bad thing. Maybe you can get some form of mediation involved? I think that is cheaper than a lawyer. Sorry to hear about your neighbors, ours are really bad. One we have property bordering with tries to steal our land by putting up goat fencing on our side, he's built tree stands (with boards and lots of nails)in our real nice oak trees, their one son was in it and when my husband went up to the kid, he pointed a bb gun at him! The little jerk never even apologized (neither did his parents, no surprise), the kid started ARGUING with my DH about where the property line is (Sorry, but my DH knows how to read a topo map, as well as survey maps too, and WE know where the line is). Of course we called the police on these jerks, after all the other stuff they've done, it was time.

My Novalis floor is a nightmare of the worst kind. I also read all the good stuff about this product. When I saw it at Lowe's I loved the looks. Still do. I used Golden Oak Planks. So what is my nightmare you ask? It is all coming up, even after having it professionaly installed and glued down. When I look at my floors I could just cry. I will not find anything else I like the looks of better but this stuff has to come up and that will be labor intensive, and costly. If any have had this experience please contact me and tell me how you resolved it. monamichaels@att.net

Hi all, I didn't realize this post was getting comments sorry to take so long! onedogedie - I sincerely hope you have power now??!! We got ours Sunday (UGH 43 hours) and it's such a relief. If not, let me know.I've had some really success tweeting to WTOP and Dominion for a couple of friends also without. Ok...After a month with this Armstrong "Luxury" Vinyl tile, I still love it. It's hard enough that you never think that it's vinyl. It doesn't have that soft smooth feel to it at all. These are big 16 inch tiles and the grout is sanded grout. We LOVE it and it gets as much "oo-ahhh" response as the brushed Black Pearl granite does from visitors. LOL My backsplash is in now. The album can be viewed, here's an image (I just realized my photos never showed Oh.My.Gosh. How embarrassing.) From Kitchen Renovation Before During After The full album: https://picasaweb.google.com/109216653852709251058/KitchenRenovationBeforeDuringAfter?authuser=0amp;feat=directlink Deborah Here is a link that might be useful: Armstrong, Alterna Luxury Vinyl

Thanks so much for the experiences. It sounds like folks are happy with their strand bamboo. We would go with solid, I think, and a floating click floor if we go that route. I really don't want to deal with glue on the concrete after what I've been reading about what that means for failed floors or down the road... Suzannesl - I'm surprised to hear you recommend a laminate over bamboo. Laminate is on the option list, but the consensus seems to be that it is the worst option when it comes to water - and bamboo is close to the best? I think the benefit of laminate as it has been sold to me is that it could handle big dogs with minimal scratching - but it seems the bamboo is as good or better without looking like plastic? Are you talking about the LVT option? If so, yeah, it's a great option until you factor in that it would require either a subfloor for us (which makes it as expensive as bamboo or more) or glue down on the cement while figuring out some way to deal with the old heat vent holes. Plus, it just looks like plastic in the colors I want (a medium brown). I'll definitely look into those water mats. I'll also have tile at the front door, but that will only go so far. The only problem I am hearing about with strand bamboo is problems with cupping/buckling in some cases. I need to look into that more...