Thanks for the compliment on the hardwood. It's actually bamboo. It's the Java Fossilized bamboo from Calibamboo. I think I'm there first residential install on the east coast. This stuff is absolutely gorgeous and I love it so much so far. We've been in the house a few weeks, just haven't had a chance to update the pics. I can tell you, whatever you decide to go with will be the right thing for your family. Facing the disability with my husband, and having it be very real and in our face forced us to look at some very real issues. We have a 12yo daughter. It spurred us to decided to go 100% handicapped accessible. My husband couldn't stand the thought of a future time when my daughter might need him in some part of the house, and he couldn't get there to help her. The idea of her sick with fever throwing up in the only non-wc accessible bathroom as he sat in the chair outside trying to comfort her...or having a nightmare as he tried to make corners to get to her bedroom. We knew that at age 12 there wouldn't be too many more of those times, but grandchildren will come one day.... He couldn't live with those thoughts... so we made the whole house accessible. Today a paraplegic could move into our house with access to all but the basement, and we are 100% ready to pop in the elevator as the shaft is prebuilt. However, if he did not have MS...and we only had our minor mobility issues and those of guests to think of...our decision might have been totally different. My inlaws built 100 feet from us on the same 17acres. They both have serious mobility issues. They lowered the switches, raised the toilets, raised the outlets and made the master wc accessible. The other bedrooms and second bath however are not accessible at all. At their age, and with their only surviving child and grandchild living next door...the money just wasn't justified. My grandparents, both just shy of 90 on the other hand are living quite happily in their 2 story home. Nana is blind, Grampa has COPD and a heart condition and needs oxygen frequently. They both can still walk, if a bit unsteadily and refuse any changes. On bad days Grampa sleeps on the sofa downstairs instead of heading up. I just wanted to give you a bit of generational prospective from my family....thought it might help. Laney Here is a link that might be useful: Calibamboo for flooring

Thank you so much Christophern and Brushworks. I'll give the Fresh Start Superior and 220 sandpaper a try. (When I asked the question, I wasn't aware that the Superior was different from the regular Fresh Start.) By the way, Christophern, I love the comment you post: "Better to leave the walls bare than to put Behr on the walls." I confess that I actually do use Behr (flat) paint on my walls because I can't afford BM paint especially since I often end up changing my mind about the color. I've been happy with the wall paint but the Behr semi-gloss and high gloss didn't work well at all for painting furniture and doors. It was too thick and didn't level properly - left a lot of brush marks. Until I found this site, I thought spraying must be the only way to go. I'm so grateful to everyone here for setting me straight. It would no doubt have been another disaster to spray with Behr. I can't wait to try the Ace paint. Thanks again!

I think taking a cabinet door down to the vendor and asking to see level one granites would provide a great way to see granites that we are not familiar with and ones that would work with your cabinets. I fell in love with St. Cecilia Rio before I knew what color my cabinets would be, but I think it would look great with just about any color. I was super pleased to learn it was a level one granite and this is the first time in my life my taste had led me to choose a reasonably priced item. Have fun choosing a piece of the earth for your home.

I guess it's still not clear. The 2 story would NOT be adding onto existing foundation. It would be a two story addition on a whole new foundation and I'm trying to figure out if it's cheaper to do one large room addition (new large foundation) or a totally new two story addition tied it into our current house (new smaller foundation). I'm located in the northeast just outside Boston. I would try to plan on just a slab foundation, we already have a basement, and there's no reason to enlarge it. The plan would be for a single floor addition: expand the half bath on the first floor to a full bath and add on a family room and small bedroom. For a 2 story addition, have the family room on the bottom floor and the bedroom above it. We could still either expand the 1/2 bath on the first floor to a full bath or add on a small full bath upstairs too. (we already have a full bath upstairs, but we'll really need an additonal shower in the future as the kids get older). It seems like there's conflicting info here....with a 2 story it would be less foundation and less roofing, but I know a two story addition probably requires a stronger foundation and the strength of the ceiling to hold up the second floor.