to jerod6 yes and no! let me say my husband has been selling high end appliances for 30 years, in his showroom and on line. this is my biggest pet peeve, the quality of stainless on products and what gauge of stainless they use.i am not involved in his business, but we talked about this all the time. when i picked out my appliances (i could get whatever i wanted) i have different vendors in my kithcen and selected by who had the richest and best brush stainless. the best quality stainless is expensive. i have owned franke stainless sinks in 2 houses now and believe they are the best, and do not show wear due to their high gauge of stainless used, same with grohe faucets, they are amazing. i believe appliances are like cars, it depends what trim package your willing to pay for, and the exra conrols (bells and whistles) are the options.the box stores hmmmm do have some vendors make product lines just for them. even though sears has a vendor make sears products for them with the sears name, the same vendor with the same product, gets lower ratings in a favorite consumer guide? why? it is the same product. most box stores have some of these products created for them due to their target customer, who is not spending 12,000- 25,000 for kitchen appliances. stainless has been the look for 10 years now, with colored stainless coming on strong. but, to make a mainstream product you must cut back somewhere, and finish will be that area. the box store now can offer there customers that look. 5 years ago low to med end appliances were hard to find in stainless.some vendors,like viking, dacor, wolfe,and monogram will not budge and sell to box stores their current products, or create scaled down lines, but i guess eventualy they may, but hope they stick to their guns. even mercedes is bringing to the us the smart car used in great britain. they have a whole line of buget cars over there.i read here once a week. you are the first to comment on exterior appliance quality. i think most comparable appliances on the inside are made the same. outsides vary slightly.higher end is higher quality on the outside. most vendors have this in their upper lines, and these appliances come with all the bells and whistles. you were probably looking at a lower line in bosch at sears. the higher end my husband sells is very nice and good quality.he also carries the same vendors lower lines. the old saying you get what you pay for. sears still sells 55 percent of all home appliances. some vendors wil make them what ever they want to sell.

That is their standard response to all floors. Maybe the rare floor finisher uses waterborne poly. The answer depends on what kind of finish appearance you want, what expectations for wear you have, and how "historical" you may be willing to be. The list of potential finishes, least-durable (requiring frequent maintenance, but giving a unique and more historically-authentic appearance, to hard, bulletproof plastic-y and inauthentic): Bare floor: ages naturally, but will water spot and stain most easily. wood worn away by foot traffic, especially with a very soft wood like white pine. No color will be brought out except by passage of time and whatever dirt/patina builds up and as the wood oxidizes. Wax finish: low protection from water and wear, must be renewed yearly or more, potential to bring out some color in the wood; colored waxes are now readily available. Will be a very authentic soft finish showing much of the natural wood color and texture. Wax does not form a film. Oil finish: Lots of oils out there, most oil finishes do not form a film, so the wood still looks bare/natural. Colored oil finishes are possible, but may blotch a bit at first, this usually will fade when 100% dry. Water spotting still possible, and wood can still wear down. The wood's surface is still taking the wear, but it has been fortified because the oil has penetrated it. Some harder-drying oils, like 100% tung oil, Australian Timber Oil, and I think Landark, are fairly good at hardening the wood surface and are the most durable oils. Wear spots can usually be masked by the application of more oil as needed. Shellac is called a "spirit varnish" because it forms it's protective beautifying film by the evaporation of the alcohol solvent that liquefies it. As the alcohol evaporates very quickly, shellac is a fast-drying finish. Some shellacs contain wax as an impurity. It is added as an extender, and it does help somewhat to achieve a smooth rubbed-out finish when buffed with steel wool. The wax/impurity also shortens the shelf life and lengthens the drying time, while making the finish less water-resistant. In my experience, it's the wax that makes shellac get white water spots. I only use de-waxed shellac, which can be purchased ready-mixed (Zinsser Sealcoat) or made by dissolving flakes in alcohol. I use a lot of shellac for various things, including some floors in my house (and fine furniture finishes). The formula I use for floors is to sand to at least 120, with the grain, by hand, then apply two coats of de-waxed garnet shellac (the darkest colored shellac that really brings out the beauty and gives a base color that's very pleasing on old wood/old house context) and put on 4 coats of the Sealcoat for the wear layer. Six coats of garnet to reach the same film thickness would be awfully dark IMO. Scratches in the shellac floor can be easily touched up without the need to sand the whole floor. Shellac will always bond to shellac, so there is never any problems with blistering or peeling. Because shellac has no odor after the alcohol evaporates, and you can put on 4 coats in a day, it's really great for bedrooms or people with chemical sensitivity. Old-fashion oil varnishes are sometimes used, but the reasons poly is preferred is because it has more benefits for floors because it is harder, so people don't mess with non-poly oil varnish much at all. The only benefit would be that it could theoretically be removed by a chemical stripper so future refinishing would be possible without further sanding. Oil varnish gives a deep amber color to wood, especially your old white pine. Problems include long drying time, softness, difficulty to touch up without sanding. Easier to re-coat than poly, though, because it will stick to itself with lower risk of peeling. Film-forming oil finishes, like Waterlox, are sometimes the most appropriate non-poly floor finish for historic floors. The huge selling point (what sold me) is the need for no future sanding. As historic flooring fabric is a finite resource, and can only take so much sanding until it is worn beyond use, eventually one must consider replacement vs. conservation. Waterlox makes the case that since it can be scuffed and recoated there is never any need to fully sand the wood, so a stable condition on the old floor can be maintained for a long time. Waterlox is a thinner oil=based varnish made with tung oil (I can smell it!) along with other resins and solvents. It has a _very_ strong odor when being applied, as you are getting the effect of the solvent and the material all at once. You need an activated charcoal respirator made for VOC's, or you will suffer the effects. It stinks, OK? The curing time, during which the odor can be detected, will be about a month. The bad, toxic aroma is gone in a day or two. I chose Waterlox for my old kitchen floor. It has held up pretty well; it's now been almost 5 years and there are some scuffed-looking areas where the chairs sit. It's been great for spills, water, general traffic, etc. So I recommend it unless you have chemical sensitivities for aromatic organic compounds, or nut allergies (!) Tung oil is from a nut, BTW. We then come to Polys and other hard commercial-grade floor finishes, some of which are technically difficult to apply and have severe health threats if the proper measures aren't observed while applying. I have such limited experience with any of these that I cannot comment as to any particulars, except to state that they do not have it within themselves to be touched up, and any damage to an area however small usually calls for the whole floor to be re-sanded for a total refinish, or the spot would still be visible. These finishes last an amazingly long time, requiring only cleaning maintenance, and if the floor in question were a new hard wood, it would make the most sense to use the most long-lived finish you could obtain. But in your circumstance it's probably obvious by now that I would not recommend such a finish for your historic wood floor. Sorry this was so long, but I wanted to weigh all the characteristics within your specific context. Casey

If we did the job, it is a 99% chance that we would NOT replace the outdoor unit without replacing the indoor coil, the refrigerant line-set, and possibly a digital thermostat. IF, the existing indoor coil is rated 13 SEER or higher, then we would possibly replace just the outdoor unit. If the existing unit is 10 SEER, and the indoor coil is rated at 10 SEER, and we installed a 13 SEER or higher outdoor unit, the warranty on the outdoor unit is -0- days. If we replaced the outdoor unit and the indoor coil, and not the line-set, it is probable that the existing line-set will be to small. If our customer's budget would allow, we would recommend installing a 13 SEER heat pump instead of an A/C unit. Also, your smaller unit is a 2.5 ton unit. The "030" means 30,000 BTU. The "3" afterwards means 208/230 volts. The "0" is the series. And, the "1" is the packaging. The "38CKB" means that it is an electic air conditioning unit. Finally, our price to replace the system, not including the furnace, would be around $5,000.00. Hope this helps.... Phillip

It is really not my intent to be defensive. I think I do get a little urked when LG is the "ONLY" washer w/service issues. I did extensive research on all the washers I was interested in buying and they "ALL" had their issues! And for folks to say I might add in a condescending way that they "didnt even consider a particular brand" because of service issues is in my opinion disparaging. I have found as much on this site about Whirlpools/Kenmores smelling, Bosch running marathons (vibrating) and all kinds of software errors. GE's and Fridgidaires w/multiple mechanical and workmanship problems. Maytags...I wont even go there, not to mention the LG stuff. On the other hand there have been several testimonies by owners of these brands that would buy it again. I have not seen that much on Miele or Asko; simply because they are not purchased as much as the ones above. Being that LG's sells are so hot I understand they have the "Microsoft" affect on folks and they have become somewhat disingenuous with regard to the brand, but c'mon!! OK...maybe I have become a bit defensive (lol). The best way to sum it up is like this; I am an iPod user, I know folks that are trying to decide between an iPod and the new Zune. Naturally I am very familiar w/my product being that I own it and I have read several reviews on the Zune. Should I go around saying the Zune is inferior to the iPod because it cant do this or that and it only has this amount of space etc, etc. when at the end of the day they both hold huge amounts of music and the person is simply sitting down and listening to music on one player as the other is.... I said all that to say that until LG or any other brand comes out with a machine that sorts clothes, moves them from the hamper upstairs and folds and put them away after the wash....stop touting one washer as being far superior to the other! As far as the Miele heater thing goes most folks will use only one cycle the majority of the time, and it is a farce when the heater does not run on the cycle that is used the most. This site has been extremely helpful and is full of useful info, but the superior attitudes of owners of FL's over TL's and owners of certain brands is getting old.