Most garage floors aren't level; they should actually pitch slightly away from the house so that any water runs out. They usually aren't especially flat either. That doesn't necessarily mean shoddy workmanship but rather that the "standard" for finishing a garage floor isn't especially high. For most people any kind of coating on a garage floor is mostly aesthetic. I could see if one did a lot of, say, auto repairs where the likelihood of spilled fluids is high, a coating would make clean-up easier. In your case, youÂll need to remove any old paint. Follow the instructions on the coatingÂs can very carefully. Most require a fair amount of prep for best adhesion. Mike

The Wolf that Kmo1 mentions is nice if you really want the Wolf badge and are willing to pay for it. But be advised that Sharp makes the microwaves for Wolf, and then Wolf puts the Wolf badge on it and an upcharge of several hundred dollars. You could just get the Sharp MW and save money, although the badge won't be as bling-y. I think the Sharp convection microwave is good, and the Panasonic is also good, with the Panasonic being a better looking machine. The Panasonic convection MW model # is NN-C994S, and the the 30" trim kit model # for the Panasonic is NN-TK913S. Here is a link that might be useful: Panasonic NN-C994S

Starting now is fine but I don't like late season plastering. The initial cure is about 4 weeks but it does continue to cure for several months after. As plaster cures, the pH of the water rises. Left alone and unchecked in the off season, the calcium in solution tends to drop out and form calcium scale stains. Waiting until Spring to plaster will afford the plaster more time to cure when the pool is open and being tested regularly. That will reduce any opportunities for scale formation significantly. The down side is the back yard will be a quagmire for a while and could present some safety issues that will need to be addressed. If an animal such as a deer, raccoon, skunk, etc... finds it's way in the shell in the Winter, guess who gets to help it out? Scott

We installed a Dreamline 38" neoangle shower pan, surround, and glass about two years ago, and have been very happy with it. It is in a basement bath, so we used the fiberglass/acrylic surround kit instead of tile. We have cement board on the walls behind the surround, but the surround kit makes it simple because its waterproof, so you can even use standard drywall if you want. One change we made with the corner shower is to put an extension on the shower head fitting so that we could bring it up to the ceiling and get a rainfall effect for the shower head. We initially had the shower head on one wall, but it sprayed out into the bath if you didn't point it to one side when you turned it on. Then you had to move it back to center when you got in the shower. The straight down head makes it much easier because the spray also goes straight down. Dreamline also has rectangular shower kits, and I assume they work the same as the neoangle we installed. We put the base on a cement floor, supported by a bed of mortar (per the instructions), and it is very stable. The fiberglass/acrylic surround kit looks fine and works very well, but I would recommend tile if its in a more visible bath. The glass kit went on smoothly and worked well. Bruce