Oh, well. IMO, local is better than shipped from anywhere. If both fir and redwood are comparatively local, I'd choose redwood. It's a personal choice, but I don't care for T&G on exterior, unprotected porch floors because there is too much chance of water sitting in the grooves, contributing to early deterioration. BTW, as one who doesn't like the usual 'redwood' stains, I'd suggest getting some extra pieces and experiment with other 'colored' stains. Just be sure to label each experimental section, so you can repeat the one you like best.

Hmmm, that looks like a good spot for a chimney cupboard, then. I'm not sure what to think about the extra bar seating in the family room. I don't know if it would get used or not. I'm willing to do that if we'd really use it. I just went through (too many) images looking for pass through window inspiration. I'm finding very little that looks like what I'm thinking of doing. Does that make me ultra-original...or whacko? LOL So, my thought was to put open shelves in the pass-through windows and use them for storing some of my prettier functional items. Good looking bowls, canisters, etc. Or, to do glass cabinet doors, something like the article in the scullery thread a bit ago. I linked the kitchen from Fine Home Building with the pass through cupboards below. Here's one image that sort of comes close. I don't have modernist leanings (that I know of), so this is a bit off, but it's close. Here is a link that might be useful: Maybe cupboards like this in the passthroughs, with glass doors on both sides?

Ruby, I think it's pretty clear what you are talking about. While many don't have large open budgets and need to be efficient and economical, I doubt many, anyone, who comes here (few otherwise for that matter, around here) is interested in hiring illegal hacks. Going to a nice store does not eliminate that problem, either. We can get stuck with them, sneakily even, when the person, company, GC we hire relies on them! There are plenty of Americans without adequate training doing substandard work too, for that matter. And that is not low bid shopping either, it can happen even with the highest; seemingly great credentials/reference. So you always have to be careful wherever you go. Only he can tell you how he upped the price $15 per foot but that it is not an uncommon sales tactic. You have to be sure to ask what add-ons or additional fees will be added with any purchase, to avoid surprises at the end. Pricing methods vary by yard or store. Some include, say, a sink and a basic edge in the price. Others will charge extra for them when they know the specifics of the job. Some will charge for the slab, others will price by sf. They will all need to understand your installation to see if any additional work is required in order to provide a real quote (support for a heavy sink, for instance, fancy edge, unusual sink cutout, special finish like honed or leather). I agree it does not foster trust to be told one thing intially, or lured in wasting your own precious time, and then have games played. If he had presented it differently, that would be another story. $50 sf is the base price but we need to add on for sink, edge, etc so it could be up to $65 depending on your installation. That is my least expensive stone and the best price I can do. This post was edited by snookums2 on Sat, Oct 12, 13 at 14:54

Hi everyone. I thank everyone for their comments. I got one thing that everyone seemed to agree on...stay Out of this marriage. O.K. let me clarify some things for some of the posters. I did dearly love my ex DIL. I loved her, but not her mother. She was very cruel to my ex DIL with her ugly words to her and my son. Nothing was good enough for her. I think my son felt like he ever measured up to her expectations. Also my son was so tired of raising the kids by himself. I saw that. But, I did not meddle...I thought he must be happy or he would say something. My ex DIL thought more of her career than she did her family. I don't know but something happen between them...for the last five years she has made her career her everything. I was secretly afraid that if she did not ease up something was going to happen. She is very educated and when she wasn't working she made college a second career. She was always taking a new course that was offered. Yes, I miss her, but I love my son more. NO, I hate how he had an affair. I do not believe anything GOOD comes out of adultery and lies. Spouses get hurt, children get hurt. Families are torn apart. I ABHORED the whole thing. BUT, I truly like the second wife better in some ways. She and I have alot more in common than the first wife...She like to sew, I like to sew, She quilts, I quilt..she is an artist, so am I, I play the piano...she played the piano at her Uncle's church before my son and she got involved. She stepped down after she and my son got together. I mean there are so many things we can talk about and do together..but they live 3 hrs. from us so it does create a problem, but when they get to come up or us see them we do crafts together...etc..etc. So I do like her in that way, but yes I am just watching and observing her. I analyze EVERYTHING...I try not to do it but I do. It isn't something I can turn off. I am a cautious type person and weigh everything before I will take a plunge. I weigh good and the bad, consequences of my actions..everything. Mostly I keep my opinions to my self, but yesterday she unloaded on me about how miserable her life was going and how she equated how things were going wrong and I even think she was maybe saying she felt it was because she had married my son... I was stumped for words and all I could say was I am soo very sorry! I also felt there was some guilt or sorrow and I may be wrong..I just don't know. I want my son happy. My son, in my opinion thinks with his heart and not his head at times. If she were to leave him I am afraid of what it would do to him. There is no way that my ex DIL would take my son back...and I am not wishing that, or maybe I am...but that is impossible and I know it. It's really is so sad what your children do to their lives and others lives. I am speaking of my grands...Everyone has told me what a good father and husband he was to his first wife. He worked at a large electonics company in a large city near where he lives(that is where he met his now new wife). She works in the operations part of this company. When they had large electronis show last year in another city, my son and her were on that project together. Getting back to the subject, (I swear I get on a rabbit trail and forget my train of thought, sorry!) He went to the kids games, cheerleading, waited for my oldest grand while she took her piano lesson, plus took them to church every Sunday. His ex did not go. He was the cook in the house...Every Sat. he and the kids would clean house and his big treat for the kids was to go out to eat and do some kind of fun thing Sat nte. Her thing was to go to her mothers house or to her sisters house and they go shopping and for drinks. He told me that he felt she did not love him..and he gave up. He told me he had planned on leaving her when he met his now new wife. I love my son, but it is within me to call it like I see it if asked...when he started this affair he actually called told me..I did tell him that nothing good could come out of deceitfulness. I was angry that he and his first wife did not go to counseling. He told me that she would not go...I suggested that he go alone, but he told me he was through. I wonder if this new wife had left him alone would he have gone. I am NOT blaming her, it takes two to tango. But she did know he was married..yes, and he did too. These are some thoughts and incidents that I can recall. I will stay out of it, but I have it no way tried to insinuate or say ANYTHING against her! In fact, she wanted to start calling me mom and that was fine with me. I have really prayed and ask God if he could change my heart (in the beginning) so my son and this new woman could see love and kindness and acceptance in me. Oh yes, also the ex wife calls me from time to time to check on me. I have told her that my son and his new wife were off subject. She still calls me mama..when she calls me. She mostly talks about her job, and she just started a new relationship with a man she was introduced to by one of her colleagues. I try to encourage her...I told my son his ex wife calls me, and vowed to him I would never tail tote or tell anything that was going on in his life. He said he understood and it was o.k. Maybe this will answer some of the question some of you were having...I think I am torn between all three of them...I can see the good in them all, but I can also see their mistakes, but I have my hands tied behind my back...it isn't my life. I just pray that this new wife stays with him. I think it would literally kill him if she left. He just seemed he rushed into things a little too fast. Of course, not everyone is like me...I dated my husband for 12 years before I would marry him, and he gave me an ultimatium before I would marry him. I don't make snap decisions...I am a slow mover...I wish my son had been.