Thanks for all these responses. I passed on the names of the nail products and I think he's already ordered some of them. As for finger-picks - I'm not sure why he prefers using his nails/fingers. I know he has fingerpicks, but doesn't usually use them. I don't usually pay close attention, but it's possible that he uses the picks more for classical/flamenco and prefers his own fingers/nails for jazz. I'll have to ask him. Petaloid - thanks for that info on biotin. My husband is a supplement fiend, so if he's not already taking extra, I'm sure he'd be happy to try it. Lynn.

Several years ago I bought Behr (Home Depot Brand) Crystal Clear Matte Finish top coat... I threw away the can recently so can't remember the precise name. It was in the Decorative Finish/Glazes section... and it was definitely Matte and Clear.. I bought a quart.. and it was not cheap. Used it on several furniture projects, and it worked great.

Pam our walls in the back basement were coated with LastiSeal Concrete & Brick Sealer. It can be repainted later and will protect the brick where you still have some paint. The details on the product are here: We didn't do this so I can't tell you how it smells etc. It looks pretty much like the rest of the brick (they ad an odor issue in the back room and tried this to help). A marble sealer isn't a good idea. It penetrates the marble (or brick in this case) and given you have paint, it's not going to penetrate that area so you'll get a spotty application and I'm not thinking you could repaint over that either...but on that I can't be sure. I just know it wouldn't apply cleanly because when I seal our marble it does not stick to any of the painted trim next to the marble (I can wipe it off the next day if I've missed a spot) or the caulk so there's no way it's going to penetrate where you have your paint. When you miss a spot (on paint) it gets gummy....all over a wall? Yuck that could be a mess. As to the water based poly. I'd try a test spot in a hidden or near the floor area and see if it works. IT's pretty easy to apply and I've found it to be a good solution for protecting walls as well. When it does not work you know right away because it gums up on stuff it does not like. I have used it over paint and dyes and never had a problem, even unstable ones. The trick on unstable paints or dyes is to brush over ONCE and move on!!! Don't keep brushing and it will seal things down where they are. Use a very good brush and take it slowly. Here is a link that might be useful: LastiSeal

I did some web surfing after you guys mentioned the gel and found this: Minwax® Woodsheen® A wipe-on gel which combines oil stain with a soft lustre top-coat. And just yesterday I'm at Home Depot asking the clerk if there was any one coat product that would give me a finished wood or "faux" finished wood look and he tells me "no". I bet this stuff was right next to the stain and clear coat he got for me. There was also something on the website called: "Minwax® PolyShades® A one-step stain and finish that provides rich wood color and durable polyurethane protection." Now this stuff sounds about like what I would get if I mixed some stain in with the clear coat. We had our maple cabinets finished by a pro and somehow he got the crown molding which was a different wood with different natural color to come out the same color as the cabinets. When I look close, there is no visible grain in the finished molding but the color is an exact match to the cabinet. I would have liked to get this same effect on the shoe molding but don't know how he did it. Working close to the floor like this just kills my back, so I'm looking to finish this job with as few steps as possible.