It is clear it is high time a manufacturers make mouse proof slide in ranges! Everyone says you can't keep them out of your house, though I have hired an exterminator and for now, they have stopped. I have talked to neighbors and friends who all retain exterminators year round, for this purpose. I just bought a 20 year old house in April and in November the mice moved in so quickly, even tho I got an exterminator, they ruined my dishwasher, chewing the wires underneath, and my range/oven, invading all parts of that. I have plugged all visible holes in cabinets and walls, with steel wool, and that has stopped those access points, but now, I must undertake a partial kitchen remodel, to find the other holes, before I replace the appliances! Also shopping appliances which have more protection from mice. Ultimate solution seems to be a wall oven and cook top, as they are enclosed in cabinetry. but yes power and gas lines would have to be cut in cabinet/wall so tightly fitted so as not to allow 1/4" hole for mice. As for dishwashers, there are a few brands that cabinet the underside and don't leave it open for mice to play in the wires, Bosch is one. Same with ranges. I have found a couple of European brands that have less holes in the back. My current brand, GE duel fuel, is like it was made to be a climbing toy for mice! They love the range. there are lots of ways through it for a mouse. So next range will be European or wall oven and cooktop. These solutions are twice as expensive, not counting the cabinet remodel. That is why I think is time for manufacturers to at least TRY to make these kitchen products mouse proof. Yes, I am throwing away the old ones, such a waste, totally not green. I did find one resource which showed putting rat wire, less than 1/4" mesh wire, over the one opening along the bottom of the rear of a European range, where that was the ONLY opening. I am planning to do that, but the range must vent, so don't use foil! I am planning to purchase the most enclosed range I can find. Then, yes, the suggestion of how clean you must keep things, cleaning the grates and range top and oven, every time you use it, and all crumbs off your floors, and counters, and even taking out the trash every night. they are nocturnal, so doing this before dark, is a good practice. Less attractants, has to help. Nothing to eat, should help.

I guess I have a contrary opinion on the solid redwood stain. I have a small vacation home in the Brazos Cliffs area of New Mexico. Elevation 7500 feet, 90 inches of snow in an average year, monsoon seasons for two months in the summer and outrageous doses of UV year round. I am just a Walmart/HomeDepot kind of guy. When I bought the property 6 years ago the detached garage/shop had very heavy discoloration of cedar siding below the snow level, was cracking badly and looked on its last legs. I ran a horizontal 1x4 of cedar around the structure just about a foot above snow line and stained with then available 3/5 year Behr semi-transparent cedar above the 1x4 and Behr solid cedar stain below. Currently the solid stain looks as good as when I put it down. The semi-transparent is also in not bad condition except for the new cedar rail I installed on the west-facing side...not bad, and I really like the color pairing of solid and semi-transparent. At the same time we stained the deck and rails with just semi-transparent 3/5 redwood. At year three, the deck was clearly in need of staining, but I put it off until this spring from general laziness. The vertical surfaces at year 5 or 6 were in need of restaining from upclose appearance, but looked fine from the road. The product seemed to me to meet its projected longevity goals as advertised. This spring I decided it was time to stain the house and again used the Behr stains. The house, snow-shedding deck cover columns and beams, and vertical supports of the railing for 800 sf of deck are in semi-transparent redwood 5/8 yr and the deck and horizontal hand rail surfaces are in the solid 10/25 yr redwood stain. I really like the color combination and expect long service from the solid stain. We did the 15-min surface treatment prior to staining, but nothing special beyond that. No bubbling, no stickiness, no problems at all. Yes the solid is a bit orangey, but the combination of semi and solid looks justs as attractive as we found it to be on the garage years before. Obviously color tastes vary, but I think using solid stain in high stress applications can be a great labor savings in the long run. I wouldn't want my whole house in the solid stain color, but with the house freshly stained in semi-transparent, I find the solid stain to provide a classy-looking trim effect on the horiontal features of the deck. In a couple of years I plan to stain the garage redwood too, but there is no rush--the stain is holding up just fine for now.

Any of the marble and even tumbled stone can vary and you just don't know until you open your box just what your run of tile will look like. Be prepared to order extra boxes to pick through. I also ripped out my first backsplash. Join the club, there are a few of us here. My tile was a simple white crackle tile. It was installed beautifully. But after it was grouted it had a slight grey cast that looked horrible with the granite.How could I have known this would happen? We ripped it out the next day. But then it took me months to find a replacement. It became an obsession. Finally a sale woman said "At some point you need to make peace with this." And she was right. But, I had to go through the process of getting mutiple opinions so I wouldn't make another error. Post your choices here. GW's will love to give you our opinion. Good luck. Your husband sound like mine. If he was agreeable to ripping it out, than he is in your corner.

Just floating by and saw this thread. I've been married for 8 1/2 years and learned a lot from my own. Will pass it on here for what it's worth: My best friend and I did my entire wedding...for 500 people. I darn near died by the end of it, trying to save money and 'do it right'. I had a big wedding to please my husband. I picked the reception hall to please my husband...yaddayaddayadda. In the end, I realized that I should have gone for the wedding that *I* wanted. Small, family, and extremely close friends. I was exhausted adn wiped out halfway through the day. Didn't help that we had an unseasonable heat wave and I was wearing about 4000 pounds of beaded satin. Or that the reception halls didn'thave a/c..and that my husband was about to faint from heat stroke so we drove around and around in the limo between the service and the reception because it had a/c. Or that the friends who were supposed to help with the reception set up split on my caterer to go to the wedding and she was about to have a breakdown. And my husband indeed ended up spending our wedding night in the ER of the hospital that I worked in, getting pumped with IV fluid. So as a veteran of a guerrilla wedding, these are the lessons: Hire a wedding coordinator if you can at all afford anything at all. Better a smaller wedding that is perfectly put together than a monstrosity that can draw blood. Let HER run around trying to find the perfect site while you wait for her call. I would call one in a heartbeat now and give her my left arm. If you're going to spend money on anything, figure out what the ONE thing is that will thrill you to pieces. Is it the site? Is it the gown? Is it the honeymoon? THEN DO IT. Skimp in other places. For my best friend, it was her rings...So she spent her money on having them designed exactly the way that she wanted to... Hire a professional to do your pictures and your video. I had seriously good videographer friends, but they were unable to compensate for the fact that the sun was going down and blaring right behind us. I have a lovely video of us in sillohette. :P Your pictures and your video are really what you will have left 10 years from now. Make them good ones. Things that you will never use again: the cake cutting knife, the toasting goblets, the shoes, the bustier, any of that stuff. You will dust or pack your guestbook. Your favors, the attic. Some folks actually keep the wedding candle if you use one. I kept mine in my bedroom and burned it when I was in labour wtih our two children. But that was the only trinket from this party that I used. I dropped massive bucks on cleaning and packing my dress, and it's in my closet. I'm sure that my daughter will hate it when her day comes, but my dress was the thing that I spent money on..that I cared about. So it's worth it. Spend more time with family and friends in the planning. Let your maiden aunt Selma help you with the rehearsal dinner, et al. None of that has to be picture perfect. Again, save the money on the important things to you. Let your family be involved. Don't spaz over the details. You read enough bride's magazines and suddenly the thought "maybe I do need a silver jam spreader" will go through your head...THAT is the point where you need to take a day off and clear your head! Showers? Go for housewares. Be practical. I have silver trays for days and unless you're really Martha Stewart, the odds of you doing anything but occasionally griping and polishing them are slim. Not to say just go for the Pyrex or the Revereware, but seriously...a good coffeemaker with a spare in the garage will be used more and appreciated more than the push up bra from Victoria Secret. ;) I had 50 women at my lingerie shower. I still have stuff in plastic boxes that have never been used. But I used my fancy towels until they were dead. As my sister of 17 years once said "go for the linens!" LOL High end cotton sheets...don't take back the extras. A few years later, you'll pull out that gift and it will be like Christmas. It's very cool. Have them pack a box of food for you at the reception. It's very difficult to eat, even under the most perfect circumstances at a reception. People are too busy talking to you. My first bite since am was about 6pm at night (just before we left for the hospital). Practice saying "it's so nice of you to come!" Use that line when you run out of things to say. Fatigue can make it difficult to be chatty. Never, under any circumstances, rent anything that someone else who is completely trustworthy, will return for you if you can avoid it. Even your mother. I had a friend who's 'friend' once 'forgot' to return a bunch of rented linens. Left at the site in a garbage bag. Bride came home from her honeymoon, only to find that she had to pay to replace all of this stuff. Someone else had to pay for candelabra. These are nasty surprises from people who've just plunked down a LOT of money. Better to pay more for a rental company who just comes and gets it at the end of the party so you have no worries or disasters to return to. Plan this day in a way that you can enjoy the process of getting there...AND enjoy the day itself. Delegate everything that you possibly can. Know that somethihng somewhere will end up less than perfect, but that's okay, that's what happens. In the end, you'll still end up married to the person that you love and it's the stuff that funny stories are made of later. Anyway, this is merely JMO. Have a wonderful time and wonderful wedding days...