Zigzag, the place we're dealing with does go the extra mile for us, I had my heart set on a certain linoleum for our tiny bathroom, yep discontinued, it took them 3 weeks but they found a small piece. The tile we were looking at comes from Germany it's no longer made. My daughter and one of my sons have tile without heat so I know it can be cold on the feet, there will be an area rug which should help. When we're gone the house will probably be bulldozed, it's the property that's worth the bucks not the house. The fireplace with new insert heated the whole house comfortably last winter the worst we've ever had, our oil bill for the whole year was under $400 whereas most years we put out over $1000. We get wood free of charge :o) I've got X number of dollars to work with and a short window to get this done, it's now or never, time marches on. If I wait until I have enough to put in heated floors something else will have come up, this project would be kaput! I grew up in a house with no central heating, this will be a piece of cake in comparison :o). We made a pact when DH retired, everything we buy we pay for or we don't get it, we make a point to live within our means, pay interest to no-one. We've ended up debt free and the funny thing is we've got more disposable income then we ever had when DH was working. It's the interest that kills you. Annette

Most enjoyable, Herb. Thanks! I have to consider taking down my web site for gardens in Japan and posting links to these instead. dp

I hate it when that happens!! Once while I was cleaning my bathroom I smelled something foul but couldn't locate a source. I cleaned EVERYTHING from top to bottom, including all of the cupboards. When I was done it still stank! I went to take a shower and the smell was horrible, I finally traced it to my husbands soap. His mother had it in her pack-rat stock and gave it to him. It was probably 10 years old if it was a day and must have been breaking down. I never would have thought that soap could smell so bad. Ah well, at least the the bathroom was sparkling clean.

Ever do a Rubik's cube? When you get two layers done, it looks really great--almost. But to get that top layer right, you have to completely mess up the bottom two layers (and then, of course, put them right again). That's what you had. The top layer of the Rubik's cube wasn't done yet (that dishwasher).