I just had 610 sq ft of Grand Illusions Cruevo (spelling?) installed and found this website just a day afterward when I was looking for information about the spacing of transitions. The installer recommended that I needed a transition between the kitchen and living room which is an open area with an island separating the two spaces. The entire length is only 35 ft and according to Armstrong's website, a transition is not needed. I have noticed some crackling noises but the installer said that my subfloor was not perfectly level and that Grand Illusions is the only laminate that makes this sound. Right now it isn't too bad and he said it may disappear altogether once it is all settled down. I am majorly concerned about its durability. The installer marred the boards in front of the refrigerator when he moved it (and it has rollers) and he has to come back and replace them. I have spent about $30 on felt pads to go on everything touching the floor and hundreds more on area rugs because I just set a stool on it and it scratched the board, which is way too delicate for what I expected from a laminate. The finish is beautiful but it's like have glass and any fingerprint shows. The pro about this flooring...it is beautiful!

All the problems mentioned above with Armstrong Grand Illusions, I just went through. I had the roasted grain color. It squeaked, popped, and even chipped from such bad popping. When I say chipped, I mean after 3 days there were chips on corners and edges everywhere. I hadn't even moved into the house yet. This was not caused by the installers because I inspected it after it was done. Called the retailer and Armstrong. Armstrong blamed installation and so retialer (whom did not do the isntall) inspected the work and said it was a great job, I had a level subfloor (new home), dry crawl space and they took the issue up with Armstrong. Additionally, the owner of this retailer told me that he has had a lot of complaints with Armstrong and that his solution was to glue all the butt ends together (partial solution). However, after my claim, he has pulled all Armstrong from his stores and took it upon himself to replace all of my flooring with another company. On another note, while my brother was shopping for laminate at Home Depot, the flooring sales person there also said that they have a lot of product complaints with Armstrong/Bruce and that she recommended Pergo. In any case, I chose to go with Lex Flooring's Cottage line. Anyone familiar with them? The retailer told me they have had zero customer complaints with Lex and after looking at it they have the same handscraped planks as Armstrong does but with ana ctualy locking system that works.

Our house is a late 1970s ranch. It is 1675 sq ft and has 7 windows. One per room - except the family room that has a 6 ft slider instead. In the kitchen, which is right next to the family room, there was a cloth valance when we moved in. Last fall, as the days got shorter, I realized that the valence was blocking a lot of light that I needed. I went online and found a stained glass panel that was made with mostly uncolored, obscured glass. I put it at the top of the kitchen window where the valence had been. The obscured glass gives us privacy so that the house next door does not look into the kitchen so much, but lets the light into the room. I have de-cluttered a the request of the cleaning lady. She wanted to dust fewer things, so some things went down into the basement. I recently purchased a big leather couch from Craig's List. It replaced a chair and a love seat that were in the family room. The love seat was always covered with a slipcover. Between DH and the dogs, the slipcover was always askew, so it looked frumpy and cluttered. Now, the family room is neater with the couch and two chairs, instead of the love seat and three chairs. Everyone comments at how much more comfortable and neater it looks. Sometimes few big pieces of furniture make a small space work better than many smaller ones. When we moved the TV, CDs, tapes, and stereo components into a big 5 ft x 2 ft x 5 ft high cabinet, the loss of clutter made our tiny living room in our last house feel bigger. When I was shopping for furniture, I discovered a new pet peave - big rolled furniture arms that doubled the size of a chair. I don't know whose house they were made for, but those furniture sets with the huge arms made huge wasted space in a family room the size of mine. I settled on a couch with medium sized rolled arms, as I like the comfortable feel, but did not want to waste so much space.

Hi, Iris. 'Early' might be only in my head...my mindset: as the weather permits (we've already seen mid-80s and humid...and mosquitoes!), I sit in my yard and watch for butterflies -- specifically monarchs. I either see none or one that might periodically just pass through. I really didn't think there would be any eggs (let alone cats!) on my milkweed. I've been busy in the yards this past couple of months (first attempt at gathering bagged leaves from the neighborhood, shredding, and using as mulch), and haven't paid much attention to the lone milkweed. At the first sign of leaves over a month ago, I mentally checked that box and moved on. What made me look today: I wondered why the milkweed hadn't taken off, given our warm weather. That's when I saw the munched leaves (yay!) and cats (yay x a million). Sorry to hear you don't have an immediate source for milkweed. Our local nursery's flooded with them. I'm half considering returning to the nursery and rescuing more cats: the checkout guy had not clue what the chrysalis was; and the way pots are moved around, the chrysalis has a little dent in its side. I hope it survives. :/