We just gave our 6 old singles to our daughter. My Father-in-law had found them at a GS 20 years ago and gave them to us, we had them powder coated along the way and now have given them to her. You should have heard the comments from the rest of her husband's family. They loved them! Good score, Lefd!

Hello all, I think I may have the wrong forum here, but I thought I would ask a quick question. I have an old wooden bench seat that my dad gave to me, that is weathered and in need of staining/painting or something to bring it up to scratch. Do you know of any good websites with very easy instructions on how to do this, or do you have any suggestions for me. Would I need to sand it back first then stain it, and if so is it easy to do. Thanks in advance.

I would take off the doors and the surround, clean them and spray paint them with heat resistant paint, clean the stone on the entire fireplace with extra attention to the area near the surround to remove the smoke/soot stains, tile the hearth with complimentary tile/stone, or remove the distracting hearth and replace with a cheap granite/marble remnant from a granite fabricator (our local yard offers any stone remnant cut to fit up to a 48 inch vanity for $250). While the surround/doors were off, I would also clean the firebox, spray paint with heat resistant paint, and shove as much insulation into the flue as possible. The mantle could be improved with minimal effort and some carpentry skills. Just doing something about the distracting hearth would do wonders!

How do we, any of us, really know the truth about what happens to this car seat over time? We know what we are told by those whose profits are rooted in the industry. I am not advocating putting our children at risk, but let us not be naieve about how manipulative lobbyists can be for a consumer prouduct. Having anxious parents continuely buying new car seats is very profitable. Singer sewing machine company started this back when they offered a trade in for your old machine when you bought a new one. The old machine was still good and they did not want you passing the machine down, so they collected them with trade in value and destroyed them. Amazingly , a number of them survived. This was an early marketing scheme. Please dont paint me as someone who would put any child at risk. And, yes, I do realize that sewing machines are not saving the lives of children. I am not advocating a cavalier attitude towards child safety. However, it is quite evident that one cant put total trust in any baby.child product . Just look at some of the recalls and law suites that have happened . Some awful things had to happen for some of these recalls to be enacted. But, it would not be the first time that an industry got a law enacted to its benefit. That is what lobbyists do. A good example is the seat being renedered as unsafe after a minor accident that did not involve the seat. As for the seat belts....we use the seat belts in our cars and dont give a though to the notion of them being in the hot car. Those things last forever....quite literally. I saw an article in the media this morning about the state of Maine and the efforts to shift the resposiblity of disposal and recyle to the makers of the products that pose so many problems. Maybe car seats need to be made in some other manner than they are currently or the producers need to be held accountable for providing a means of retiring the prouduct. It is not child safety that I am questioning. However, the fleecing of the general public can be nowhere as strong as it can be when a parents fear is part of the equation. That is one of the most compelling marketing incentives that exists. I dont believe, for one minute, that the marketing gurus have not figured that out and used it fully to their advantage. I shudder to think of the old way that kids rode in cars. We used to ride up in the back window when I was a kid. And, my kids had no car seats in the mid 70s. I am not saying it was as good thing . Clearly it was not safe at any speed. But, this way of going about it is unsustainable. We need a better car seat. We need the industry to do better. Our children are going to have an awful environmental lot to deal with. Both their old car seat and their poopy diapers will still be sitting in a landfill long after their child hood has passed, along with all the old juice boxes and plastic straws and plastic pouches that once held some artificially flavored yougurt of dubious value other than the fact that it had a licensed character printed on it. If it were just car seats that we are dealing with, that would be one thing. But, we are dealing with mountains and oceans full of waste of all manner. I really do think that we could deal with the more important things, such as this, in a much more effective manner if we were not so burdened with such frivilous consumption as we are engaged in. The whole world could live better with less.