I've had major egg-peeling problems in the past, too. And I always like to devil a dozen eggs anytime I need to take a dish somewhere. DH isn't supposed to eat them and I could eat a whole dozen so it's just safer to take them to a gathering where I'll have some help eating them. So we were invited to a New Years Day dinner. Friday afternoon I put a dozen eggs to soak in water overnight and the next morning I steam cooked them. Left them to cool (no cold water baths, etc.) and peeled them when they were only the least bit warm. They peeled nicely--no ragged whites. Didn't exactly jump out of the shells but I was plenty satisfied. Next time, if I think of it, I'll try doing some controls. Just cook a few in boiling water, soak a few & steam them, and just steam some without a soak...all out of the same carton.

Chloesmom I did the same thing on my dining room chairs, well almost, I read somewhere on some blog that this person didn't ever sand their painted furniture, just primed it and painted it. I didn't read closely that she used a different type of primer than I used. I also "forgot" that I had probably very recently used furniture polish on those wood chairs so not cleaning and sanding was a bad, bad idea. So as soon as I hit the chair on something the paint started peeling off. You can scrape it off with your fingernails. BoOOOO I had primed, painted, and glazed one of them it too before I realized on one of them. It was a lot of work. Now I have to start all over on the 3 I skipped a step on. On the bright side, pardon the pun, I love the pretty bright green color you chose. And you are lucky it's just pretty flat wood. We learn by our mistakes. Thanks for sharing I didn't know that about paint/primer in one. Now I know not to use it and I am painting a lot of furniture. Family is about to kill me. They just roll their eyes. That is until I showed my DH how much painted furniture costs new versus me using what we have. That usually shuts him up.

OK....so here is what I WOULD DO: Pull the carpet and lino BOTH and FIND OUT what's underneath. Carpet hides the WORST subfloors (both in prep and in materials) on the planet. Builders KNOW they can mess up the subfloor because carpet will hide everything. So....once carpet and line are GONE...I would then choose an installation material BASED ON the subfloor material that is in place. Example, if you have PERFECT PLYWOOD (which is EXPENSIVE....so I HIGHLY DOUBT IT) then you can think about peel and stick vinyl (which will be cheap, cheerful and require replacement rather quickly = 5 - 7 years). If you have PERFECT CONCRETE SLAB (again...HIGHLY DOUBT IT) then you can think peel and stick. See above. Now back to reality. The chances are you have bad subfloors. As in laun or fibre board or OSB (oriented strand board = looks like the plywood has been made from potato chips). If this is your substrate, peel and stick will NOT STICK. That means you NEED TO LOOK at floating (click together). The price will go UP because of the price of the locking system (royalties, manufacturing machines are expensive, etc) but the INSTALLATION will be faster/easier. Or you have horrible concrete (lumpy, pitted, sloped, etc.) and you need SERIOUS repairs on the concrete. That type of repair isn't going to come cheap. And it is a gut-wrenching DIY project. And vinyl is great for dogs....but PLEASE WORK with a product that is NOT MATTE. We have dozens of threads with people CRYING over their matte finished vinyl....and HATING IT. And NO, the finish is not defective. Which makes them even MORE upset....because there is no warranty covering "angry". And just for fun, a rental unit will have a different life expectancy for flooring. Rental units have a 7 year life cycle for flooring. Yep. That's sever (7) years and the floors need replacing. So....choose what YOU LIKE today. Get it as tough as your budget can allow (high-end laminate in the living spaces + decent vinyl in kitchen/bath/laundry) and then realize it will only survive a few more years (2-4 years) as a rental floor. That's it. And LAMINATE (especially the high end one's) are EXTREMELY tough. They are STUPID-EASY/cheap to install as DIY and require LESS PREPARATION to the subfloors than vinyl. Because rental property is in your future, don't think anything beyond "seven years".

Thanks everyone for your comments. Penny, where to begin? I had planned to do a big remodel of half of my house. The bids came in super high (one was 40% higher than the same GC's estimate based on only the floorplan); my preferred GC said all the subs and materials are super $$$, sometimes going up in a month. And part of it was specific to my olde house. Still my architect was pretty disappointed and said this is happening with other clients, that this year bids are sky-high due to demand. Anyway, I'm regrouping to decide what makes sense, and I may decide to just move in 2-5 years. I decided to be a grown up and start with the deferred maintained first and then do the fun stuff of remodeling. So with this thread, I was hoping to come up with an easy and not expensive way to cover these floors. Plus honestly I feel like I need a vacation from thinking about my house. Friends are visiting this weekend--thank goodness! ;) Thanks for all your help and good ideas. I really apprecaite it.