I sent her a picture of it sitting in my sand/weeds/grass, and she called me and said she wants it "as is". (I'm wondering if I should seal it anyway.) The frogs it's to compliment are also plain, so I guess she figures it will kind of match. If I remember to take my camera, I'll take a picture of it set up in her yard. My dad died in May of 2006, and my brother took all the remaining grass out (my dad had begun the project) & put in mulch so she has no mowing to be taken care of or grass to water. So it should show up pretty nicely against the mulch & plants. DH has his list of things to get with the truck for me to make another one though, & I'm thinking of colors, designs for it, LOL.

We are in the midst of a master bath reno. We are using 12"x24" rectified tile and wanted 1/16 " grout lines. The bathroom floor had some low spots and a slight slope. We had learned from using large format tile in the major part of the house that you are not able to "work" the larger tile as easily to get it flat and have no lippage or ridges. We ended up pouring a self leveling compound as someone suggested. Just a word of warning about doing it - besides the suggestions already given, be aware you have to mix it up and get it poured in 20 minutes. We had 2- 50 lb bags to mix and it has to be mixed for 2 minutes as you pour the compound in the water. Mixed with a paddle on a drill. Nearly burnt up our drill doing so. Luckily a friend just happened to stop by and he was able to pour it while hubs mixed. I did the timing. We had two heavy buckets to carry it and get poured. Hubs used our carpet rake to move it around the floor but it wasn't as easy as it looked. You would think it would run the direction it needed to but it starts to set up quickly so be prepared. Hubs said he should have made himself a tool that he could have pulled across the width of the bathroom and then one for the length. It certainly helped to get our floor level but we still had two smaller dips which he then filled in with some other material. Our floor is in now and looks beautiful. Just make sure you have enough help so that you can work quickly. I would have never been able to pour the 50 lb bag or carry one of the buckets from outside into the house.

I had a little help from my friends, you and Arturo. I used to live in Tucson in the 70s. I would buy old furniture at thrift stores and estate sales and fix it up for my little houses. Most of it would be genuine antiques today. But back in the day, you could take it to be dipped in huge lye vats that would strip it to the bone. That was the last time I tried refinishing anything except just rubbing Restore-a-finish on old cabs. This door is my final attempt at refinishing I think.

@Verna Lee : "A huge regret. I should have spent more money to build with a custom builder." Please don't kick yourself, thinking this is your fault for not going custom. I can testify from personal experience that custom does not always mean higher quality, no matter the reputation of the custom builder. My husband has spent weeks working on our new custom home after it was declared completed and the CO issued. We will probably spend the next year correcting errors and cleaning up the messes made. The builder takes no responsibility. He just shrugs and complains about people not wanting to work and the low quality of labor these days. We had second homes built by a tract builder in 2004 and again in 2019 while our primary residences at the time were custom built houses. There were far more code violations, mistakes made and sloppy finishes by the custom builders than by the tract builder. The only reason we went with a custom builder yet again was our need for a wheelchair accessible house and my husband's desire for a detached garage/workshop which would not fit on the standard lot here. I hope your contract allows you to hire an independent inspector to make sure that the important things (structure and systems, not finishes) are done correctly. Don't just rely on your local building dept. inspectors.