Dd asked her therapist to ask dad for a phone of her own. I'm actually against her getting in to having her own phone but if it were to just call me or dad then I would pay for it myself. Its $10 a month. Therapist thought it would be a good idea so she mentioned it to dad and he said no. He doesn't allow cell phones. Therapist has not been pleased with dad ignoring dd's requests so I expect her to let the judge know. There are so many things but there are ways around the courts. Dad could say phone was dead or they lost it or he could 'remove' it when dd isn't looking and then say it was lost. Or he could use it as punishment for behavior which I doubt he would need to do because dd is so scared to misbehave with him. She isn't afraid of dad by the way, but SM is very scary to her. The only thing that keeps me sane sometimes is knowing that dd has stepsister there with her and I think that keeps dd sane as well. She says she is scared to be there alone. Not because they would hurt her but it's unfamiliar to her. She doesn't like spending the night with people. She likes being at home. She would much rather a friend spend the night than go anywhere. And I think going to bd's is no different. It's just new and the room is different. She says she is scared of the noises and the tree outside the window. Etc. Nothing to do with bd or SM just dd not being familiar. She calls me from school on Thursday's and Fridays to say 'good night'. It's sad. She should be able to pick up the phone and say, good night right before getting in to bed. I remember when she was about 6, it was her first holiday away and she was gone for a week. She called half way through the week and was ok at first but it was about mid sentence #2 when she just bust in to tears and said she wanted to come home. They took the phone and hung up. I didn't even say anything to make her cry, she literally had just said hi mommy and I said HI DD!! How are you?? And she just bust in to tears. I do not believe they were being mean, I believe she was 6 and home sick. Nothing more. But they think that if she misses me it's disrespectful to them. There are times that out of the blue DD will say 'I miss my dad' and I always ALWAYS give her a hug and say I know but youll see him (fill in the date). If they did that, she would be fine. If they just let her know it is OK to miss someone then she probably would feel more comfortable. I hate to think what all of this does to her mind. Like what little things are swirling around in that brain when they do things like this. She always gets a tummy ache before she goes to their house. Never fails, Wednesday she is clingy and sick. I just comfort her and act like it's just a belly ache... Never fails though. She is never excited. My dd is a spitting image of her dad. Down to the shape of her toes and toe nails. I'm not even sure who the mother is. Lol I just wish he could enjoy every little minute instead of it being about erasing her life from the moment she arrives to the moment she leaves. I know this is awful of me but I'm going to admit it anyway. If we don't get what we want (no school nights) then we are moving. We live close so that this will be easier on dd. I don't transport her so it didn't matter to me if we lived 99.9 miles away. (we have to stay within 100 miles) But I knew that he would get his visitations back (it's what I wanted also. What's best for dd). I knew that if we lived far like we were, school mornings would be awful for her and/or he wouldn't get her. If they don't make changes, we are moving back. We moved away from everything to be closer so it would work out but I'm not staying here and putting dd through this again. I know I might get slammed for saying it but I'm already ready to move. We rent because we weren't sure where we would settle and this trial is going to be the deal breaker for us. Move back to where we are from and where our family is or stay here to keep dd close to bd. I sure wish he would just see the sacrifices we have made as a family to help him and dd have a better, closer relationship. I thought he would be more involved but he's not. It really did nothing for us. We actually hate this town. And this situation makes me hate it even more.

primers are not made to completely "cover" other colors, it should be fine, although yellows are very hard to get to actually "cover", it may take 3 coats.

SJ McCarthy - thanks for the response. To clarify, those quotes are not for the cost of the wood. They are for materials and installation - everything. I am not considering any products where the flooring cost alone is above $8/sf. That would mean a total cost that would be far outside of my budget. Note that I do not need an engineered wood that can be resanded three times, as I am never going to do that. This is my permanent home - I don't care about resale-specific issues. It is just me living here, no pets. Of course my BF is here often, and my son stays with me when he visits, but traffic in my home is very light. The Harris product that I am considering is actually my top choice as far as appearance (Hickory Roaring Fork). It is by far the most appealing to me, over everything else I have seen. It is not a wire-brushed finish (which adds a lot to the cost) but since I don't love that look, it works for me. (I also cannot stand the hand-scraped, or distressed barnwood-looking stuff.) Its cost, that I am being quoted, is between 4.70 and 5.00 a square. I could beat that price online, but that opens up more issues for me. As far as "NWFA certified installers", there are none within 50 miles from me. So for my purposes, using an authorized flooring retailer/installer would seem to give me more protection as far as warranty, would it not? Totally agree with what you are saying on the LVT - I am fairly certain I'm going with an Armstrong Vivero glue-down LVT - and it is a stone-look - not wood. Even the finished install cost of that winds up being around $7 a sf. Not cheap. I have thought about doing LVT everywhere, but frankly, I have not found any that has a look that I would want in those other areas, It has actually taken me many many hours (which means actual months!) of searching to finally find 2 or 3 engineered woods that I actually like, that would not empty my bank account. It's a curse being this picky. :-(

bry.......OBVIOUSLY you have NO clue what a GC 'actually' does! Or what is SUPPOSED TO DO!!!!!! Obviously you have no clue what punctuation actually does, or what it's supposed to do. In all seriousness, you can't actually believe you know anything about G.C.s, and we certainly don't believe you know anything about G.C.s. So what purpose does that exaggeration serve? However, since you asked so nicely and all, let me help you. Take your research up to the second response to this thread and learn something. The extent to which a G.C. makes decisions versus gathers information is in the contract. However, in a cost plus contract (the most common contractual element) subcontractor pricing is required by law to be passed on in detail to the owners. Bids should also be passed on before approval, but I am not sure which states mandate versus just recommend that.