That may have been me. I love my machine. I have white vinyl floors in my kitchen and this thing spin scrubs them so that they sparkle. I track in a lot of dirt from gardening and I used to get dirt so ground into my floors that they never looked clean after a mopping. I hated always having to get down on my hands and knees with a bucket and scrub brush to get out the ground in dirt. The machine out of the box has to be snapped together - not hard at all. I am the type who gets completely frustrated having to assemble things and this thing was a breeze to put together. A child could do it. The cleaning solution that works with the machine smells *fresh* and not flowery or chemical. You can also use vinegar and water with the machine - cheaper and no worry about chemicals on the floor if you have children or pets. The machine is easy to fill and empty without fumbling and cursing. There are two different spin scrub brushes that come with it. One for flat even floors and one for floors with deep grout lines. They interchange and just snap right on. The edge attachment is easy to hook up and is great for getting behind the toilet and between things. They give you a little ergonimically designed carrying thingy for the attachments and cleaning solutions that keeps everything neat and tidy and handy. They say there is no need to sweep beforehand as the machine vacuums and scrubs but I find it easier to use a broom first because I don't like having to pull hair from the bristles everytime I use it. I think the machine will last longer if I don't have hair and big stuff going into it, but that is just me. Do not buy this machine thinking it will also function as a vacuum for your rugs. It is a vacuum, but is not designed for rugs, and you will be disappointed in the results. This thing is alomost 'fun' to use and I find myself cleaning my floors more often because it is so easy now. I just pull it out of the closet and fill the tank in the sink with tap water, and add a capfull of solution. Empty tank in toilet when done. It does not use much water at all, only about a liter I think. The cord is loooong so you don't have to keep plugging and unplugging the machine as you go throughout the house (unless you live in a HUGE home). It's just like using a vacuum except it scrubs the floor. There is a trigger button on the handle to spray extra cleaning solution on tough spots. The machine squeegies up all the excess water so that the floors are practicaly dry when you are done. They say it can be used on real wood floors and have a wood floor cleaner to use with it but I personally felt that it got my wood floors too wet to use on a regular basis. I may do my real wood floors with it every few years and stick with my regular cleaning in between. Make sure when you slide the water tank in that you hear it 'snap'. I put it in once and it did not connect and I realized that I did half my floor and it was bone dry. A minor oversight on my part and not anything wrong with the design of the machine. You do have to go SLOW when using the machine. You have to give it time to scrub as you slowly push it forward and then slowly draw it back as you suck up all the water. Some people find this to be tedious. But the results are worth it. Check out epinions.com and amazon.com an sites like it that have consumer reviews. The reviews for this machine are either that people LOVE the machine or they hate it. Personally I think that the "hate" reviews are planted, maybe by a competitor? I got mine at Sams Club. They had the cheapest price I found. If you go to the Hoover stores they are the most expensive there. Target has them at the same price that most other stores have them and they also sell the solution there for the cheapest I have seen ($6.99). The Hoover store sells the solution for the most ($9.99). A lot of my friends and neighbors, who I have shown the machine to, ask me why didn't I get a Roomba Scooba? No one I know has actually bought one but I see from reviews that they do an adequate job and you don't have to push anything around. They've been talked about here in the forums. Maybe something you could also check out if you have a huge home to clean. If you have your heart set of the Hoover Spin Scrub 800 I would say "Go for it!" I don't think you will regret it.

Janiner: Congrats on the new floormate and I agree w Lazygarden's observations. I don't know which one I have, it just says Spin and Scrub on the front. We have had it for about 2 years and I love it, given what it is for and how well it does the difficult task of cleaning tile. We have 1550 square feet of tile (the whole house, including the bedrooms), no pets or kids, and I hate housecleaning, so do as little as possible. But the tile is light, so I still have to do it every 6 weeks or so. The worst is always the kitchen, especially under our restaurant-style thick rubber mat in front of the cooking area. It has lots of holes for things to drop through and can be quite a mess. When we bought the floormate, the sales staff were clear in stating that it was for flooring, but not specifically for grout and that the brushes would only reach the grout if is was very high -close to the height of the tile itself. Our grout is darkish, so it is not much of an issue. Here is a tip for you on a way to pre-clean any really dirty stubborn spots: Go to Sears and pick up a Scumbuster by Black and Decker. This little battery operated hand-held device has rotating scrubbers (and several attachments) that will clean any tile or grout, no matter how bad it is. I love it. For floors, it is still hands and knees (or sit on a low stool or chair, which is what I do). I also use it in the shower, though there is not much to do there, since we don't use bar soap. Back to the floormate, my normal process is to use the stick vac to clean up crumbs and heavier dirt, then the swiffer for dust and to get under things, and then the Scumbuster (only if needed, which is not too often) and lastly the Floormate. While I know the floormate will do dry vac work, I have not found it to be very good at that unless you have a wide open area and not much dirt to get up. I still love this useful device, but am dreaming of the day when we can hire a housecleaning service. We can afford it, but hubby "does not want strangers in the house...." Lynne

Our entire house is 12x12 light colored ceramic tile and I use a Floormate to clean it. I love this piece of equipment and cannot imagine having to go back to the old way of cleaning (vacuum, mop and dry). It does it all, and is easy to use and handle as well. When I bought it, the sales person cautioned that it is designed for cleaning hard flooring, but NOT necessarily grout, unless your grout is high enough so as to be nearly level with the tile. According to her, as long as the grout is no more than a fingernail thickness from the surface of the tile it would get it, otherwise it would not. So my expectations were realistic to begin with. What I like best is how well it cleans the tile and how dry it leaves it. For us there are zero marks or streaks, though this may be floor specific. I can imagine that anyone that has a shiny floor might get streaks no what they use to clean it. I do prefer my stick vac for dry vacuuming, so that is what I use most often, but when the floor needs mopped, I get out the FloorMate. To do the kitchen takes about 15 minutes. The hall about 10, and the MBR another 10. The hardest part is getting all the junk off the floor and out of the way--that takes longer than the cleaning process. I guess the only trouble free way to clean is to hire someone else to do it, but until that day comes, I will remain a satisfied FloorMate customer. Lynne

So, I've been working on this potting bench. It seems I cannot do anything small. Cook. Build. Acquire. Go figure. I'll post pictures when I'm further along. So far, it's 6'2" tall x 7'3" wide and will fit at the end of my porch where it'll also act as a bannister for the 4' drop. I also realized that my 24' raised bed, my little garden bench, and this potting bench are all made of materials I already have. I've spent $6.00 for a bale of hay for the raised bed lasagna garden, but the lumber & screws? All mine. If I paint this stuff, I even have that. Yeah for me! Ye Great Hoarder-ess of Building Materials! It's SO windy today, though, I had to stop. It's a beautiful day, but the wind is blowing me sideways. That led me to my next idea. (I need to build some more raised beds to keep these guys from driving across the entire lawn, but I'm jumping around.) I'm trying to figure out how to make a moon gate between two gardens. I'd need it to have at least a 36" open base to walk through, and like it to be at least 8' tall. At the base, I could actually bury the bottom of something in a circle if leaving it open turned out not to be an option. Now, building it myself precludes stone and brick. Wood would be iffy for me. I have no idea how to work metal. I have it in my head that I could use to lengths of some kind of flexible conduit running side by side, but have no idea if such a thing exists. I'd have to bridge the two circles, but that's not as difficult as finding the right material. Here's my inspiration: Any ideas for me? Also, a2gemini, go to a nursery that does hardscapes, too. As to see their junk pile. Pieces of stuff left over from jobs they (are to lazy to) put away in usually a pile. Some places sell them at regular price, but some places just want the junk out of the way. That's where I jump in! Christina22, love the rug. Soft, soft blue. :) Here is a link that might be useful: A Pinterest search of beautiful examples.