This post has come to life again, so for anyone seeking it out because they have the same problem, I wanted to jump in with some personal experience. After the oak floors in our new-construction house began cupping and buckling (the builder had rushed the build, since he was trying to finish a spec house on the same deadline, but had since decamped to another state due to a sex scandal), we saved for a few years and replaced it with engineered cherry flooring. This probably would have been about the same time as the OP's post, which as of this comment is 13 years old; the manufacturer was a Swedish company called Kährs, and since our local distributor had just started carrying it, there were no red flags in terms of bad reviews or negative customer feedback. That cherry floor looked great--for about ten minutes. EVERYTHING scuffed and scratched it. A puppy just innocently living its life? Scratches galore. Someone dropping anything heavier or sharper than a pillow? A guaranteed ding. A kid running a toy car over it? A tell-tale track of scuffs. Anyone wearing shoes (and I'm not talking stilettos)? Scuffs, scratches, and dents. It was ridiculous, like, we couldn't believe how quickly and easily the floor accumulated damage. Whatever finish was on that cherry, it did absolutely NOTHING to protect against ordinary wear and tear. We tried everything to clean, protect, and rehabilitate that floor. Shoes, even slippers, became forbidden in the house. We had a network of rugs from one end of the house to the next. Every chair not only sat on a rug, it had felt floor protectors and ugly wool socks on its feet. We swiffered like mad. For ten years, all the measures we took were futile, and just ended up causing us added aggravation and frustration. Finally we gave up, realized we were going to have to bite the bullet and install our THIRD hardwood floor in fifteen years, and replaced every square foot of the cherry. This time, we went for a harder wood (hickory), though the major problem with the Kährs had obviously been the finish. We put in a fairly pricey but beautiful hand-scraped wide-plank floor (Baroque Flooring Bavarian XL) and it was FABULOUS--everything the Kährs wasn't. It was gorgeous, it was tough as nails (pets were no problem!), and it was easy to clean. The moral of this story: Sometimes there's just no way around a bad product, except to replace it. The sooner you can afford to do it, the happier you'll be.

Sylviatexas, thank you so much for replying. That story is perfect, fits the situation to a T. Yes, my husband can be a very good authority figure, but is worn out by all of this crap. He really can't/won't be on this little brat's case all the time; but this is a recurring theme on this forum isn't it. Typically the husband will make a 3/4 commitment to what the step-mother wants, and then the other 1/4 is sort of a "guilt over the divorce" type of giving in to the problem child. Trying to keep both parties happy. And, taking him in went against my gut, and I should have listened to my gut. But I was swayed by sentimentality that when my father was a baby his father abandoned him and his mother. And then, when he was about 11 years old his mother became ill and he almost ended up in an orphanage. But his paternal Aunt took him in and he had stayed with her growing up. This 16, almost 17 year old has been a problem for a long time. My husband also gets a little soft and says that the boy needs to be able to have some fun, etc. Having him it earn it back probably won't work because he says he doesn't care, etc. I took away stuff before and it doesn't work, he won't "give in" and change his ways. The 1st summer he was here my husband was ready to put him in foster care. But you can't do that just because you can't handle your kid. We can't afford the brat camps, but that is where he belongs. The little creep is going to be gone from our house for a week, and it will be the best week I've had for a long time. And we actually had him go through an evaluation at a local mental health care facility, but he wasn't "bad enough" they said. I think they and the ins. company were more bothered by the fact that we had only gone to 2-3 counseling sessions at that point. Well, in this part of Pennsylvania there are very few adolescent mental health practioners. So, they are booked up. And, without going into details, I went through this type of hell before with an sibling who acted out, and made an unhappy family even unhappier. Blame the parents?? Or are people just born a certain way??? On top of all of this: I have my own health issues to work on; my mother is in a nursing home and I am the power of attorney dealing with her banking, selling her house, et al from 4 hours away; my job has some stress but at least I have one (and actually I feel competent there); some financial issues here in my own house; etc. So, maybe the "Money is her Guiding Star" bio-mom will let her pocketbook rule her decisions. For the 1.5 years when she had one boy and we had the other, neither bio-parent paid child support. When the older one finished high school, she said she didn't think she'd have to pay us child support. Well, that was part of the deal for taking the younger boy off her hands. Ok, soon after that, the older gets a job and has to pay room and board to her, the $ amount basically same as the child support she was paying us. Now she won't have that $ coming in, so might decide it is worth it to take her younger son back. Can't happen soon enough!!!! So, I am thinking the best way for me to live my life is to have more fun with my friends. The weekends when he is here I will be out at museums, movies, lunch, etc. Well, silver lining: any winsome feelings I had about not having children of my own, ARE GONE BYE BYE. Thanks again to anyone who made to the end of this long vent.

I think there is some level of I don't know..common sense? For example that custom made tile that ends up not being used doesn't go in the garbage bag? Or that you don't throw out 20 perfectly good dimmers or bulbs, just because you used your subcontractor's account to purchase them, and had too many? Or if you take out the old door, and there are two surfaces in front of you that you can lean that door against, one of them being a wall, other- a living bush with flowers-wouldn't it make sense to lean the door against the wall? I can't assume, that's right..obviously operational systems sometimes are very different. Sometimes I can't even imagine things that I can't or can assume.

Thank you all for the suggestions. While I have included some of the zone 4 hardy deer resistant shrubs suggested it seems if the deer don't eat them the rabbits do. Most all are young plants though the Philadelphus and dogwood are over twenty years old and ravaged. As I walk our one mile circle I see few shrubs other than lilacs, burning bush, spirea, and yews. Winter burn is a concern for evergreens and yews. I can't see how a burlap wrapped plant creates winter interest and is its own labor intensive project. i visit the arboretum monthly and am amazed that they don't have more damage. Paid staff and volunteers as well as good fencing I expect. Deer have become more numerous and bolder as development has reduced their habitat in the neighborhood. This was my spring surprise two years ago.