well, Zyperiris, heheh I think I was definitely "wearing my brains" on backwards; I can't believe I missed out on that important descriptor-- prehistoric and wild and rough! I never thought of a bird being wild and rough except for a parrot that doesn't get enough attention from its owner, lol! So that descriptor should have caught my eye. I think I just saw the first 2 responses and jumped to the gun with mine, ridiculous me! Anyway, I am hoping one of these days we'll be able to enjoy a photo of your Pileated woodpeckers and your wood beaver! But again, it's so difficult to catch a real-live photo of wildlife and who cares about the photo compared to just the joy of seeing the real thing in person! You must have some really tall massive trees on your property. I would imagine one would need those kinds of trees to attract those woodpeckers. Keep us updated when you! get the chance to see these amazing birds! am crossing my fingers you'll get to see one soon, soon, soon!

To follow up on the sequence of events since my original post . . . Costco agreed to replace the second NXR range (including the cost of the switch out). Even though this saga does not end well, Costco has a customer for life because they went out of their way to make things right with a range that was nothing but wrong. The third range arrived last week. The delivery guy was in the process of packing up the range with the chipped enamel as my contractor installed the new range. I am so glad he was able to be here at that exact time, because once it was all hooked up, all 4 ignitors would not stop clicking, even when the knobs were in the OFF position. We turned it on and off several times, unhooked and hooked back up the gas, did what the troubleshooting manual suggested, and tried calling DURO but could not get them on the phone bc of the time difference. After exhausting all of our ideas on how to remedy the ignitor situation, I threw up my hands and refused the range. The second range did not not present with this issue, and my contractor had not ever dealt with this issue on any installs before, so I did not feel confident in keeping the range. Luckily, the delivery guy was still here, so he packed up the third NXR and took it off with the second one. I came to the conclusion that even though we wanted the NXR to work out so badly, it was not meant to be for us. 0 for 3 is a strike out. Costco offerred to ship and install a fourth NXR, and we are grateful for their generosity, but refused and got a refund. We promptly purchased a GE Cafe gas range. It arrived quickly, installed easily, and is working perfectly so far. Athough it was 1K more and is not nearly as sharp looking as the NXR, in the end, I think it worth our peace of mind to go with something more ubiquitous. To all those NXR owners out there who have nothing but praise to heap on your range, I am envious. I really wish I could have been among your ranks.

Hmmmmmm that might be a bit light to take off varnish but I really dont know I have only used the safe strip twp product, with an oxalic wash. Now days I use the Ken's stuff, I am thinking he might have some product to get the varnish off. It was a bad deal to use that on Redwood, really stupid but we all do stupid every so often, thing is even with a strong stripper done right its going to fuzz up the redwood a little. J

Painting a deck is a bad idea to begin with. You can either flake off the chips and paint over them.Of course it will just chip out again. Or you can sand the whole thing down to bare wood and put a quality out door finish on. J.