marg, please don't take my comments to be an endorsement of laser levels for the types of work needed for landscape design. Nor do I want to discourage it either. Gee, marcinde, I thought I was close to the end. Now I need to tell folks how you use the rod, why it can work with some equipment and not with other gear, and the possible impact to accuracy. I have spent some time here talking about issues of precision. Yet landscaping has few places where precision has an impact on the project. Seldom will it matter if the elevation is in error of 0.1 ft. But if you aspire to be involved with upscale projects or commercial properties, you are going to be working with engineers and architects. You might want to understand the standands of precision they use. Look at it like this ... sometimes you may be the first one the client hires. If it developes that the client wants a feature that requires an engineer or architect, and there is one you have worked well with before, that is a guy you will recommend. The same thing applies if they are the first one hired. Learn how to make your work product compatible to theirs. There are good engineers and architects and some that precision will be wasted on. The latter tend to have projects full of change orders, cost overruns, and enough blame to spread around. This is a subject that deserves its own thread. Earlier I said I was leaving some things out. The method I think marcinde uses to make high rods shots easy was one of them. Everyone has heard the old saying "Don't change horses in the middle of the stream." There is an old rule of surveying that says don't change rods in the middle of taking levels. What marcinde suggests violates that rule, but with care you can get away with doing it. It is novel that you can use a saw to cut a half foot off the bottom of a level rod and still use it. If ALL of the shots are made with the same cut off rod there will be no impact to the precision of the work. Most tall rods are made in sections that telescope into one another. As each section is raised there is a locking feature that keeps the face rule a continuation of the one below it. If all shots are taken to this face rule it will not mater if the zero point of the scale is not at the exact bottom of the rod. On the backside of the rod is another rule. It is upside down beginning at the second rod segment and is read relative to the first segment. The rule is designed to indicate the total height the rod is extended. Making some shots to the face rule and other shots using the backside is the same as using different rods. Most new rods will have a close compatabilty of the two faces causing only small errors in the work. If the plastic foot of the rod becomes worn or lost the error increases. Any error from this source is systematic and builds up with each new location of the base unit. The basic use of the bachside rule is done in the following way. The receiver is moved to the very top of the rod so that the reading point on the bracket aligns with the top surface. There are a multitude of different brackets made for receivers and rods. It may not be possible to lock the receiver at the top with some brackets. Keep in mind if the bracket comes loose and the receiver falls on to pavement you will probably be buying a new one. To make a high shot, the lock is disengaged between the first and second rod segments and the second one is allowed to telescope into the first until the the reciever is on beam. The backside rule is read and subtracted from the HI in the usual way to get the elevation. It is a fast easy way to make high rod shots. Below is a photo of the backside with the rod lowered in making a shot. The reading is 14.32 I would suggest that before using this method that one check for errors. Set the base unit up on a slope and select a downhill object to shoot where the beam will be high up on the rod. Set the receiver to fine precision. Use the backside rule proceedure first and make the backside reading. Then raise all the rod sections to a locked position and set the receiver using the face rule at the same value as the backside reading. When you stand the rod back on the mark the receiver should be on beam.

I probably wouldn't do red in there, but that's mostly because I just painted out the red kitchen, the berry red master bath, and the terra cotta hall bath in my own home. I'm into more grayed shades right now. I just used Behr Rope in my hall bath. It's kind of a grayed green but also reads blue where I put it in a bedroom. I'm doing Ben Moore Ashwood in my Master bedroom. I love it on the blog "For The Love of a House" in her living room and reading room. It's much paler than I usually like, but I'm in a paler frame of mind these days, especially when a not-in-your-face color is on the walls and windows and the furniture is darker or stands out more. I love your home, your contemporary furniture and the other colors you have chosen. You guys have great taste and will find something that works well in your living spaces. I'm not a huge fan of contemporary, but in your home, you've done it very well! Beautiful. Red Here is a link that might be useful: Paint colors I'm loving right now...

Find unfinished hardwood and have it stained to match. Should come in around $18/linear foot = all said and done. That's if you go to a door and moulding shop with a sample of your floor and they CUSTOM match the colour for you. Give them two weeks, pay them and then take home your item. A flooring professional can source this for you (same as above) or you can find a stain that is "close enough" and do it yourself with HD prefab mouldings/trim, etc. The installation instructions clearly indicate: T-mouldings required through all doorways. "In field" expansion gaps are required for: Runs greater than 12m (36ft) across the LONG edge of the plank Runs greater than 8m (24ft) across the SHORT edge of the plank https://d18178273alp6b.cloudfront.net/production/bdsellerassets/laminate-flooring/toklo-by-swiss-krono/pdf/toklo-swiss-krono-installation-instructions.pdf With a purchase of 1000sf, I'm going to guess you will need T-mouldings and some quarter round for the fireplace. For stains: try looking at Ebony, Jacobean or dark walnut. If in doubt, go a snick darker...which is why the Ebony appeals to me. Use white oak to get the cleanest stain and a clear coat so that you do NOT add orange to the colour. Good luck. Count up your doorways (3ft each) and see how much quarter round you have. You can DIY this pretty easy for just a little bit more money. This happens all the time...that's why Home Depot has an entire back wall filled with moulding - unfinished and waiting for stain.

The stairs should be considered part of the 'public' areas. That means they should match/compliment the downstairs area (the place with the entrance, the living/dining space, etc) where guests come in and move around. Traditionally 'upstairs' would mean private space such as bedrooms. The upstairs areas are welcome to have different flooring from downstairs. That's not a problem. You are welcome to work with treads that are 2-3 steps darker than your downstairs flooring and then paint the risers. This is a very handsome look that will show off both the stairs and the down stairs flooring. If you are lucky, you will be able to pick a stain/finish that is complimentary to BOTH floor colours. Of course, a stairway that has been designed for carpet has a different set up than one designed for rigid flooring. You will need to be careful with how the finishing carpenter finishes the stairs.