Pardon me Engima, but seeing as how zoysia is considered a southern grass, what made you think it would do well in southern Pennsylvania. I am aware that your area might be considered a "transitional" zone....meaning areas across the country from the coast westward enclosing the states of W.Va, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee.....that area, can use a warm season and/or a cool season type grass, even combining them where thought viable. But, being a warm-season grass, what made you think zoysia would be the grass for you. The attributes of that grass aside, like how it is able to stand up to drought, that ability would only apply if your area of Pa did not receive adequate rainfall. I don't think that applies. So why zoysia. You quoted three varieties of Kentucky Bluegrass. Was this recommended by someone in the know. My own thinking on what makes a good grass (and a good lawn) is to plant for whatever nature throws at you in the area you reside. In northern zones thus, a combo of K.B., with added fescue and ryegrass is considered a good idea. Each gives its best when situations arrive. Fescue is good for shade, kentucky blue for sun, ryegrass for standing up to rough treatment such as heavy traffic. To depend on one type of grass has its own set of rules. If something that goes against the K.B.'s happens, then you are 'up the creek' sort of. Instead of believing tha Lowes or Home Depot does not stock good quality grasses, why not speak to a nurseryman about what grasses do well for a home's lawn in your vicinity. Then compare what they have and whether you can buy that particular blend (or not a blend) in the other stores. Usually, one person has a bad experience with what has been bought at the box store, and then makes a most definite opinion that the stores only stock poor grades of grasses. Stores don't usually go out of their way to sell to patrons that which will not invite them back again. Stores deal with suppliers....the same as how some nurseries do. Grass, for the most part, depends on how it is taken care of. There are, however, good quality seeds as well as poor ones. The quick grasses do not usually stand up well to heat of summer or drought that happens irregularly. The good quality grasses can take the heat of the kitchen and bounce back when conditions get better. The other stuff dies quickly. So whatever grass you do buy, buy the best you can afford. Grass can be encouraged to be lusher and thereby stand up to adversity when it happens. But grass will not grow if the soil does not welcome it. So enrich your soil, make the grass want to stick around. Every fall, put a 1/2" - 1" layer of compost or good topsoil over the lawn. Do an overseeding, whether you believe the lawn needs it or not. The more lush you make the lawn, the better it can put up with what can attack it...including grubs. But grubs pretty soon will be going south (deeper) for the winter. The time to take up with them is in the spring when the larvae from this season's population come up for air. In the spring, put a layer 1/2" - 1" of compost (or good topsoil) over the lawn and let it grow up through it. Do this early, as soon as the frost has left the ground. The fall/spring ritual of putting down this layer of topsoil should be considered one of the things to do EVERY YEAR. Winter takes a lot out a lawn..so whatever you can do to enrich the soil the better your lawn will grow. Fertilize regularly---but not too often. Fertilizer can feed the soil and what grows in it.....but do it too much and it will cause short stubby roots, over nitrogenize and otherwise cause poor growth instead of pushing it. It does appear you have a job to do to change over your zoysia to something else....and you may be not making a good choice of change. I'm curious what your neighbors have done --is everybody in your neighborhood growing zoysia and what is their thinking of it. Reading about it, it does appear it has a lot going for it....and a lot not going for it. Generally it is for more southern areas....not particularly suited for where the snow flies.

I have pine floors but they were way too much work! I loved the idea of wood floors at first but after having to sweep several times a day it got old fast. I wound up putting textured carpet in my office (the mauve room with the styrofoam ceiling) and the living room. My office looked like this before the mauve walls and with the plywood ceiling The room with the beadboard ceiling is the one I was describing above with the vinyl tiles that look like ceramic. It is not the kind that is in Lowes or HD though. these are a beige tile with a dark brown edge. It looks like ceramic tile. I got it from Habitat restore. It was not preglued. I have not been able to find it in any stores. Here is a photo of it. I took this photo because when we first put the tiles down we used the wrong glue and it seep out all the cracks. we had to use a different glue. the tiles look so much better in real life. I think I am the only person who has used real color paint on their paneling! In the first photo above I had them put one of the tiles on the machine to make that color. it came out a plain beige very similar to the color that was already there except I changed it from flat to sating finish In my livingroom I have this color, white ceiling tiles (the kind often used in dropped ceiling) it will be replaced soon and now carpet on this floor My kitchen paneling is blue but I think I am going to repaint it a nice gold color All of my walls looked like this before painting. it was so dark and drab!! I painted the floors like this (floor paint and a few coats of poly) can you tell I am a little off the beaten path? LOL!

thanks all. --probably thought I'd gone away, taking so long to answer. It just seems one "challenge" follows another. The time goes by and you try to hold things together or repair things including your body and sometimes, things just keep coming. Hopefully, I'm forgive for being long time in answering. It's been in & out of docs. for me and tonight, wife goes to hospital. I managed to get a small, very small, strip piece of the paneling off, intact. I used a blow dryer to heat it. The adhesive cement is very, very strong. the blow dryer took a long time to heat the wood--I thought it was going to scorch , before the paneling came loose, but I finally got it. That 4"x4' section took over an hour of work! There does seem to be though a magic temperature, if I can get up to it, the adhesive softens enough to let me hammer a putty knife between it and the wood, other wise--no go. the putty knife won't cut it and the piano wire I tried to use, broke. I hoped that was the piece that would give me access to what I needed to work on, but no. I'll have to remove at least, maybe two, of the full 4x8 sheets. If I destroy this Walnut, there will be no way to replace it. And I do not want to have to figure out some other way to refinish the basement--I guess I could glue sheet rock to the walls, if I glue enough shims in first. I just hope I can get the panels down. You'd think that 30+ year old glue after being so old and going through freezes and thaws would be brittle and give way, but it sure doesn't. Probably the easiest way is to pry the furring strips from the walls and try to put them back up? Because of the unevenness of the concrete walls the strips are glued on both horizontal and vertical. And to get them off, I'll have to take down the entire wall! -- ouch! Is that the only way? I did such a great job putting this stuff up, I can't even see the finishing nails I used to make certain the panels stayed attached to the strips while the glue set. Then of course, I dabbed a bit of paint, the same color of the dark, vertical seams they are in, on the nail head. they are virtually invisible. To find them, I hope a magnet will work. If I pull off the furring strips, they won't be a problem. If I try to take off the paneling, I'm not certain if I have enough room to drive them through the panels before they hit the concrete. What a job. In removing the one little piece of paneling, I learned that I'm going to have to pull an entire corner of the ceiling tile down, as well. It just gets worse and worse...or maybe I should look at it as an exciting challenge? Let's see if I can do it? --yeah, right :( Instead of using a hair-dryer to try to heat the wood, what about trying an electric iron? Think I could do that without scorching the paneling? If so, how high of heat would you set it to and what would be good to put between the bottom of the hot iron and the paneling? --I don't think laying an iron, directly on the walnut, would be very good for it. Or should I just give up and try to separate the furring strips from the wall, leaving the paneling attached. --What a nightmare it was putting those up--absolutely nothing was plumb, level. It took hours and hours to get them level and plumb. Maybe there's an expert way to get these down--it'll take at least 4 people to take a wall all in one piece, especially to not cause damage to any of the panels. Then, how do I get it back up? Is it time to throw the walnut away and put up sheet rock? Bob

You know when I was growing up we had a dining room with one door on one side of a wall. It was enough. I love having a dining room but I also love to entertain and I like to eat in the dining room and then "retire" to the sitting room, lol! Call me crazy! Traffic flow isn't much of a problem if the rooms are next to each other. I once had a house with a hallway between the kitchen and the living/dining room area. That was a traffic problem because the kitchen was tiny and if I had to go in there, I disappeared from sight and sound of my guests and had to leave them hanging. Got better when SO moved in and could stay with them while I got stuff from the kitchen. I would be more concerned about the flow between where the food gets cooked and the dining room than between a sitting/movie room and a dining room. On the flip side, if you want to open it up, get someone good and have them save and re-use the wood that gets taken out in some creative way for the new doors. Can be done. Pocket doors rock. I love wood, and such fine stuff as you have is becoming rare. That's why the trend is to paint, so no one knows the difference between fine stuff and cheap stuff. Painted, it all looks the same.