Maybe AlÂs squirrels have enough nuts to eat and thatÂs why they donÂt bother his tulips. The first year I planted them I soaked them in red pepper dip and they did not dig them up. They bloomed well but I had to keep going out the spray the blooms. The second year they dug up and ate or nipped almost all of the bulbs, despite the red pepper dip (not just tulips, plenty of other bulbs, puschkinia, every last crocus out of hundreds). ItÂs like they suddenly discovered I had tulips/bulbs and were now watching me. The third year I planted little alliums in every hole with the tulips, plus sprayed the bulbs in the hole with Tabasco spray. They dug them up, tossed the alliums aside, and ate the tulips. The fourth year I ordered tulips on sale late. I kept stalling for a spot of better weather to plant them, and it never came. It was mid December and freezing cold before I planted them. There didnÂt seem to be any squirrels around, maybe because it was so cold, they were all tunneled in somewhere. I did a lousy job of planting because I just wanted to get inside. I camouflaged the holes with dead leaves. None of those were dug up. Last year I was planting crocus, anemones, and species tulips in mid November. I saw the squirrels watching me and knew I was in trouble. I planted some one day and the next morning saw the digging and knew they were gone. The next ones I planted in clusters (even though that was not the arrangement I wanted for them) and put a big 1 foot landscaping stone over each cluster. The next morning I could see from the digging around each stone how hard they had tried, also how far they would tunnel under each before giving up. I planted all the rest of the bulbs that way. But the next spring only the tulips came up. I think the crocus and anemones rotted under the stones, I should have removed them once it got really cold like January; or after the squirrels had time to forget. I have not bought any tulips this year, though I did buy one package of crocus. IÂm going to try something that has been suggested here. I bought a roll of green hardware cloth, mesh maybe one half inch. I will cover each cluster with this, edges bent down to lock it into the soil. IÂm going to see if this works, and how much trouble it is, before I try more of the things they find tastiest. I bought things I know they donÂt eat, lots of daffodils and alliums. I still have to go out from the first tulip buds and spray with repellent. I don't have deer but the rabbits eat the flowers too. So I would try either one: plant so late that they arenÂt around, or cage/cover your bulbs with wire. DonÂt spend a lot until you know which will work for the level of determination found in the squirrels in your yard.

"Can one stain 'New' Red Oak to match 'Old' Red Oak?" This is tuff to do. When we do a repair in an old Vancouver Home I often use some Shellac first and then top coat with Polyurethane. The shellac gives me the aged look or yellowing and the two seam to work well together. Some times we tint the top coat a little. Judgement calls since sunlight and time will yellow the top coat so making it look right now might make it look wrong in a year.....

Absolutely no fake wood next to real wood. You have two choices here. Either match the original flooring so it's continuous throughout, or go with a totally different floor. If you are determined to have vinyl, I'd go with a large format vinyl slate tile.

It depends on your color of stain. We bought a house w/ dark stained floors and couldn't tell that they were mixed red and white oak. We wanted light floors so we had to rip out and replace the parts that were red. We ended up with an order of red by mistake so we used it in another room that has two steps down (thinking it might not be as noticeable). It is ok, but i can tell the difference.