My DH has this. He is no longer able to drive. He is diabetic and went through a period of denial - quit taking his meds, etc. He neglected his eyes and this is the result of that. Had they caught it sooner, he would be able to see better. For now, he gets injections in his eyes and laser eye surgery. He has had several of each since the first of last year. He uses magnifying glasses all the time. We just keep them laying around everywhere. His eyes are both better than when he was first diagnosed. They aren't promising anything, but as long as he keeps having small improvements and they continue the treatment, we are thankful. Bad thing is that we were planning to retire early, but now we can't. I have to continue to work to get health insurance until I am 65. I have a heart condition and he has diabetes and the eye problem. We are both uninsurable for all practical purposes. That is what hurts both of us. We worked so hard saving to retire and having enough to do a lot of traveling. Now - who knows. But, you caught yours early, so you should be in good shape. Just be sure you go to the doctor often to have them checked.

Just wanted to give an update now that we've been in the house for a while. We went ahead and purchased the 1.5" unfinished red oak from a company in FL for an even better price and had it drop shipped to us. We ripped out the lineoleum ourselves and had our installer install, sand and refinish everything to match. You can barely tell where the new floor starts and the old floor ends! We're really happy with it. It's actually a little lighter than the pictures portray. The only downside is that because the house is so old, the floors are pretty creaky! Before: And after:

To the original question - does anyone like builder grade oak cabinets - my answer is no. But that's mainly because the particle board parts of the drawers and carcass usually come apart at some point, like the drawer front that came off in someone's hand. The thread seems to have veered off into a question of whether even solid oak cabinets are liked, and or dated. I love my oak cabinets even though they need to be refinished. They are good quality, custom built though, and I think that makes a difference. I also like painted cabinets, and might even go that route next time. This thread kind of reminds me of something that happened in 1978. We bought our first house that year, and so did some good friends. Both our kitchens had painted cabinets. Mine were brown with yellow doors, which I hated, along with the fact that they were older. I stripped and refinished them and they looked so much better. They were a slab style solid wood though I can't remember what kind now. My friend's cabinets (and house) were newer, white, raised panel with arched top. I thought they were gorgeous, but she thought they were terribly dated since wood was really in then, so she started stripping hers too. That's when she found out that the doors were made of particle board, and stripping ruined two of them. All that to say that painted vs wood comes and goes as we've discussed here before. If you like your cabinets and they are in good shape, keep the wood finished. If not, paint them. Whichever you choose, it will come back if it's not in now, and it will be out if it's not now. And that's probably the same with arched tops, beadboard panels, aprons between cabinets, and so on.

It's always tempting with any plant, not just trees, to buy the biggest one which often is a plant left over from last year. I've made that mistake more than once. The advice is to buy the current years offerings to avoid the root bound problem. Sometimes the older root bound plant will grow and thrive, especially if you loosen the roots, but not always. I bought a couple of large Mediterranean palms in 4 or 5 gal. pots for $10 each once and thought I got a bargain. Inside the pots it was just a mass of roots. I loosened them the best I could although the roots were very stiff, and nursed them along for two or three years and the darn things just sulked and never would grow. Oh well, we learn from our mistakes.