Harborrose, I understand you completely. Many times in my gardening life I came across roses which did nothing to my soul. Eventually I made a decision to grow only roses that really cause me at certain momeents to catch my breath. I don't expect them to be in constant bloom, but there should be a time (can be as brief as one day in a whole season) when you look at a rose plant or single bloom and feel - WOW. There are other roses that can bloom and bloom and be healthy , but they never make you feel speachless and weak in your knees, even though they do provide reliable color in the garden. I prefer to grow roses from the first category. This is the reason why I have so many once bloomers. WOW factor with ramblers, albas, gallicas, early oriental yellows is basically garanteeed to you in this case. I also noticed that roses with "flat" color are not touching me the same way as roses with more complex color shades . Sexy Rexy is one of these "flat" roses. I gave it away as soon as I saw first blooms. Olga

I have an 1890's that someone had glued 1970's shag carpet to oak hardwood floors. Also had a maple hardwood floor in the kitchen with several layers of linoleum glued down with the black adhesive. After trying sanding, adhesive remover, paint stripper and scraping someone told me the solution that does work! It will sound counterintuitive but you mix a strong solution of TSP cleaner in a bucket of hot water. Then mop this solution onto the floor keeping it wet for 40 min or so. The TSP solution will turn the glue to mud which can be easily scraped off. When nothing else worked, this took care of the problem. If you leave the oak flooring wet too long, it can warp, but I used this method in 3 rooms and then was able to sand and finish and they turned out beautiful. The maple floor cleaned up beautifully as well! Attempting to sand the glue mess off the floor will fill up sandpaper sheets almost immediately - the TSP method works!!

And one more bit of information (sigh...'cause there isn't enough on this thread already - poor thing). Finishes like to have new coats added rather quickly. If a few days or a few weeks have expired between coats, then a HEAVY abrasion+tack cloth (as if getting ready to START the process) is required. When a coat of finish is "fresh" (less than 24 hours old) it has TREMENDOUS chemical grab. It may not FEEL sticky or tacky but the CHEMICALS will bond to one another REALLY REALLY WELL. That's why it is BETTER to get more coats down BEFORE the 24 hours has expired. For a job like this, it would have been ideal to have 1st coat done....then 8-20 hours LATER the second coat....and then 8-20 hours later the THIRD coat down. And ONLY IF a 4th coat were needed would you wait a little bit longer than 24 hours....but you would still want to get it down sooner rather than later. If you wait more than 24 hours then the sanding must be quite aggressive. Why? Because you need to produce a MECHANICAL bond (heavy scratches in the fresh finish = greater surface area = more grab) because the CHEMICAL BOND (fresh chemical laid over fresh chemical) is GONE. As for "high traffic areas" - we would consider a MALL ENTRANCE to be a "high traffic area". It is very difficult to find high traffic areas in a home. But Minwax is the lowest of the low; the cheapest of the cheap so 4 coats in a kitchen would be fine. I have a distinct feeling there are more issues than just the top coat having bubbles in it. I really think there are going to be adhesion issues (two coats of stain is only the first of many concerns). Then the long time between coats. And then the lack of proper sanding between coats (as G&S mentioned, the hand sand between coats isn't going to be enough if there were days between coats and not hours). All scream out "Adhesion Failure" in the near future (could take 6 months....could take 2 years). I would HIGHLY recommend you bring in a professional to give this thing a HEAVY screening/moderate sanding. Remove any of the loose or poorly bonded polyurethane (I would expect 2 of the 4 coats to come off with this screening) and then have the PROFESSIONALS APPLY the final coat of Minwax with the proper tools (T-bar is better than lambs wool and has less waste). This way you will be assured the coats are properly bonded. Anything that is loose will scrape right off. Once it is gone, it cannot cause adhesion failure in the future. Hopefully the two coats of stain at the very bottom of this job won't give you issues. Let's hope.

You've got some nice wood pieces. Did your father make most all of them? Regarding the paint color. I always feel paint color should be decided once everything is selected. I'm guessing that the Builder has a couple of paint selections that were chosen to go with the finishes that are being offered so if I were you at this point I would make notes as you are doing but wait to see what you select for the other finishes and then see if the Builder's paint colors will work for you. If none of them do, at that point you can determine if you are going to "up-grade" (he may not even offer the opportunity for you to stray from the color choices) or just paint the walls a non-descriptive color and have them painted later with your own painter. When is your meeting at the Design Center?