Good points--I had thought of filling the master with sand but there's no reason not to use clay and as you said, it will save a lot of grief. Live and learn. I will have the same issues packing the base with mud that you do with the nun. Hair would solve the problem but I think the aesthetic on both of them would be sacrificed. I love the clean lines of your nun--her headdress is what makes her so arresting. My head was looking pretty bald and has big ears, hence the bead headdress (I may rework some of that). I didn't want to compete with the "hair" that will be growing out of the top of her head. I'm sure I'll sing a different tune when I'm trying to pack the mold through the neck. Upside-down will probably be the only way. You've given me a lot of food for thought--thanks for sharing your expertise. Deb

Just to add another note. While putting wax on this floor may give a desired result in the short time. As Glennfc pointed refinishing is such a headache not to mention could cost you more to have it removed. Now even if you didnt have it refinished and just had the wax. The upkeep is not worth the hassle. In a few short months the wax will dull and require buffing. Which means clearing out furniture. Then eventually you will have to add another coat of wax. And to do so properly will be removing the old wax. (Have you ever done that? It sucks) Cleaning is a choir. There is a reason many many many smart chemists have developed our current urethanes to avoid the drawbacks of waxing wood floors.

You go girl! My experience is that the first time I do a project I don't really save any money because I use it to buy the tools I need & it takes longer while I learn on the job. But on the next similar project I save a bunch. If you find a contractor that acts mad that you tried to do some work yourself -- then you shouldn't hire that contractor. He'll just try to steamroll you through the whole project. Many contractors will help you learn from their work. You can almost always negotiate to do the demo and clean up work to save some money. Watching home improvement shows on tv can help too - but now you can find many videos on YouTube that show you how to do activities. Paneling: You might be able to cut the paneling off at the edge of the cabinets and then use some wood trim to hide the paneling behind the cabinets. This would save the work of removing the cabinets. Good luck. You'll get better with each project. p.s. I second the idea of doing some tile projects. Very rewarding & you'll save a bunch of money.

Thanks for all of these thoughts. Truly. After trying to look at his "completion" list and having knots in my stomach all night thinking about talking to him the next day, we had a very brief and tense discussion this morning. He said he would entertain the cost of doing the Johnson door kit, but his labor to install would be at my cost. I would also have to buy the kit and figure out how it would work in our situation, space wise. And I would still have to pay him for the framing he did. I told him I would think about it, and then called Johnson to see which kit would work. Jeffrey R. Grenz is right, there is a 6 week lead time now. But that's not the worst part. The guy on the phone recommended using the 2000 series, and said for a 9' ceiling, the door can't be 104". The tallest it can be is 101.25". Their header and track combined is 6.75" tall. He said we'd have to cut 2.75" off the door, and the door company had originally said they don't recommend cutting more than 1.5" off the bottom of the door. I don't know if we can also cut 1.25" off the top to make up the difference. AND our crown is only 3.75". We would have needed 6.75" crown to make this work. I guess the cabinet guy could add trim below the crown at the door opening. Hopefully that won't look weird. In any case, I had a call for work so couldn't ask questions about the taller 1500 series and if that header is also huge. I'll have to call back later to find out. Maybe we can just use their track system, attach it to the ceiling joist (which is what I think he has done) and put up the steel studs for rigidity, but it seems from what Bruce says, the structure is really in the header. I don't know what to do. All of this could have been avoided if our contractor had given this any real thought before all of this started. And he had almost 2 months! He gave us a bunch of wrong information (how wide the wall would be, how tall the door should be). In fact, he had told me to order the door taller to be on the safe side, because he could always shave it down but not make it taller. Ugh. It's so overwhelming when you're trying to figure out things in an area in which you have no knowledge, and your "expert" (ie. our contractor) is basically useless or absolves himself of any responsibility. Which is why we are so grateful for this tremendous community, or else we would be truly lost.