So funny. I have to add some. When you fill your pots and/or pot your plants behind your car in the parking lot because you don't want to have to carry whole bags of potting soil up stairs. When you park in a sunny parking spot just so you can claim the rest of the space for your plants for the afternoon. When you use a tarp under your planting/potting activities so the neighbors below you don't have potting soil all over their patio. You store plants under the staircase so you can put them out in the sun without having to carry them up and down stairs. You have counted carrying 5 gallon buckets up and down stairs as your workout for the day. You have stolen every plastic folding table in the house to give plants access to better sun. You have hit your downstairs neighbor dumping water out of a drain pan. Your balcony is now secluded and enclosed almost entirely with plants, which you use not only as a pleasant place to sit, but also as a hidden vantage point from which to spy on the goings on in your remote part of the complex that has recently been hit with car break-ins and has been attracting all kinds of shady people lately. You have had conversations with multiple people through your tomatoes and snow peas about why they need to park in the guest spots rather than taking the spots of the people who actually live here. You interrupt your gardening to do any of the following: write down a license plate number, ask people if they live here/what their business is, tell the teenager(s) from other apt complexes who park in the corner to get high to get out, tell the teenager(s) from other complexes who are "just hanging" in your neighbor's bushes to get out, tell that shady guy to clean up that big mess of wires and junk that he left in the middle of the parking lot when his car caught on fire last week, write progressively more angry and sarcastic notes explaining what is and is not a parking space, talk with maintenance men, contractors, or movers who are working on other units about your plants, or if you have ever said something along the lines of "I don't care if you get high/kill each other/worship satan here as long as you don't litter, make noise, or touch my plants." You have had to explain to a dozen drunk partiers from downstairs why you are sitting under the staircase at midnight wearing a headlamp so you can squish blackflies. You have ever hidden behind the plants on your balcony to avoid saying hi to the neighbors because you are grungy, in a horrible mood, not wearing a bra, hate everybody today, etc. Your plants compete with the cats for sunny windowsills. With respect to plant "requirements," the "I'll do the best I can" attitude becomes a "you're not the boss of me, plant" attitude. You have grown tomatoes in the shade and greens in the summer and you are not. apologizing. for. it. Because your garden is gangsta and it doesn't give a $%&*. And I have to second the using kitchen utensils in the garden thing. Just the other day I decided that I shouldn't be using my wusthof kitchen shears out there because I an't afford to replace them. Also seconding searching the forums for that one person who says it's okay to grow tomatoes in part shade. lol And I have to put this in there for any other knitters. You know you are a city knitter when your neighbor's guests park their bicycles on the lace shawl that you have blocking.

I had decided a while back on the BR-111 Brazilian Cherry Triangulo Engineered wood and got a good price from a local store that was close to an Internet Price except I have to pay sales tax. The installers they sent over here gave me a good price also and I was read to buy everything from the store until the store owner told me the installers changed their mind and instead of moving the heavy cabinets a little bit away from the floor and pulling up sections of the carpet (is on tackles on the edges but the pad and carpet are not glued down over the slab) and gluing down the floor and moving the heavy 42" wide 5 drawer Hon putty cabinets back on top, they want everything out of the two room home office (dining room and living room) and everything out of the family room (very easy to do since I have light furniture in there and not much but a sofa, recliner, small TV stand, TV, and end tables and coffee table that are very light weight glass with cherry legs). Then they have to seal the floor and I have to buy an expensive sealer and wait a day to put everything back. So the stress of emptying four 5-Drawer 42" wide Hon heavy putty cabinets, two 4-drawer 42" wide putty cabinets, five 2-drawer 30" wide Hon putty file cabinets, my 72" wide Cherry Credenza, my big 72" wide cherry desk, my small computer cherry wood desk that is not attached, the two roll out drawers (desk is easy to move since I paid more to have the pieces that are not attached), two supply cabinets in a putty color, has me stressed out. I had thought I could empty the cabinets but not move the furniture and then replace everything at once when the cabinets are moved back. If I need to move everything out of here, I have a garage and a backyard with a patio to put the furniture on. So I had other estimates when I just wanted the job done to see what should be done about my slab floor and a few others want to move everything out of here also but do one room at a time and glue down the floor with no sealer. One installer wants me to rent a POD to put all my furniture in until the job is done and that is my responsibility to move it in and out of the home. Another installer wants to float the floor and had me go to his wholesaler to like other woods telling me he feels I should go with a 5" wide oak or pecan natural wood so one day when I move my furniture I do not have patches of light spaces but agrees that the Brazilian Cherry looked wonderful in my home office an my family room with the beige furniture and glass tables with putty legs. The natural oak or maple clashes with the tile I chose and the file cabinets. I need a little bit darker. Right now I have a beige rug that is darker than the natural wood and it is hard to keep clean. I actually like the Auburn Maple but everyone tells me it is too boring. The other installer wants to float a laminate floor and tried steering me back to the Bruce Park Avenue Makore or Pradoo Laminate I was looking at. I wonder how sturdy this will be with all the furniture on top of the floor? Then the installers at the store came back to me and want me to buy the more expensive floating Mirage Lock floor from the local store they work with (Mirage Lock comes in only maple or oak ... now the store's price is a lot more than the Internet price versus the other product was a good price) or the Mullican floating floor (sliced cut Brazilian Cherry rather than the sawn face cut of the BR-111 or the Hartco Valenza collection I was looking at) that I can get much cheaper on line but prefer to buy from a local dealer if I get a reasonable price. They want to float the floor and say they can move the furniture a little at a time their old way and save me in installation despite the extra cost of the materials. Hence, I had a tile guy here today and the other day for estimates. I want the damage out of the foyer areas NOW. It has been too long. I have engineered Bruce Oak very thin veneer glued down there that got damaged from the water leak from my central air conditioner/heating system failing a few months ago. The wood floor is discolored, warped and has buckled up. I was able to pull up a piece of this 18.5 year old floor that came up in veneered pieces of and the cement floor looked dry to me. So if I do Porcelain tile (going with Lowe's Rialto Beige 5 Rating tile) in the middle foyer by the utility room, garage, coat closet and bathroom in between the two home office rooms and in the front foyer, I can get rid of one decision. :) I can choose a porcelain tile in the kitchen that will be easy to install since the linoleum floor can easily be pulled up. Then the three rooms downstairs can have the 18.5 year old light beige always dirty carpet (I have to steam clean often and this water damage was the last straw for me despite how great the beige carpet looks in my home when it is clean) taken out and I can put the engineered hardwood floors there or the laminate. I have little dogs that I want to put puppy pads in trays down in the middle foyer when I am not home so I prefer a floor water proof there after seeing what water can do to a wood floor. OK, this is long but I am stressed that the project is not getting done since everyone is trying to talk me out of the Brazilian Cherry floors telling me I will regret the decision if I move. I am open to anything that will work at this point. I am open to suggestions. I even thought the Amendoim samples looked nice with my furniture but worry if it will be too knotty since I can't see a floor in person. So should I float the floor with heavy furniture on top of it? Should I choose an easier locking floor? Would laminate look cheap in my professional home office that has clients visiting? Would it be best to seal the floor that I really feel is dry despite my townhouse being built on the wetlands since the glued down foyer engineered Bruce hardwood floors never came up in 18 years? I just want this job done ASAP and I am tired of not knowing what to do. Wish you lived near me since you seem to have knowledge and can do both the tile and hardwood/laminate flooring for me. Sorry this is so long but I am trying to explain since maybe you can steer me in the right direction on how to handle my project to get this over with already.

nannygoat18 - The results are in. Our Eskie is at the correct hypothyroid dose! Yikes. He will be retested again in 6 months. The crying is just so hard. Thanks for your tips on snacks for him. I am hesitant to give him anything frozen since he swallows everything whole - and of course there is the issue of the RIP Kong... He does like carrots but I slice pieces for him due to the potential choking hazard of some of the baby carrots (I once saw a dog choke on a baby carrot, but thankfully the dog did survive). We have been giving him lettuce and green beans a lot. His preference is arugula (he is a fancy dog) but will eat head lettuce - he likes the crunchy pieces. It is getting increasingly hard to find head lettuce that is fit to buy in Ontario - a lot of very brown lettuce out there. His green beans are cooked and then chopped small and handed out like kibble. He also gets pieces of his Fromm kibble as snacks. Then there are his Nuzzles (he likes duck and cherry) and his Thinkers - he gets half a day and his half a dental cookie smeared with CET toothpaste. He knows exactly when he gets each. Unfortunately he tried to eat the toothbrush when I tried brushing his teeth and he is inclined to develop tartar so we have had a few dentals. He lives such a hard life! Being deaf has made things more difficult for him. I did have him checked out by the vet though just in case he did have an ear infection. But no, he is deaf. Good thing I taught him some hand signals as a pup and that several years ago we had a deaf white cat, so we have had some experience in dealing with this issue. His sense of smell is fabulous though. Our vet told us that losing sense of smell is a big thing so he has that going for him. He is worth it though. I hope that Kirby is doing well and enjoying that bitter apple.

I'm wondering if the Fresh Oak might be a bit yellow with your cabinets and counters. For what it's worth, we have the LifeProof Shadow Hickory in a walk-in pantry/ mud room/ utility room that we just added, and we love it. It's more of a medium dark, than super dark, and definitely reads as a very neutral brown, not overly yellow or red. Our cabinets are SW Illusive Green, which is a greenish gray. Looks like they're tonally similar to your cabinets. Here are a few pics, if this helps. (Obviously, these were taken during construction, so ignore the lack of trim work, tile, counter, etc!) Note that this room has no windows, just bright white LED lighting. I'd be happy to post more pics of the finished room tomorrow, if they might help you. Good luck!