Our new KitchenAid (December 09) died after 2 uses. A new pump awaits installation tomorrow morning. Our new (floor model) Thermador Oven (ME301) beeped an error code 8 hrs after installation. After pressing various "buttons" on the glass panel, the 'explanation' was revealed: "call cust. svs" -- I wonder if it's just a way to get it registered. Our new (floor model) GE induction cooktop works great. Wow. Too bad no one at GE can tell us what screws to use to hold on the underside baffle. Nor can they send any: "No longer mfd." Really! They keep sending all the other installation parts, some of which are not in any manual. wonder ... Our 2 almost 3 yr old Bosch washer-drier set works fine. The menus are a bit retarded -- you have to use the service menu (accessible by rebooting a la PC's: takes three or 4 fingers) for the washer to SPIN ONLY -- and so on. It has so many variations in cycles, it'll make your head spin -- however most of them are useless. Ditto the drier. So many cycles, but only one or two work, and even then, you must plan your loads so that the drier actually dries clothes, as opposed to spinning them and wasting gas or cooking them to a crisp. Our Bosch vacuum cleaner is crap. The attachments aren't even as good as crap. And the tiny bags don't hold any crap. Our 5-y.o. GE water heater wasn't supposed to work after the base insulation got wet. Our plumber knows how to get around that. Too bad our insurer is less reliable than that. Our 6-y.o. A/C systems by Carrier work OK; but there the challenge is finding an honest and reliable mechanic who is willing to actually explain things a bit and not just throw around BTU numbers and matching them to dollars. There's actually science to that stuff, but nobody "on the street" seems to know any of it.

As a family we have been very hard on surfaces. One approach is to pick surfaces that are "distressed" to begin with. Buy a vintage cast iron sink that already has chips that you love...and know that you can live with the chips and you won't have PTSD when the next chip happens. Get recycled wood flooring and get it finished but know that they never were "perfect" in your home. Another approach is to get materials that get a beautiful patina as they age. I would include marble, stainless, zinc, limestone, soapstone, counters, site-finished wood floors, etc. in that category. For finishes that *stay* perfect - I have seen many polished granite counters that look perfect after many years of use...I've chosen that for my kitchen. My ceramic floor tiles were in great condition after 12 years. Cabinet doors with complicated moldings can get damaged because they are hard to clean - using tools to get into crevices, etc. can damage the finish. That's why I'm doing slab fronts this time. Pulls should be large enough to not require "scrabbling" with fingers/nails to use - that causes wear on cabinet fronts. Panels used to hide cabinet boxes should be made of the identical material as the fronts, or they will age differently - that happened in my former kitchen and it really looked awful. Cabinet hardware is pretty important. I adore the Blum hardware that comes with my new IKEA cabinets. I prefer heat resistant counters so I wouldn't do quartz or corian, but Trebuchet makes a good point that at least corian can be refinished. I have seen corian age nicely in our local public library - the checkout counters. A different issue is looks. Painted vs wood cabinets go in and out trend-wise. There have been times when painted cabinets have looked dated. Right now they look fresh and as you say they can easily be refreshed. Factory painted or finished cabinet doors are NOT simple to re-paint - do-able but a big job. My sister paid $1000 to have her wood cabinets painted white by a professional in a smallish kitchen. DIY is a major job to do properly, and a misery with complicated door styles. Frameless cabinets are MUCH easier to freshen - you only have to refinish or replace the fronts rather than dealing with the boxes as well. Tiles do seem to look dated after a decade - I don't think it's realistic to do "timeless" in tile. Stone floors may stand the test of time if not "on trend" when installed. I believe that lower quality engineered wood and laminates will look dated pretty quickly.

.Minwax owns Duraseal, Duraseal is easier to apply so we ususally use it unless we can't get it, I cannot say that (if done properly) there has been much difference other than the ease of applying duraseal (and you can thank the EPA for these finishes becoming harder to apply over the years...and more expensive). I'm 60, over the years I really don't recall much of a difference other than that. I did talk to their chemistry department years and years ago,..(to find out the difference between their duraseal vs. minwax), after that call I realized that in the end, there was probably a minimal difference ..other than duraseal is much easier to use. As far as duraseal being a lot more expensive than minwax ...My cost on Duraseal is really not much more than minwax (actually, I haven't used minwax for a long time,..so I cannot say that is still the case today). Waterborne finishes are quite expensive, and in my opinion,..not better in most cases. They rarely yellow much, if at all. The only times we have gone with waterborne is because the wood is bleached, whitewashed, or otherwise very light and we do not want to darken or amber it with an oil based finish. If you really want to go with the best finish,. have them use a conversion varnish,..Sherwin Williams makes conversion varnish, but I highly doubt they make one suitable for floors. You will most probably have to go with "Glitsa" if you want conversion varnish. If your flooring guy is not aware of Glitsa, he is NOT a seasoned professional. To me it smells a bit like lacquer. Conversion varnish is oil base,. and also has the property that it does not yellow much over time. It stays looking the same (more than other oil based finishes). If they use glitsa in your house, they will probably want you to to stay at your mother-in-laws for a day or two. So be forewarned.

One shouldn't compare durability of old brick buildings to current residential practices. Old brick is usually structural, three bricks thick or more. The weakness of brick is in the mortar and old professional work usually featured better sands with sharper, more varied particle sizes. Masons these days usually just stick with cheap, readily available masonry sand. Unfortunately, masonry is a dying trade. The biggest problem is that most residential brick work is a masonry veneer, covering wood-based construction. Along with stone and stucco, most brick veneer projects use inadequate vapor barriers and flashing. The masonry may look great from the outside, but the finishes are hiding mold, mildew and deterioration of the wood structure. Sometimes, this happens surprisingly fast. Masonry is considered a moisture reservoir cladding. It will soak up moisture from rain or sprinklers and send it towards the inside as the sun comes out. This makes it a more risky cladding than wood, metal, composite or vinyl. Masonry is one of my favorite exterior finishes but it takes extra effort than what is common in current construction practices. If you go with masonry, ensure your construction team understands the details like minding the gap and weatherproof window installations. When I was in Germany, there was a lot of troublesome renovation happening to the very old timberframe structures that had been stuccoed during times when stucco was considered more fashionable. The lime stuccos inhibited the drainage and drying of the wood, speeding up the timbers deterioration.