look at some of the Smartstrand cpts from Mohawk. They are very soft and stain resistant but come in a frieze style so they will look good. Most kid proof type carpets you will find are made from olefins which are scratchy. The softest nylon is Tactesse but its not totally stain proof. you may have to get a carpet remnant then just have it bound. I doubt any area rugs you will find are made from these fibers.

I agree with both Sue and Weissman. He hasn't got a leg to stand on without a signed change order that specifically notes a change in the insert size (which he obviously doesn't have since you never changed the size...!) You could let him finish (insisting he do what you want), then simply deduct the extra cost from your final payment if he has the gall to include it. He's not going to go after you for $500, especially when there is no contract in place. On the other hand, in your shoes, I think I would take Sue's approach and just get a GOOD tile guy in to do the job after the rest of the work is done and the GC has cleared out. That's what we did -- the backsplash wasn't done for another 5 months, but we took our time, found a tiler we really liked and for whom the references were phenomenal (which is why we had to wait that long -- he was booked solid) and the backsplash quite honestly is probably the most professional part of our kitchen remodel. I'm not sure I'd let a GC do it himself no matter what, unless he can give you plenty of references (that you actually see) indicating he's done this before and knows what he's doing. I would tell your GC that given his confusion about your specifications, the "moving target" on the price, and your concern about how he plans to do this, you have decided to engage a professional tile installer instead. As a question, have you basically paid him everything he's owed on the rest of the work, or did you hold back something? And how serious are the items on the punch list or are they very minor? (since he may be ticked about not having the additional money from the backsplash work and may just walk on you if there's no contract... might be worth letting him do that if the consequences wouldn't be extreme...)

Ancestry just had a special. Go ahead and join when you are up to it but cancel as soon as your 14th day rolls around. In the meantime, after you've made a free account somewhere is the option to sign up for the free newsletter and I think it's a different box to check for specials. Read everything on the subscribe page so you don't miss it. They don't send a lot of mail and the newsletter is very worthwhile. There will probably be a 6 month world special for $99. If you don't need access to anything outside of the U.S. I would just go with a discovery subscription. I caution you about the ancestors who have been traced back to 1400. You will HAVE to do your own detective work to be sure you have the right people. You always start with yourself and work backwards. Finding one family with joe as the husband and mary as the wife and they have a boy jim and a girl sally is not going to be good enough. You have no idea how many people have those names, even in the same place. And the farther back you go, the harder it is because the census didn't require the name of everyone in the household until 1850. Before that it was head of household and hash marks in age and sex columns. It's not as easy as it looks on TV. I do want you to keep your enthusiasm but I don't want you to think this will be solved in a year or two. My cousins have elected me chief researcher because I'm more careful than they are. They run things by me that they've found for me to fact check. I'm trying not to put my arm out of joint patting myself on the back but I want you to go into this knowing it's going to be a lot of fun work! Get yourself some three ring binders at the Salvation Army or Goodwill. Next time Staples has a case of paper on sale, buy it. Get some cheap ink from Amazon.com. Print everything that you think fits most of the parameters of your search. It's a lot easier to print it now than find it again later. Citations. If you haven't heard it yet, you will. I didn't do it when I started because I was "only" going to look up my grandmother on my dad's side. Well, let me give you the best piece of advice I can think of. When you save something, make sure you write on it where you found it and everything else so that if you were to look for it the next month you would be able to pull that sheet out and know exactly where you found that information. After I got serious I had to go back and do it all over again. Not fun! Second thing, and you could do this now, subscribe to some genealogy blogs. There are so many you will find a few you like. You probably won't understand what they're talking about until you do some research yourself but in a short while you will. And they know where the other resources are. Ancestry has a youtube channel full of tutorials. Go there and watch a few. Have your eyes glazed over? It happens to everyone I talk to!!

I'm just seeing this thread now. I get the Sunday Journal every week. Do you expect it to run in the future? I don't always read the paper front to back; so if you could let me know ahead of time, I'd be very happy to send you the paper! :)