Hi again Garden2garden, I have copied from wikpedia some info on thatching (see below). I'm afraid the palms don't have anything to do with thatching in England but maybe in tropical areas they were used for roofing of some sort in the past. My husband & I stayed in this beautiful cottage for a night, it is a B&B near Yarmouth I think. "Thatching is the craft of covering a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge, rushes and heather, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. It is probably the oldest roofing material and has been used in both tropical and temperate climates. Thatch is still employed by builders in developing countries, usually with low-cost, local vegetation. By contrast in some developed countries it is now the choice of well-to-do people who want their home to have a rustic look." Thanks for the rose names Jon, Roger had added 2 of them in the comments section on Flickr. They are roses that I have not heard the names of before so unlikely to be found in Australia although they are often known under other names so I will do some research. The photos of Stourhead I was very pleased with. I had visited there about 23 years ago in September I think but loved it and was very keen to revisit. I am so pleased that I was able to visit in May this time in 2004 as the azaleas etc were in massive flower. So many beautiful colours and stunning trees and the lake and the follies..I could wax lyrical but I need to go to bed. I'll add some more of the gardens I visited to Flickr in the future. Cheers Debra

In your situation, I'd check out the range - if it works ok I'd live with it for a while. I'm not familiar with that particular range, but to be honest, they don't make then like they used to and yours might be fine. Also, if it already has a built-in hood which vents to the oustide, that's a big plus and replacing it could be costly. Since you're not ready to remodel the kitchen and don't know what you really want, I wouldn't replace it with something cheap and temporary now, unless it really doesn't work.

Never throw away things that doesnt belong to you or both of you haven't agree on. I am not a hoarder and I keep my house pretty well organized. My husband is a control freak and wants to control everything. Long time ago I bought 2 patio chairs. He asked me if he can give them to his friend Bryan and I asked him why I should give his friend my chairs? He answered that we were planning to move and we will be buying new chairs. I firmly said NO!. I realized that the chairs were very close to the edge of our desk and when I was about to move them closer to the house he yelled at me asking me to let them were he put them. Two days after that the chairs disappeared. I asked him if he gave them to Bryan and he said no that he thought someone stole them. I start looking in the area and when looking at my neighbor's desk I saw what it seems to be my green chairs. A man that I don't recognized was painting them in red. I realized my husband never intended to give my chairs to his friend but to our "friendly" single woman which by the way I didn't want to do anything with her because her reputation of being super "friendly". In a second occasion he gave my extra pillows to his friend just because he thought I have too many pillows and he wanted to help him. He gave the pillows to him after I told him the extra pillows are for when we have visitors. By the way his friend is a millionaire that chooses to live humbly in order to keep accumulating money. I told him not to give the extra pillows to him but one day I was looking for them and they were gone! I was infuriated and started to realized that if my husband doesn't respect my things he doesn't respect me either. If he give them away even after telling him not to give them away the message he is sending me is..."I don't care what you said and I don't care if I hurt you, I rather make my friends happy than you". Recently we bought new chairs for the dinning room. He wanted to throw away the old ones but I found the old ones to be more comfortable that the new ones and I found a place for 2 of them in his office, one in our bedroom and another one in the second bedroom. I want to emphasize that it was plenty of space for the chairs in all the rooms. I put the one for the second bedroom in the garage because my mom uses wheelchair. He took advantage that my mom was with us and I was busy all day long 7 days a week to put the chair in the van and give it away to someone I know. If the chair being in the garage bothers him more that hurting my feelings then is clear he doesn't feel any respect for me. Please people unless your partner is a hoarder is not worth to destroy your relationship with your spouse over material things. Things can always be replaced but once you loose trust in your spouse that is very difficult to gain back! (P.S. Pardon my grammar English is my second language)

That is a great resource National. And some very knowledgeable industry experts offering their thoughts. The article itself can be a bit overwhelming for the novice or newbie. "Or is the color you select at the start the one you must keep forever?" Only with the thin wear layer hardwoods. This can include products with wear layers less than 3mm mentioned by Greg above. You may get lucky (with thinner products) but there are other variables not mentioned in that article. One is the milling quality where bevels come into play. Nearly all prefinished engineered hardwoods have a bevel. They also vary in depth. Some manufacturers make a precise bevel, others do not. Part of this issue is explained in the video below.. "Would that be a factor in choosing engineered vs regular hardwood for you?" More variables also mentioned in the article. Today's popularity of wider planks limits solid hardwoods in many cases, unless there are earnest checks on the home's interior relative humidity, before during and after the original installation. This is rare with those looking to just have a wide plank hardwood installed and forget it. High end homes on the other hand typically line all their ducks right and have control of what makes a wide plank floor work without problems. The education of what works and what doesn't work is critical today as we look at hardwood floors very differently from years past. Expectations are often set too high; One major reason we hear of so many problems. I can't stress how good that article is. Thanks for reminding me about it. Thick veneer engineered hardwoods. Ken Fisher