g'day terran, good illistrations but being manipulated in my books. i'm no believer in this furphy climate change thing, yes the climate is changing but not in that way as is promoted. those pictures realy show the results of man's greed and mismanagement and lack of understanding of the habitat, it has been occuring long before this C/C thingy was made popular. and not just the results of mismangement in that local area the mismangement up in our state and along the way adds to it as it is from up here that the rains should fall and rivers run to fill that basin, and that is simply not happening now for around 20 or so years, flood rains that is. that is 1000's of kilometers of silted up winding water courses. basically the the manipulation of the snowy river and the holding up of water in locks to provide hydro' power for the power station they built at the same time plus the rampat spread of agriculture and its' insattiable thirst for water. what is not shown is the rising salt affected mega acres all due to agriculture without controls. that area was our food bowl but no more just acres and aces of devistation. yes a picture might speak a thousand words but are they the correct words? i live a long way north up the east coast, but this agricultural and forestry along with development destruction goes on up here until the last tree falls. len

I doubt it's second hand that is hurting retail. As mentioned before, I think it's a proliferation of garbage materials. And in my town, (pop 160K) we have two enclosed malls each with a Macy's, one has a Sears, the other Pennys and Nordstrom, and a new outdoor mall within 10 miles. There are 2 Targets, 3 Walmarts, four regional superstores, countless mini-malls, dozens of furniture stores, mattress stores, Tuesday Morning, 2 TJ Maxx, 3 Ross Dress For Less, and countless others. We also have 2 Lowes and 2 Home Depots. And virtually the same stuff in every store. The only place to find original things is downtown at the independent stores. My biggest gripe is amount of product at the stores. Clothing in particular. I cannot find clothing in my size, because the stores usually only carry one or two in that size and half a dozen each in the smaller sizes. When the size I need sells out the fastest, you'd think they'd stock more of that size! Plus the selections are garbage. But when I go to Goodwill (and we have 4 of those!) I ALWAYS find nice, quality seperates in my size. Oddly enough, I also find lots of NWT smaller sized items that the stores dump off! I know that it's very fashionable in my area to shop at Goodwill. I have even seen some 'boutique' second hand thrift stores-where they glean the top of the line goodies & vintage items and sell them at the special Salvation Army & other charity thrift shops. I have virtually furnished and/or decorated my home and yard with second hand items. Mattresses and upholstered furniture being the exception. Lamps, tables, even rugs I've gotten from CL and thrift stores-and most are well branded. Even yard sales have turned up Waterford for pennies on the dollar. I hate buying retail when I can save money and buy it much cheaper (and helping with my personal goal of reduce, reuse, recycle). I do draw the line at buying intimates, sleepwear and swimsuits 2nd hand. But I've gotten great new shoes at amazing bargains. And for those who get queasy at the thought of buying used clothing-chances are the items you buy in the store have been tried on, and therefore used, too.

the upholstery care label states "P"- dry cleaning medium treatment. i'm guessing that is like a "S"? but since it was second hand, i vacuumed thoroughly, very lightly sprayed the upholstery with very dilute laundress soap, scrubbed lightly with a surgical brush and wiped it with a wrung out microfiber towel rinsing frequently. and did a final wipe with the towel to bring up the nap. didn't improve the thinned or discolored areas but it looks and "feel" fresher to me! the down/feather cover has been airing/drying for two days! hand washed in the tub, washer would NOT spin at all, let it drip outside the whole day and a few hours low temp in the dryer at night, air dry again overnight and all day outside again and hopefully be dried after a few more hours in the dryer. i need to find a least toxic solvent based cleaner that can be lightly applied and wiped clean with a towel vs vacuum. any recommendations?

It appears to be oak, and is a well made door. None of the panels have split - that's good and probably means they are not stuck in their slots. I would not hide the beauty of this wood under paint. When refinishing, be mindful about causing the panels to stick in their slots. Those should be free to expand and contract. If the panels become paint stuck in their slots, those may crack. Notice how this door is constructed. It was made this way to accommodate the nature of wood. When wood either shrinks or expands from moisture content changes, it changes dimension mainly in the cross-grain direction; The dimension with the grain changes very little. That is why door makers try to have as much grain as possible laying parallel to the perimeter of the door. Dimensional changes across the width of this door is mainly due the left and right framing pieces; Very little change is from the cross piece. This door should not be exposed to weather. The face of outside doors exposed to wind, rain, and sun should have weather resistant construction and finish.