I've been out of contact for awhile, just found this post. Welcome to the infirmary, Steve! Actually, by now, I hope you have recovered, although babying your arm a little is probably a very good idea for awhile. Thank goodness for your vacation and forced rest. My good news is that I can finally kneel!!!!! - in pillow-soft, just-tilled dirt, that is, but that's all I need to kneel in. The soil is currently too wet to work, and getting wetter, but I'll arrange to get some more alpaca poop and plan my biennials bed. I was starting to wonder whether the biennials would get planted at all this year. Perennials were all in early, remaining unplanted annuals were tossed because it's too late, so the biennals are all that's left. Hope is in sight! I'm hoping you're recovering faster because you're younger. That's gotta be good for something. Jeanne

gbsim: That's exactly what we've found the problem to be. The flooring people told us that the subfloor we had was fine, but it SHOULD have had another layer like yours did. Also, Forbo say NOT to use leveler on plywood as the moisture causes the wood to swell. The plywood swelling around the nails (from the moisture in the leveling compound) caused a depression in the plywood at the nails and then the installer went over that with the glue and the linoleum immediately. Now when the wood has finally dried out, the leveler that was in the depression that the nail made when the wood swelled, is now showing itself as a 'lump' through the linoleum. It is the installers fault, as we had THREE professionals out there, the first one said our subfloor was fine (we specifically asked if what we had was okay or did we need to do anything else), the second one that went to Forbo school installed over what he should have known was a problem underlayment and the third guy that fixed the floor mistakes the first guy made never said anything either. It's apparent that this company is not familiar with this product in a residential setting. The CEO of the company emailed us today asking specifics and DH has been going back and forth with him today. He is being decent and says if it's determined that it's their fault, they'll eat the cost of the floor. Don't see how they could reach any other conclusion, with all the info on the Forbo site saying NOT to do exactly what their guys did. jerzeegirl: The dots are hard but I gently tapped one and it seemed to flatten a little bit. DH doesn't want me to do that as he thinks the flooring with split or crack. I guess I'll wait to see what the heck we end up doing before I experiment any more. Maybe like Senator said, our problem will go away in the summer when it's more humid, lol. Buyer beware (and inform yourself utterly). Hoping this thread is helpful down the road to anyone contemplating marmoleum. Its such beautiful stuff, but boy if the installers don't know what they are doing, forget it.

I love the pool table idea, but will have to wait until I see how much deck space we end up with. I looked at both websites and will get with my contractor to see if he can get me a discount. I also looked at Fogco. I love their gallery photos so I will get with my contractor on the misters too. It seems to be something my DH really wants and he has a b-day coming up in February. Kelly - If you do happen to run into your neighbor and find out where he got his fire pit, I would love to know. I have seen some that I like, but nothing that I just cannot live without. The digging starts on Monday so maybe I will get out of my shopping spree mode then, but I have never been so determined to shop and not been able to find much. I ordered two Molly Brown floats/rafts the other night. One is for me and the other one is for our Chocolate Labrador. I also bought her a Furminator (dog comb) that was expensive for a comb, but works FABULOUSLY! All just little things. Anyway, until the digging starts, I am still shopping!!!! And I am still looking for ideas! Melissa

I think at some point I will perhaps get into this "kefir-ing" but not right yet. I am just super busy. Don't know if I will be any more successful than I was at "sourdough-ing" which I tried at the beginning of the pandemic. The problem with that was, we just don't eat enough baked goods to make it worthwhile expending the time and energy maintaining a starter. Even the lowest maintenance options. We just don't eat a lot of baked goods. I'd love to eat more, but it just can't happen for a whole lot of reasons. On the flip side, kefir sounds like something we would consume on a daily basis, either water or milk. I can get good dairy kefir with live cultures at my local grocery, but it is something like 4-5 dollars a pint so I don't normally buy it. But I will take you all up on the offers of help at some point if I can. Kefir water sounds great because I actually don't like plain water. Practically have to force it down. For whatever reason plain water does not sit well with me. I often drink flavored soda water but that's not the cheapest way to stay hydrated. Am slowly recovering the use of my digestive tract. Ironically, I don't eat many of the fodmap foods anyway, not a fan of onions and garlic, although I do eat them in small amounts, and I rarely eat fresh pears or apples. Hubs eats and apple a day, but not me. That's because of the aforementioned dislike of drinking water, so I often dilute water with fruit juice, and that's how I have tended to consume my fruit calories a lot of the time. I drink a lot of cider and apple juice, don't know if that contributes to digestive issues, I think not but I can certainly cut down on the apple juice . . . the other fodmap no-no that I eat regularly though, is beans. But I've been eating beans my whole adult vegetarian life. I think with them the issue is being well-soaked ahead of time, and cooked, and the skins broken down or sieved out. Also the time of day you eat them, earlier is much better since stuff moves through your digestive tract (when it is functioning properly) faster during the day when you are up and moving. I have been limiting my bean intake and also pureeing the beans, which takes some of the digestive issues off the table . . .