I guess the fan motor is as good as any to discuss the problem. The one on my car is the original one from Dodge and has lasted 19 years and 220,000 miles. I buy my cars new and keep them until they die. This one is a 1990 Dodge caravan where all the seats except the front 2 have been removed making it ideal for transporting orchids to shows and meetings. To get a replacement from the Dodge dealer is $160, just for the stupid little motor. The car parts dealers have fan motors for about $25 to $35 but not my particular one which is a 'Dealer only' item what ever the H--- that means. It means officially sanctioned rip-off. By fixing mine they saved me way over $100. If I could get a Chinese one for $20 like you Arthurm, I would, for my car that just did not work out. My main complaint is about the radiator which was declared 'non-repairable' because it has a plastic top part. New radiators (probably made in China) were pushed on me for $100 to $150 plus $70 plus for labor. The fix it guys solved everything for $90 out the door by FIXING the existing parts. That's what I would like to see more of. A much more egrarious example was a repair I had on a Mercedes 500 SEL, about 10 years old. That car has since died and is in Mercedes heaven (Junk yard). About 10 years ago it failed smog and was declared to need a new catalytic converter. The big V8 has 2 exhaust pipes, connected in 2 places which each have 3 chambers for the exhaust treatment. From the engine backwards it starts with a pre-muffler, then the muffler and last the catalytic converter. That's a total of 6 units, one of which needed to be replaced. I went to the Mercedes dealer and asked for the needed part. They told me that the entire exhaust system is sold as one unit, both pipes with their 6 chambers for $1,800 plus about $500 for labor! Again off to Alameda street where with a hack saw they cut off the catalytic converter and welded an after market unit in place for a total cost of $120. Now it was no longer a Mercedes parts only car but who cares, it passed smog and my wallet did not take a major hit. I just simply won't stand for the kind of rip off the car dealers consider 'normal business practice'. Nick

I used to manage the Subway store years and years ago. I was 19 and in college. I can tell you they don’t put any condiments on the sandwich on purpose – it’s company and franchise policy They do this because every sandwich is made to your specifications… You tell them exactly how you want to sandwich or sandwiches as they make it… So if you want mayonnaise you simply tell them… Same with oil and vinegar… Or mustard or whatever the condiments they have They also do it because if they put any sort of condiments on the bread without asking people tend to get very angry… There are many people who don’t like mayonnaise… There are many people who are watching their weight and don’t want extra fat in the diet and want mustard or other type of low-fat condiments… But what it really boils down to is you, the customer, are supposed to customize your subway sandwiches No I can understand if it’s a different type of sandwich shop… Or restaurant… Maybe even a fast food hamburger place… However, in my opinion, no condiments be put on any type of sandwich, or hamburger and the people making it should always ask what you want on it… No condiment should ever be put on by default… For example I only like mayonnaise on sandwiches… I think mayonnaise on hamburgers is the most disgusting thing ... hamburgers are already greasy… Adding mayonnaise, to me, is just like adding more grease

We don't have any plans to put a rug in where the transition area is. The area rug we had in there before was on the old wood side. There really won't be anything covering that space. On the step up area (which you don't really see in the picture), we also had some new wood laced in with the old (from the removal of a pony wall). The wood flooring extends from the end of the tile in the kitchen through the rest of the house. There are 2 boards width plus the step down edge and they actually blend a bit better. I assume part of the problem is the large space. @Jan Moyer - this is a great room, and other than the tile kitchen, the rest of the house is wood flooring (sans bathrooms). The step does suck, but we're living with it. The potential to change the stain on the great room floor would accentuate that there is a level change. There are, what I believe, are sander marks anyway, so re-sanding probably needs to happen. Going with some test stain patches is the best way forward I think. At least we'll have a better idea of what we'll have to live with. I'm just hoping we can get some warmth in the floor color without the more dramatic transition change (it is a bit more than what the picture shows but the picture does demonstrate the change).

We are living through a remodel right now. I'm not sure if some would consider finishing a basement a "remodel", but we're basically adding 1,000 sq ft of finished space to our home. It sucks. We have stuff everywhere on the first floor because everything had to be removed from the basement in order for it to be framed out, having new electrical added and adding a full bathroom (including the fun part of having the concrete floor broken and pipes added). It has been nearly 2 months and I cannot wait for it to be done! We have done everything we can to keep the dust and dirt to a minimum throughout the rest of the house but boy, is it tough. I couldn't imagine doing this on the main floor of our home. Everything has cost more than we originally planned. Part of that is that we definitely are part of the "while you're at it" club (but it was for things that made sense, like adding a couple of extra outlets). Everything is taking longer than we were originally told, and we have been lucky and haven't hit a lot of snags. You watch HGTV and see teams of 10-15 people working on a house - that's not reality. We've had days where we've had no workers (which I was told from others that this is normal) and days where they're at our house for like 12 hours. Since we are living here during this, our lives have basically revolved around the contractors because things have come up where we've had to make decisions on the fly (so basically one of us has had to be here). I talked to my husband very seriously about moving before we started this project. He felt it didn't make sense because the interest rate on our current mortgage is much less than interest rates now, plus we couldn't ask as much for our home as competitors just because we didn't have that finished basement. But now that we're going through it, I think he feels he should have given moving much more consideration. And we're not remodeling for more than the cost of our home. If I had a $160,000 house, there is no way I would put another $200,000 into it, especially with what you want to do. Removing a very long load bearing wall is no easy task. I don't even think they make support beams that long - you're going to have support columns in the middle of your open concept (we have them smack dab in the middle of our basement so we had to change where we wanted to put things). We had to remodel our master bath and bedroom due to mold when my kids were little. That was tough enough; I couldn't imaging being without say a kitchen or stairs with little ones. We had to have the water turned off when they were installing the pipes - try explaining to your teenage daughter that she has to shower at her friend's house before going out that night. Everyone keeps telling me all the hassle will be worth it, but I really wish we would have moved instead.