Nick, If I lived alone, my entire back yard would be a large greenhouse, actually a large lath structure. No Homo Sapiens, just canines which would be confined to the side yards to drive my neighbors crazy. No FELINES ever, ever. I'd probably get some ferocious looking canines so no one would come to visit, like the HOA people. Now, my children and grand children are very dog savvy so they wouldn't have a problem. They could care less about orchids, but they love dogs. Jane

We are in Western New York state, Buffalo/Niagara Falls area. To answer the others questions: It is 40 inches from ground to the floor of the porch. I'll be painting the base of the porch a sparkling white. I'm going to guess that there is about 8 to 10 feet from the edge of the wide front stairway, which is on the left side of the porch, to the far right corner of the porch, (sorry, I haven't measured it yet). The front wall of the house, downstairs, is white and the floor is new Timber Tech in light gray. There's a white bead board ceiling. We have a large metal glider with two metal chairs which I am considering painting a butter yellow which would work with the yellow day lilies. I would love to come up with plantings in front of the porch that would just take your breath away. Hopefully plants that would flower all summer. I've even thought of bringing in more top soil to bank that area in front of the porch base. There is a beautiful Clemantis climbing at the far right end of the porch. We're going to put in new posts and railings on both the first floor porch and the second floor porch. I'll be putting flower boxes on those railings. A major reason for going with the yellow is because the front wall of the second floor was painted a medium green that is almost a gold. Getting into painting the entire house this summer is not on our to do list so I have to work with what is there. I hope this is not too much information, but I thought the full picture would help to to find the right answer as to what to plant in front of the porch. Please ask any questions you need to! Thank you sooo much for any direction you can give me. Christine

The OP never said they have water problems. They said they have high humidity. Quite likely they're referring to outdoor humidity. I live in south Florida so I'm familiar with high humidity. Most homes here are climate controlled all year long. Many houses visible from my desk have solid wood flooring that was installed in houses here that are largely uninsulated and were built before air conditioning became prevalent and they're largely in good shape. Some solid exotics are problematic in regards to humidity swings but engineered floors only have issues when subjected to extremely low humidity or flooding. Wood seems a feasible option in this case of this poster. Even the least expensive items I have seen are reasonably stable. The effect of low cost is generally manifested in lower grade veneer or shorter lengths. I have nothing against wood look ceramic but it will never will never give you the board lengths, color depth and variety of a product like Triangulo 1/2" x 5-1/4" engineered plank. Additionally, one needs to consider the leveling aspect of using wood look ceramics. From what I've heard and read, the subfloor has to be very level before installation of square edged wood look tiles. All that said, I've often advised people that they'd be better off with carpet, vinyl, tile or another hard surface floor, when it was obvious that their situation was problematic for wood, even though I only sell wood.

That is really terrible for it to have corroded in that manner after a relatively short period of time. When I remodeled, the metal had corroded on the shower frame but that was on a metal frame that had been installed in 1965. I would attempt to get some kind of refund from Home Depot because it is not "normal" for any metal to perform so poorly when it is being used in the manner for which it is intended. With consumer goods there is always a warranty of merchantability which means that the item is "fit" to be sold. In terms of replacing it, I agree that the best way to proceed is to get a higher quality product which should not become pitted. I recently remodeled and had Showerguard glass used and I have absolutely no streaking or film and I do NOT squeegee or dry after each shower. Since you have no protection you should first get the scum off the glass - I would imagine there are glass cleaners that would completely get the scum off. After it is clean you are going to need to squeegee the shower each time it is used. You should also ONLY use liquid shower soap as bar soaps have ingredients that cause scum to build up versus liquid shower which doesn't cause scum especially when you squeegee to get rid of anything that might streak.