I have my mother's jars, my grandmother's jars, probably my great-grandmother's jars! I have my (now deceased) mother-in-law's jars, and some new jars and jars that were given to me by elderly ladies in my church who no longer can but happily swap those empty jars for home-canned goods or freshly baked bread. I occasionally find jars at yard sales or second hand stores, but not so much any more. Robert, it's too bad you threw away those zinc lids, they are worth more than the jars! I do use the old blue jars and zinc lids to store dried beans, rice, lentils, dehydrated onions and garlic, etc. Many have chipped edges so I can't use them for canning, but they remain useful for storage. Cast iron is coming back with a vengeance. I've cracked a coule of relatively good pans by placing cold pans into coals, or once by taking a pan from the fire and putting it into a bucket of water so the children playing around the campfire didn't burn themselves. It was irreparable. I recently bought several pieces of Le Crueset enameled cast iron for less than $30 a piece at a local on-line auction. I just bought a Squeezo for $24.00 there too, and have picked up a couple of old Griswold's for less than $20, but they are few and far between. I usually only find them because the listing sellers misspell the names. Annie

I actually found a rug at lowes over the weekend that i like for in front of the door. Now...should if i buy those rubber mats (that you can also buy at lowes)to keep it from sliding around do you think it will stain the vinyl? Anyone have an experience with this? It says right on most of the packs i looked at "will not stain floors" but it doesn't list what it's made out of. Sadly most are from China. The backing is currently just rough which i'm also afraid might screw up the floor.

Go for it. The worst case scenario is you have to lay new plywood. Plywood is normally nailed or screwed down. That is much easier to remove than a thin, nasty top layer of luaun or some other bunk. Of course this could be complicated if the person who put down the plywood was a DIYer who used glue. That makes for one HELL of a nightmare if you have to remove the top layer of plywood and some ding-dong used glue between the layers. I would watch hours and hours and hours of youtube videos. Take extensive lecture notes while watching. Review your notes 3-4 times before you lift a floor scraper/heat gun. Turn off the water to the dishwasher, remove the appliances and then start removing the old vinyl. Give yourself plenty of time. Lots and lots of time. You'll need lots of breaks and a swear jar....but other than that, this should be doable. Remember to find out how to get rid of ALL the excess adhesive. That can often require some heavy scraping and a sander. Any excess adhesive left over will prevent the new product from being glued into place. So you need to remove 97% - 100% of the old glue. You don't have any height to play with so going over it with feathering compound is a no-no in your situation. That means you have to MECHANICALLY remove ALL the adhesive residue. If you find you have more glue than you have time/energy, go ahead and remove the layer of plywood (hopefully there is a layer underneath....there are some really bright bulbs who think a single sheet of underlayment is "good enough") and drop in a new layer. It costs more money...but it can be faster. If you go this route, please do NOT use glue between the sheets! It is killer on the next guy/reno. Just screw it down as per the screw-placement indicators and move on.

I also have several of those old blue jars, but they aren't rare, most are just old. There are a few notable exceptions, like the "upside down" jar. If you can find someone to give you money for them, sell them, they are easily replaceable, although the pints are more rare than the quarts and yours do seem to be in very good shape. There's some kind of "swap meet" annually, I think in Indiana, so there are probably more throughout the country. I know there are often specimens for sale on ebay, although "being for sale" and actually being sold are vastly different. I do use mine for storage of things like rice, beans, dehydrated onions and garlic, wheat berries, quinoa. They are easier than keeping half a bag of rice or an opened box of quinoa, I can see the contents and it's easy to pour from them. Plus it looks tidier on the shelf. I don't can with them or freeze them, I use them strictly for dry storage. I have a vast collection of old jars and have no idea what they are worth. I have Atlas and Mom's, Ball and Kerr, Presto and Magic Button. I have an old Corona jar with the glass insert and metal ring. The real worth in those jars is the interest it sparks in my Grandson, he spends hours on the internet (thus staying out of trouble), looking for information on all those jars, LOL. Annie