and had to be removed carefully, by specialists. Is this true? Also, I'd like to add another idea for ceilings. My neighbor put wallpaper on her ceiling in her den-type room. It's the embossed style (I think that's what they call this) with an unobtrusive pattern (no fleur-da-lis, if you know what I mean). I've seen it at Home Depot. It looks wonderful, and the look is enhanced by the dark wood beams that stretch across the width of her ceiling.

inadequate--you really need to have hot water running into the dishwasher from the beginning. I run my kitchen faucet until the water comes out at least warm before I turn on the dishwasher. Not wanting to waste the water, I run it into my plant watering can. :-)

my floor is torn up.

been going on for a long time, so State Farm refused to pay (they also didn't pay for my sewer mainline obstruction--do I see a pattern emerging here?). I hired a firm that specializes in mold abatement. I was impressed with their work. Because my home was built in the 50s, there was asbestos in the walls, so they had an asbestos team remove the wall boards; those guys were very, very careful, suiting up and down in a special little cubicle they put together in my kitchen. A wall of cupboards (including drawers) had to be removed to reach the mold, and when everything was completed and tested out safe, they "rebuilt" the cupboards. From start to finish cost me around $5,000, but I feel confident that the issue was resolved in the best way possible. If anyone in the San Diego area needs this kind of work done, send me an email and I'll happily recommend this company.

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lining they showed me actually creates a new "pipe" inside the existing one. This lining is stronger than the cast iron pipes there now. Budgeting for this repair is not an option, however, since the repair needs to be done now. So far, we're up to $7000, and that's the good news--if the hydroflushing doesn't work and they have to dig the 10 feet down to the pipe, I'm in for a much bigger bill. :-(

was living out in the boonies for a time, and I had my land line hooked up to an answering machine (and you think you're living in the stone age, Mary!). My phone started calling 911 (honest--my phone really did this) and the police starting coming way out to the house to see what the problem was (in the middle of the night, of course). AT&T came and found issues in the line outside, so we thought that fixed it. But, sure enough, my phone called 911 again. To make a long story short--or is it too late?--after several more visits from the police and AT&T, the technician finally thought to check my answering machine, which was fairly new. Well, that's what was causing the problem--there was some electrical issue in the machine that caused it to call 911 periodically. Needless to say, I now have voice mail--on my cell phone.