When my grandmother came to America, her older siblings were here already, and had a drygoods store in NYC .. where the younger siblings worked. She said that when her sister wanted to talk to her in Yiddish or Polish in the store, she would tell her, "We're Americans now, we have to speak English! You don't want customers to think we're greenhorns, do you?" At home, they spoke a mixture of languages, especially after they all had families, depending on whether they wanted the children to understand or not (LOL). Bobbi - There's a discussion in my AARP singles group, about becoming an Ex-Pat to save money. I said I wouldn't want to live in a "compound" with Americans & other English-speakers, not feeling totally connected to everything going on around me.

I shut down my pc about 3 pm Saturday, to attend a graduation party. When I logged on this morning, there were 248 (I kid you not) new posts to this OLLD 6/29 discussion! I'm overwhelmed just thinking about reading that many .. think I'd better just start with Sunday!

Previous owners photo Celiawk, I agree with you about the corner fireplace, we never had one in the corner, and I thought it would be nice to have the fireplace, and the tv close to one another, but it is not turning out to be good; one wall is all windows, and the other walls are all open to the rest of the rooms, so, I guess we have to live with it.

notamused We are nearing completion of a new house and recently noticed the wood flooring on the entire first floor is noticeably cupped. The lower level flooring, applied over cement with an appropriate moisture barrier seems to be ok so far. We are scheduled to move in in two weeks but I certainly don't want to do so if the ultimate solution is to replace the floor. I suspect (don't know) that there were several moisture issues. About 5-6 weeks prior to the floor being laid (it was done in mid-February) we had a couple of inches of standing water in the lower level. The Advantech used on the main level had been heavily wetted since its installation and, again, at 5-6 weeks before the wood floors were installed there were still areas of significant moisture - particularly near doors (no doors installed at that time but they were in my the time the flooring was installed) and where the roof leaked in the room. I am not a pro but my guess would be that the AdvanTech was not properly dried before the flooring went in. It probably didn't help that on some of the days the flooring was installed it rained. Also, the HVAC system still isn't up and running so that is of no help. Right now the builder is using a dehumidifier in the basement. Don't know if it will help. I have asked for an AdvanTech rep to come out to meaure the moisture content in the floor. I don't think it was a failure of the Advantech, I suspect it was improper drying and maybe a lack of MC measuremts of both flooring and substrate. I really don't want to rip out all the flooring - it's the entire main floor! But I also don't want to move into a house with a floor that we consider unacceptable. The builder has a certificate of occupancy and though he sounds willing to work with us, it's pretty clear that what he wants is for the basement humifier to help "calm the floor down" so that he can then have the cupped edges sanded down and call it good. Will the humidifier help? Should we go ahead and move in? Who is responsible for this mess?